Onwards to freedom!

LadyWithAPlan

I love that tv decluttering show when they drag everyones stuff into a warehouse ranged by type!! I am also decluttering when I can, I was doing the mininimalist game til I went away - and it really works! So get rid of one thing ion day 1 of a month, 2 things day 2 etc...

Your cupboard under the stars sounds like my hallway cupboard - its 10 feet high so lots of room to stash things... I am planning to add 2 extra shelves to manage the space better AND decrease whats in it.

I dont have a local Asd but I di have large MR L's, AL, sains, Morrisons so ..

SuperSecretSquirrel

That's the one LWAP, a nice ordered warehouse, more than half their junk got rid of one way or another, and a nice tidy house at the end. I find it so satisfying to watch 🙂

A nice £225 PB win this month, 2023 off to a great start - if this pace keeps up I'm on for a 6% annual return. Realistically speaking smaller wins or no win months should pull me down closer to the average, but who knows, one massive win is all it takes to permanently smash the average 😁

savingholmes

Nice win.

Enjoy your decluttering programme. When you are through watching - my house still needs more decluttering.

SuperSecretSquirrel

Nice try SH, but I don't much fancy your chances 🤣 As with anything here, it's slow progress… By the time I get to the last room, the first room will need doing again, same story with diy and decorating, painting the Forth Bridge springs to mind 🤣

Emptying the whole house into a warehouse and blitzing the lot in a week sounds incredible, but quite unrealistic for us, especially without a team of helpers. I'm nearly done with my portion of the bedroom (one cupboard left, and you can easily close the door on that 🤣), and I'm hoping the progress might entice OH to join in. I've got rid of a fair amount of stuff - two big black bin bags full. The bedroom is half minimalist (my half) and half cluttered (OHs half) now 😁

I've moved all bathroom toiletries to the bathroom, where they belong. They should never have been in a bedroom drawer in the first place… Anyway, while I was at it I emptied the bathroom cupboards and drawers and organised everything so every item is where it belongs. I had to start keeping a count once the cupboards were empty. As of this moment we have - 16 shower gels (2 opened), 10 toothpastes (4 opened), 10 shampoo/conditioner (all opened!). Add to that various bars of soap, moisturisers, body milks, body butters, bubble baths, bath oils…

All I know is I certainly don't need to buy any more toiletries, underwear, socks, shoes, or aftershave for quite some time…

SuperSecretSquirrel

I am very happy with our energy consumption so far this winter 😎

It took 118 days (8/10/22-3/2/23) for us to get through our most recent 141kg of lpg (~1971kwh), and we used 736kwh of electricity between 14/11/22 and 14/2/23. That's a daily average of 16.70kwh lpg, 8kwh electricity, 24.7kwh combined.

Last winter the same amount of lpg lasted 119 days (2/11/21-1/3/22), and we used 1504kwh of electricity between 14/11/21 and 14/2/22. Daily average 16.56kwh lpg 16.35kwh electricity 32.91kwh combined.

The year before that the same amount of lpg lasted 96 days (07/11/2020-11/02/2021), and we used 2056kwh of electricity between 14/11/20 and 14/2/21. Daily average 20.53kwh lpg 22.35kwh electricity 42.88kwh combined.

The year before that the same amount of lpg lasted 58 days (5/12/19-1/2/20), and we used 1652kwh of electricity between 14/11/19 and 14/2/20. Daily average 33.98kwh lpg 17.86kwh electricity 51.84kwh combined.

The year before that the same amount of lpg lasted 58 days (9/12/18-5/2/19), and we used 1828kwh of electricity between 14/11/18 and 14/2/19. Daily average 33.98kw lpg 19.87kwh electricity 53.85kwh combined.

That's where my comparable data runs out…

Our electricity use is massively reduced from previous years. We've replaced some power hungry appliances, but the really big change is that we haven't used any electric heaters at all this year. We're far from perfect, the dryer was on almost every day last month (sometimes twice a day) and it used a whopping 64kwh of electricity in January alone, but we've reduced consumption wherever we could do so painlessly.

