Get a grip woman!

Suffolk_lass

Lol @trix-a-belle - the delivery came at ten to nine and all was quickly stashed. One item unavailable, two rejected substitutions and one missing item. It was five bottles of Provence Rosé on offer and six bottles of Malbec (also on offer - a better one!).

I also bought 3 chickens, 3x20 chipolatas and red meat (all on offers). I just need to do a quick check and then find out how to get refunds of the missing/unavailable bits (I expect the latter are automatic).

A mostly good experience. Frozen items were frozen (and now all the bread is too). I will need to check what DH did in the freezer in the cart lodge - apparently it's lid is held down. I refuse to buy another freezer! He is not as good at freezer tetris as me...

Suffolk_lass

Oh yes, DH was refunded for a purchase he made for the Hall, into my bills account - so I TT'd £15.64. Except I obviously mis-typed 16 instead and the account balance is annoyingly £n99.00 now. His credit card bill for October is over £1k thanks to my new phone, his and DS's MOTs, one service and a VRD, along with various Amazon purchases (subscription items) - some serious shuffling to do.

The men from the oil tank replacement people came and surveyed and confirmed we can so what I want to do (which includes a reduction by one fence pillar, panel and gravel board - to make the drive easier to use for the motorhome, and give DH better access for his motorbikes). We will be replacing the huge 2500l tank with one less than half as large. More capital spend but peace of mind and urgent need to avoid environmental disaster (for us)

themadvix

Ouch to the cc bill, but these things do always all come at once!

Good news about the tank survey - sounds like it'll definitely be worth doing for improvement's sake, as well as avoiding environmental disaster!

Suffolk_lass

I do hope so TMV. We might have missed the call as were over in the Hall, commissioning a new bit of kit yesterday, ahead of the village lunch today (we are just guests today, but I need to get them going with the dishwasher, which will be "christened" today. Using a Government grant we can be sure that stuff is washed at a high enough temperature to be safe and hygienic now (and no more greasy film on plates and cutlery!). I'm going to call the tank people in a moment.

Good news thanks to accidentally moving £250 when I did not mean to - September savings were £998.03. Bad news is I am over £600 short on the month across the two accounts. So no PB purchase this month and will try and pare back spending. 

DH has been "paid" his pension, mine is coming Monday. A total of @22.59 TT so far this month (well, today!)

themadvix

Ooh, a dishwasher in your village hall sounds fancy! And very useful as I imagine it will reduce the need for additional washing up.

Impressive start to the month's TTs!

debtfreeoneday

I’m responsible for freezer tetris in our house. DH is officially useless at it. 

Suffolk_lass

Ah yes, the dishwasher. We first asked over four years ago and several people (actually men, who you never saw doing any washing up) told us it was unnecessary, too expensive, and would use loads of energy and water, taking two hours. They did not know commercial dishwashers take two minutes. "Slowly slowly catchy monkey" as my builder used to say. It was a huge success. I need to get a couple of trays to put the newly removed tray on though. All the worktops were flooded with water. I don't know why they did not use tea towels underneath. I did not include that in the instructions but I evidently need to.

As I mentioned above, it was the hygiene reason that was compelling, and the fact we had so much on offer to restart, combined with a loss of volunteers due to Covid precautions threatening to make it an all day job to deliver and clear up. It was definitely putting some off. The people delivering the November lunch include one of the most vocal opponents and I am hoping they will be converts. 

Ah yes, freezer tetris, @debtfreeoneday, DH describes it as one of the dark arts (along with plastering!). It extends to packing and loading the car, the motorhome, and putting away after running the dishwasher. I confess, we have far too many things that get used infrequently (but they do get used, when catering for numbers or parties!). They take up too much room in a smallish house really.

Suffolk_lass

I followed up on an item on yesterday's R5 breakfast show (podcast) to check out whether I missed any of the energy saving tips. They were a bit basic but I have jotted them down so here goes:

The "top tips" are pretty obvious to most of us already, I think. 

1. Switch off lights not in use
2. Turn off stuff on standby
3. Turn your heating down by 1 degree saves you £80pa
4. Set heating timer to reflect when you are there (and need it)
5. If you have a water tank, your CH is still gravity fed - bleed the radiators
6. Draught-proof doors with a sausage 
7. Cover keyholes to reduce micro-draughts
8. Turn off heating upstairs, using TRV (thermostats on radiator valves) - I would add, and open the doors
9. Consider Smart Rad Valves that detect movement in rooms and turn on when they are in use (they would have to be quite cheap to be VFM IMHO)
10. When coming off a fixed tariff, consider SVR as it may be cheaper than a fix

And based on the conversation @themadvix and I have been having I would add:

1. Make sure you are using low energy lightbulbs
2. Put reflective thin foam behind your rads so the heat comes out into the room more effectively
3. Oil-filled rad between your knees under a desk (and a hot drink to stop your fingers going dead) - as TMV mentioned, and another in the bathroom for chilly mornings (which I turn on low at 05:30 when I go for an early morning loo)
4. A blanket to pop on your legs in the sitting room of an evening (cats love them)
5. Make sure everyone is wearing a jumper before turning up the heating
6. A hot water bottle to make sure you are warm in bed (and sometimes under the blanket on my knees if I feel chilled)
7. A cat, that likes to sit on your knees to keep warm
8. More exercise (housework, gardening, star-jumps) - love that last suggestion TMV
9. Draught-proof your front door with an overlong curtain on a rail
10. Cook stuff at the same time so you are not switching your cooker on and off - and use a slow cooker, especially the night before you know you are going to have a long day
11. Consider filling a flask when you boil the kettle
12. Put up a clothes rail on a pulley that you can lift to dry clothes overnight
13. If you have a tumble dryer, only put clothes in for ten minutes after they come out of the machine so the creases drop out, then dry them on hangers to avoid ironing. Except towels, where ten minutes before putting them away fluffs them up. Then empty the lint trap so the hot air reaches the clothes!
14. Turn down the temperature at which you wash clothes (and use half the recommended dose of laundry detergent)
15. Once a month or 6 weeks, wash towels on the hottest temperature wash with 20ml of white (clear distilled) vinegar in the wash to stop limescale and soap scum build up, so you don't need separate products

Apologies if this is an example of Grandma sucking eggs to most of us!!

Cheery_Daff

All good suggestions, and I don't think a reminder does any of us any harm!

We're really good in some areas, and rubbish in others. Thermostat rarely gets above 18, don't use the timer, only switch it on in the evening when we're here. I am definitely all about hot water bottles and jumpers and blankets (not star jumps though, I'd be giving myself a black eye). 

But there are definitely things we can do. We have blinds rather than curtains, and lose quite a bit of heat that way. Mr Cheery is not a fan of internal doors... so we don't have many. The new kitchen will be open to the stairs, so we'll lose heat up there (but I suppose at least the bedroom will be warm). Plenty of extra stuff we could do! I could start by turning the lights off more - I have a dreadful habit of leaving them all on, especially when I'm here on my own..

Karmacat

Nice list there, SL - no star jumps for me either, but what I *do* do, if I have cold feet and I know the house is warm enough - I walk round the block, and when I come back I'm toasty for the rest of the day, just got to get the circulation going.  I also need to work harder on filling the washing machine with the correct amount of detergent.