Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Humdinger1

@foxgloves: novel! You're writing a novel???!!! More particulars please; I for one (and I'm sure all your devoted admirers here) will be in the queue to buy it on the day of publication! 

Yes, it's funny re maths.  I had to take it twice to pass but then in the career I was in for 25 years often found myself explaining Pythagoras' rule to people; we used it quite often at work and because I'd had difficulties, I could explain it better than maths geniuses.  Now (in my very part time voluntary work as a debt coach) I find myself looking at people's budgets on spreadsheets.  Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

foxgloves

Thanks for all the comments about people not speaking up in mtgs, etc, which made interesting reading & I was nodding along. The worst example for me was when I'd not been in my management job very long & another group of managers who had always been on the same pay-grade as us were upgraded to the next tier of pay. This was because of a certain aspect of their job......but we did it too as part of our responsibilities so we decided to request a meeting with Big Boss. Beforehand, we had a mini-mtg to discuss strategy. I was the newest person in post so assumed one of the group's much more experienced people would make the initial opening request for higher pay. Wrong! They thought I would be 'the best person to do it'. Hmmm. I'd been caught like this before & said so......as in I am nominated to raise the difficult issue then nobody backs me. One of the older members of the group said very snottily 'I hope you're not implying that any of us would do something like that, Foxgloves'. But of course when Big Boss appeared & our trade union rep had done a brief outline, I explained why we were angry at the unfairness, made a formal request for more money, & those cowardy-custard hypocrites sat there in complete silence....oh apart from one of them who said "Mmmm" in agreement at something!!
We did win our pay increase but I didn't trust any of them after that. It was a difficult meeting in places & they were of no help or support whatsoever! 
F

foxgloves

@Humdinger1 - Yes, I am. I've written quite a lot of the first draft, but I swing between loving writing it & losing all confidence in it. As the latter has been the dominating attitude for a long time now, the project has completely stalled. I would love to finish it, even if I am unable to get it published. I need to have stern words with myself, sharpen my pencils & get going on it again. I have 2 shorter things finished which could theoretically be submitted to a publisher now, but I haven't done it.
F

foxgloves

Hello Sunday Savers,
A decent night's sleep, rounded off nicely when Mr F & Soot appeared with breakfast in bed. Most civilized!
We decided on a joint veggie garden effort today, which has paid off. I cut the rest of the lollo rosso lettuce to clear the bean bed - rinsed & fridged in a clean tea-towel, it should last for a few days. Planted out the beans & netted temporarily against marauding beaks. Mr F cleared & dug over the final veggie bed & we planted out the courgettes & squash (Guatemalan blue, again as we love 'em), watered everything in. I found myself walking around smiling, simply because all the veg is now planted into its final position & apart from maintenance & re-sowing salad stuff, that's it now, until harvest time. My tomato plants were a bit of a saga this year & I ended up with 19. I usually grow about 12. Not going to worry about potentially big crops of 🍅🍅🍅 though, as they are the basis of so many meals, as well as sauces, chutneys & lovely home made tomato soup for the freezer. So this year, we are growing peppers, chillies, aubergines, tomatoes, spring onions, chard, lettuces, rocket, courgettes, radishes, squash, climbing beans & the usual herbs. Also strawberries, rhubarb, blackberries, apples, grapes & pears. Sweetcorn sowing was a fail this year...the inside of the seed packet was mouldy & I'd have requested a refund if I'd remembered where I bought that particular pack. Not too bothered though, because the extra tomatoes have filled most of the space I'd have needed for 🌽🌽. Mr F is making roast chicken tonight & my sights are fully set on getting 2 more meals from it plus a packed lunch, stock & probably Man Stew. 
Still no response from 🐙 , so will need to chase if still haven't heard from them in the next few days.
Oh & here comes the rain!
Take care m'dears,
F x

EssexHebridean

Love how much you grow - I do have a bit of garden envy though I confess! We’re not doing so badly mind - I’ve got plenty of tomato plants this year, and am hoping they grow with abit more enthusiasm than last years did! We’ve gone for French beans this year as a change from runners, and our veg bed has parsnips and chard - although we’re not sure that either will survive the local slug population’s voracious appetites!  As well as the veggies we also have gooseberries and redcurrants - both of which usually produce good crops - not bad for a ground floor flat with no official garden space I guess! Sweetcorn I would love to grow again, but we simply don’t have the space for it. 