The lpg has also lasted very well this winter. Our running hot water use hasn't really changed much over time, OH and I bathe or shower daily, sometimes twice, the children both have a bath twice weekly. We've shortened our showers, but the baths are still very well filled. We wash up twice a day on average. We didn't use much central heating last year, but it is back to normal now (always on, controlled by a room thermostat and TRVs, 1c lower than in the past). We're all very comfortable at 16c - I appreciate this isn't the case for everyone, but we seem to suffer more in the heat of summer than we do in the cold of winter! 16c during the day and a minimum of 12c at night is perfect for us. I say minimum, I don't think the heating has come on even once at night, the residual daytime heat has kept us above that level. It has felt like a reasonably mild winter this year so far, so that has probably helped a fair bit. We had some energy efficiency work done last summer (improved insulation), I think that has helped quite a lot. Another big change this year is that we've gone to the effort of actually understanding our central heating system properly - the radiators have all been bled (we do this annually), the TRVs set to max downstairs and min upstairs, and I think this is the big one - the boiler's radiator flow temperature has been dropped to 42c. The radiators are warm to the touch, not boiling hot, and it takes a little while longer for the rooms to get up to temperature, but other than that there is no difference. The condensing boiler appears to be happier with this lower flow temperature, there's a good article about it here - https://www.theheatinghub.co.uk/articles/turn-down-the-boiler-flow-temperature

Not being able to see how much lpg is used per day makes it tricky to compare costs, but I can get close. I know the daily average cost for each of those deliveries. Not all days are created equal, so this is where it gets a bit rough - if I extrapolate the average daily cost I can get a ballpark figure for lpg used between 14th Nov and 14th Feb each year. Add to that the actual cost of electricity in each period and I arrive at winter quarter total household energy costs of:

2022/2023: £510.42

2021/2022: £508.14

2020/2021: £521.19

2019/2020: £615.89

2018/2019: £588.38

We've reduced our consumption massively, but ended up paying about the same amount as in the past. With all that has happened in the energy market recently this is actually much better than I had hoped for… I had expected to reduce consumption massively and still end up paying much more than before, so I'll grudgingly take it as a win.

I don't think we'll ever get our winter energy use much lower than this, but I'd be very happy if we could hold it down around this level in future years.

I'll try to leave the subject of household energy be for a while now. Next planned update will be at the end of the year to see how far off the mark my annual 2600kwh electricity and 7885kwh (564kg) lpg estimates were. Looks like I may have overestimated lpg (we’ll use less in the warmer months), jury’s still out on the electricity 😀

Karmacat

Thanks for this, Squirrel - its reminded me to work out my own daily heating costs for the billing before last: this Feb, it was £5.50 a day I think, but from Nov to beginning Feb, I've just worked out it was £7.13 a day.  More blather about the £7.13 on my diary 

savingholmes

Really impressive on reducing energy bills and your clutter 

SuperSecretSquirrel

Thank you both for posting 🙂 I'm glad my ramblings reminded you to sort that job out KC, and that they impressed you rather than bored you to tears SH 🤣

I wasn't going to talk about energy stuff again, but I picked up 14 led light bulbs for the princely sum of £3.20 this week, and I can't keep something that to myself 😁 If you need some bulbs check your nearest arg*s for clearance stock, you might get lucky 🙂

That's the last 60w bulb replaced (leaving just a 40w incandescent one with a weird fitting to sort). I wasn't in a rush as it's for a very rarely if ever used outside light fitting, but dropping it down to 5w for 20p seemed like a good idea.

I've finally swapped out the last 3 old fashioned pre led energy saving bulbs we had too. The big improvement with these bulbs isn't energy or cost related - they were only 10-12w so the drop to 5w is a tiny saving, but they took a good few seconds to reach full brightness, now they are at 100% as soon as the switch is flicked. It sounds ridiculous, but it makes a huge difference. That was another 60p well spent!

I've been on a decluttering mission recently, so the addition of 10 spare light bulbs might seem a backwards step, but I had a half empty shoebox with spare bulbs in, and now have a full shoebox with spare bulbs in, no extra clutter or space taken up. We now have a good stock of spare bulbs for all our commonly used light fittings, and bulbs along with shower gel and toothpaste and the like are very much on the do not buy list.