foxgloves

Re last year's ropy-looking tomatoes, @EH, you probably already know this, but if not, have you tried liquid seaweed solution? I haven't been able to buy my preferred organic brand in the dark brown bottle this year, but I have bought a rival brand to try. Basically, I have known this stuff, which is used in weak solution, so goes a long way, bring plants back from the brink. It's a growth stimulant & provides a kick up the you-know-what to plants which are refusing to play ball. That's why I've unintentionally got so many tomato plants this year. I sowed my usual variety, didn't get quite as good germination as I'd have liked so bought an additional pack (another blight resistant variety) & sowed them. They popped up pretty well into sturdy seedlings......which then promptly got transplant shock when I potted them up & soon started looking terrible. I composted a few of them as they looked beyond help, & decided I'd better buy in 6 emergency tomato plants from village garden centre, as it really didn't look as though several of the others would rally. I also bought a bottle of seaweed solution & dosed them all up. Well, if only it worked for us humans! Over the following fortnight, they lost their tragic yellowy hue & started putting on new growth & looking much happier. So in the end, I had too many! I potted up a couple for my sis (she only has a tiny garden) & have duly found space here for 19 of the fiends! I still hope that they all crop well as so many meals can be made from some sort of tomato base, so nothing will be wasted, but it was not intentional to have so many. 
F x

EssexHebridean

That's a really good tip - I have my trusty bottle of regular tomato feed at the ready for when they head for setting fruit, but I'd not known that about the seaweed solution before - thank you! 

foxgloves

Hello Monday diary readers - off we go with another week. Today has been rather focussed on all things energy. I received a reply to my complaint about lack of meaningful billing from the Tentacled Ones & received an email saying that there is some kind of unspecified problem with comms between them & our smart meter (or vice versa)....whichever 'end' is responsible, they have not had the usual automatic meter reading from the system, hence no bill. It was a useful email & asked us to send a meter reading, which we have done, though they should have one by now from the meter reader who called at the end of last week. This will allow them to send a bill the old way, but they then need to sort out whatever the smart meter comms problem is, which can apparently take two weeks. 
So that was Energy Thing 1. 
Energy Thing 2 is that having discussed the whole crazy tariff increases scenario with Mr F over the weekend & finished reading the chapter on energy saving in the book I mentioned ('Saving the Planet without costing the earth' by D. McCarthy), I have now made a list of all the energy saving measures that we either already do, are worth a try, or whatever in line with our circumstances. So I will share them in a series of posts so as to keep each post short. I expect most folk on here know or do just about all of them anyway, but I have found it useful to revisit a few & if anyone wants to add any extra measures not mentioned, please feel free.
As I intended this as a working list for our household, I've annotated each item as follows:
*  = already do this
X = Don't do this atm
RFI = Sort of do it but room for improvement
N/A = Not applicable to our circumstances
So here we go:
1.Use lids on saucepans  * (me) X (Mr F) I think it is a no-brainer because the pan contents take less time to boil, Mr F says lidded pans always boil over & leave a mess to mop up on the hob.
2. Turn down the heat as soon as the pan is boiling, esp if it only needs to simmer *
3. Use correct size pan on the correct size of ring *
4. If roasting meat or a nut-roast in the main oven, roast vegetables at the same time instead of using more energy by doing them on the hob when the oven is already on * (Mr F) me RFI
5. Avoid opening the oven to keep checking on contents RFI
6. Turn off oven 10 mins before food due to be cooked as the residual heat will be sufficient to finish it. X (used to do this with certain dishes, but I don't do it atm).
7. Choose a gas oven with electric ignition rather than pilot light which will be burning 24/7 for the entire life of the appliance N/A - Our oven has electric ignition, in fact I'm not sure if gas ovens with pilot lights are still available (aforementioned book v good but nearly 20 yrs old)
8. Defrost freezer regularly. max. thickness of frost shouldn't exceed 6mm for the motor to keep working efficiently. I think this means that ice monsters present in freezers mean motor has to work harder. RFI
9. Unplug & vacuum condenser coil at back of fridge twice a year to maintain efficient working. X
10.Avoid putting still lukewarm food into fridge as it has to work harder to maintain cool temperature *Mr F, me RFI
To be continued shortly.......
F