Bedroom decluttering has gone brilliantly. All my stuff is done, and OH is starting to get in on the action. We recently discovered vertical hanging shoe storage, and it has been a revelation. They take up a small amount of rail space (which we can all easily afford to lose thanks to some recent clothes donations and recycling), but mean our shoes are all tidy, accessible, and most importantly have a proper place to live. Shoes (particularly children's shoes) used to be the bane of my life, some by the front door, some by the back door, some under the stairs, some under the coffee table, some on the bedroom floors, some in the wardrobes. Cluttered, and nobody could ever seem to find the pair they were looking for. Now they are all sorted, and out of sight. I probably shouldn't admit to quite how happy that makes me feel 🤣

There's the spare room and a large storage cupboard left to sort, then everything above the ground floor will have been decluttered, deep cleaned, and organised. It feels great, I love a proper spring clean and clear out 😁

Buying those bulbs reminded me to run through a 3 month check on the emergency power bank and lights too. Power bank was at 100% so it had retained its charge very well. The lights only managed 3-4 hours of good light levels on the medium setting. I get about 5 hours from a full charge, so they don't retain charge as well. They can be topped up quite quickly from the power bank so it's not a problem. Two phone charges from 15% to full, and two charges of both emergency lights, and there was still some juice left in the power bank, so it should happily see us through any "normal" power cut. Of course those anticipated rolling blackouts didn't happen this winter, probably down to lots of people cutting their consumption now that energy costs are so high! We're in a good place if some named storms come our way and take out some power lines again.

Financials - I kicked off my isa transfer from fid to vgd almost a month ago. It has not gone smoothly. I'm still hopeful that it eventually progresses, but the realist in me says it won't happen in a hurry. Feels like maybe fid don't want people transferring out and starving them of their fees 🙄

Not much else to say other than I can't believe it's almost March already. Another chance to win a million pounds is on the horizon!

South_coast

Yes, but what would you do with it really? You're already "wealthy" in so many non-monetary important ways 😀😀😀

SuperSecretSquirrel

Thanks SC, and what a good question 😁

So much temptation to say something like "if inflation carries on like this much longer - I'd pay the electric bill and do a big shop" 🤣

Having thought about it a little while, the answer pretty much comes down to doing more of the things I love, making the most of that wealth you mentioned.

Work is great, as far as work goes, but no work (without any unpleasant financial impact!), or perhaps a lot less work, would be better. I'm still fairly young, so maybe not retirement just yet, but I think I would treat myself to an immediate six month sabbatical, then try to shape things so that in the future I only worked in the autumn and winter - that would be an incredible luxury!

Term time I could take my time to work on fun projects, ramble (both meanings), swim, run, lift weights, cycle, cook, read, and laze about… Holidays could be spent all together (OH and I take most of our leave separately - the practicalities of having small children to look after during school holidays), travelling, playing, having fun… We try to do as much as we can of these things while working, but I'd like more, and I'm sure OH would too. It would open up some interesting discussions with OH - she insists she is happy working full time until 55-60ish, and would then like to retire. I wonder if she'd prefer an earlier downshift if there was a large cash cushion available to help facilitate that.

I think I'd be happy spending about 50k on nicer than normal but not particularly extravagant car replacements for me and OH, and about 150k on a house move - again nothing too extravagant. I think 100k for each child would be put in some kind of investment trust with some clever clauses built in to try ensuring it would be life enhancing not damaging. I'd give OH 50k to do with as she pleased, and allow 50k for myself to do with as I pleased. That would leave 500k to sensibly invest for our retirement. OH might have other ideas, and I'd definitely be talking things over with her not just making the decisions myself.

Of course, playing such games invites the question "what can you do to shape your life more closely to this without a magical windfall?" - far more useful than a daydream…

I already spend less than half my income, so the drop to working colder months only sounds semi realistic, but it wouldn't suit my employer. It would either be a case of coming up with a seasonal business idea and making that happen, or moving to lower paid (possibly less enjoyable, possibly not) employment and maybe earning a quarter of my current salary for half the time (not enough for me to make the move yet in "non-imaginary won a million pounds scenario world"). I think maybe my employer could be open to me taking up to 8 consecutive weeks off unpaid each summer. That's the absolute maximum I would realistically expect. 4 weeks might be more likely. At that point it's a straight time for money equation, and sadly, between inflation and wariness following relatively recent redundancies, I don't think I'd want to make that request right now. Maybe in a couple of years I'd be comfortable taking some holidays off unpaid - it would be great for family time, and working 4 days a week the rest of the year and factoring in annual leave would allow for a lot of selfish "me time" too.

In summary, a ridiculous win would just help me "get there" sooner. I suppose it's the closest thing possible to buying more time, so not such a bad dream to have.

What would you do if a million pounds landed in your bank account next week? 🤔