foxgloves

OK, next bit of the list:
11. When defrosting something, take it out of the freezer earlier & defrost it in the fridge - the cold item will help to cool the fridge, meaning that it needs to use less energy to maintain temperature. X (unless by accident - tbh, I had never heard of this energy saving measure, then re-discovered it in the book mentioned this weekend & also saw it suggested online)
12. Defrost food before cooking. Author says thawing can drop cooking time by as much as 55% * (mostly)
13. Do you have too many freezers? i.e If there's a fridge freezer, does one really need an additional stand-alone freezer? N/A - We do need both because we batch cook from scratch (especially me) & we also grow a fair amount of food which needs freezing to reduce costs in other budget areas i.e groceries.
14. Always ensure dishwasher & washing machine full before use. Dishwasher N/A but I never run a less than full washing machine so that one is a * for me.
15.Do laundry at lowest possible effective temperature. Washing at 60 degrees apparently uses over 30% more electricity than washing at 40 degrees. 30 degrees is generally fine for coloured clothes *
16. Choose an appropriate wash cycle  - whites/cotton cycles always take longer. I recently discovered that the woollens cycle on our washer is almost an hour shorter than the standard 30 degrees cycle & does a decent spin as well, so I always use that for knitwear, socks, etc, now *
17.Line dry laundry naturally as often as the weather allows or on an airer. * I actually check the weather forecast for % chance of rain now before just automatically doing laundry on a set day, hence manging to get it almost dry this morning before the showers kicked in. 
18. If buying a new iron, choose a non-steam model & use a hand water spray bottle instead X I don't know what the science would be here (I bet @crazy_cat_lady can tell us) but in the book I've been perusing, it is stated that steam irons can use more than 1000 watts more electricity per hour than non-steam models. Is this true? Before anyone sciency jumps in to tell me it is wrong, I have no idea, but am mentioning it as it's a potential energy-saving measure I haven't seen elsewhere.
19. Shower rather than bath X N/A - We don't have a shower. We got rid of it as it was causing mould problems in our bathroom. We do aim to get 2 baths from 1 lot of hot water as often as is practical though.
20. Don't set temperature of hot water heater too high. The point being made here was that it seems wasteful running a bath that is so hot one then has to add lots of cold to reduce the temperature to a bearable level aka wasting money to heat overly hot water. RFI
More to come......I wonder if anyone will be able to add a few more measures....let's face it, reducing our usage is the only part of this crazy energy inflation over which we have any control.......
F x

foxgloves

And on we go.....
21. Remember to turn heating/hot water down or off when you are away from home. It's off here in summer, but in Autumn/Winter, we reduce the thermostat right down so that it would come on in a cold snap to prevent frozen pipes/damage & to keep the house just aired, but we certainly wouldn't have the heating going at its normal temperature/frequency *
22.Don't leave appliances on standby - I am not sure I can honestly give us a * for this because I am not sure how 'turned off' Mr F's tech corner is at night - TV/Home cinema/Blu-ray, etc. Also, I know the printer is left on standby because my understanding (from Mr F) is that it will have to be re-set again each time - I think I will actually test this out by 'accidentally' unplugging it then seeing if it goes straight back to correct usable status the next morning when I switch it on. 
23.Watch out for 'vampire' chargers left plugged in when device has finished charging. I'm awarding Mr F a big * for this, but RFI where I'm concerned!
24. Place central heating thermostat way from external doors for a more accurate room temperature X
25.Close curtains early in winter to help keep the heat in *
26. Keep south facing windows clean to maximise free heating of those south facing rooms by the sun. Definitely RFI, though I have noticed during Winter how much the sun warms up our living room. I think having a bow-window helps as the sun shines in for longer as it comes through the whole semi-circle of panes.
27. Watch those Winter central heating thermostat settings  - book I've been reading stated that "with a reasonable amount of clothing", we should aim for 17 to 19 degrees. We feel we are OK here, as we set ours for 18 degrees, increasing to 19 degrees between 5 & 10pm.
28. Try programming CH to go off at night. Use an extra blanket or two during Winter & aim for it to go off 30 mins before you go to sleep & to come on 30 mins before you get up. This can potentially save up to 7 hours of energy per night. I can't in all good conscience (I know when I've been at a drunken party & when I've been at work......) give us a * for this, as we only tried it right at the end of March/beginning of April, but we have discussed setting this thermostat schedule from October when the heating is most likely to go back on & we will see how we get on. Both Mr F & I are usually too hot in bed & when I suggested turning the heating off at night to save money, he said he thinks he will actually sleep better in a cooler room. Worth a try anyway. At the moment, RFI.
29.Place sofa against an interior wall - I hadn't heard this before. I'm giving us a * because we do it, but it isn't intentional. I think other measures might also come into play here - for instance, our sofa is on an interior wall, but it is also next to the door, which means there is a draughty end of the sofa & a warmer end (mine!) N/A
30. Only heat rooms which are in use. Hmmm, we don't quite do this. We do have radiators set lower in the Man Cave if nobody is in there, for example, but we'd still have some heat in unused rooms over winter for them to stay aired.
If you are really bored of these by now, ignore the remaining posts......
F x