Put away your purse & become debt-averse

QueenJess

Thanks @Jellytotts, I was just trying to gauge if I was doing badly or not before we get to winter as I only have electricity and comparisons become useless then!

I can do little about heating in my house as I have to have a certain temperature with a toddler who really feels the cold and we are already super insulated with triple glazing, although might see if I can drop 1 degree on the thermostat. So, I think dropping other things are my only bet. Yesterday I got up (DH gets up with the kids as I am up all night with DD and I otherwise I’d never get more than 4 hours sleep) and despite being bright outside all the lights were on in the kitchen diner 🙄. DH and DS are a nightmare for it and although we have LEDs, the person who built the house decided we needed more than 30 of them in there….

I don’t have an air fryer. I have looked at them, but I’m a bit reluctant to fork out for one and I don’t have anywhere to put it anyway. I’m just not convinced I would use it enough. I do have a slow cooker though, so I need to try and find more recipes to use it for.

12 kWh I thought was quite high without heating, but had no comparison and wasn’t sure what was taking the bulk of that. I assume it’s the oven, but I’m not sure. I do a fair amount of washing, but all at 30 apart from DD’s nappies every other day that I have to do on 60 - perhaps that is some of it?

foxgloves

@QueenJess - I'd recommend the library for borrowing a selection of slow cooker books. That's where I started. 'Try before I buy', as I didn't want to buy one then find there were only a couple of recipes I'd use. I expect slow cooker books might be popular atm, as I keep seeing slow cookers mentioned in energy saving articles.
F x

Blackcats

QueenJess - I bought an air fryer which I bought a few months ago - it was quite an initial outlay which I managed to offset a bit with nectar points.   I would say it has transformed our cooking habits - our oven never goes on now.  I made brownies in it yesterday and was scared that they would just coat the cooking drawer with chocolates gunk but they turned out well.

skipping back a few pages to the conversation about torches - I was always very pleased with myself that I kept a torch on the hall table so I could reach it easily if I needed to get to the fuse box under the stairs.  Once, when the lights did actually go out I carefully felt my way along to the table patting down to find the torch -  lesson learned - don't keep emergency torch next to large cactus plant which impelled itself into my hand.  

foxgloves

Was it a PLASTIC cactus by any chance, @Blackcats, because if so, that was karma, lol.
F

foxgloves

Hello Sunday Savers,
Lovely BBQ last night with friends. Still.not feeling 100% today, so have had a lazy day with lots of reading. A few money saving positives:
*Yesterday's home made blackberry & apple jam labelled & put away in pantry - should be a year's supply there plus some for gifting.
*No oven needed to cook tonight. The BBQ coals were still red hot last night, so Mr F cooked tonight's chicken on it, which we ate with assorted leftovers.
*Unpacked harvest box which our friends brought last night from their allotment - raspberries, sweetcorn, plums, beets, carrots, etc. 
*Two baths from a single fill of hot water. Temperature was fine. We're monitoring it as Mr F has turned down the boiler temperature dial.
*Mr F suddenly decided he was going to 'sort the freezers out' to make more room, so I fetched my notebook & made a new freezer list. Was amazed to find that there are 43 days of meals in there, as well as the usual veg, stocks, soups & assorted bits & pieces.
*Have had a strong word with myself about getting my black cardi finished. Have done back, am on first front. V v boring pattern. It's speedy to knit, but so easy that it isn't an interesting project. I do want it finished before autumn though so must suck.up the boredom & aim to finish it over the coming week.
*Have started thinking about tomorrow, which is my Big Budget Day.
Love F x

Suffolk_lass

Phew, just caught up while my tomatoes are bubbling on the hob! Can't resist chipping in on a few bits from a few pages back!

I just averaged our KWH of electricity and it is 14.42 at the lowest - and that is this July and August - after we started really cutting down. the highest months; Jan-March this year were 68, although that was when the Aga was on. We have plans to reduce this, this winter.

I completely agree that lobbying your MP of whatever persuasion by writing to them results in a cumulative pressure on their party, and the government of the day. The power of the electorate in a FPTP system is in feeding back so their whips office understands the jeopardy the policy places them in. Yesterday's Sunday Times reported that 40% of the electorate no longer trusts the NHS to look after them. Well really, what do they expect after successive governments have privatised slices to the point where it is all the really awful stuff that is left. Nobody questions 12 years of Tory cuts to public services because the majority of us are concentrating on just keeping our heads up. Resentment towards those who have more (pensions, perceived job security) and the regurgitation of the twaddle about public servants sitting round doing nothing results in this poisonous set of beliefs that means the protests are largely silent when yet another pay freeze is applied to civil servants, teachers, health workers, and so on. Yes, I helped build the bandstand and the Wagons and I have no intention of giving up my space on them.

Courgette recipes? I like the courgette and lime cream cheese frosting cake (Nigella's from memory) and the orange, carrot and courgette cake (BBC Good Food) recipes but I also grate and freeze them (they take up less space in the freezer) and then add a clump to a stew, ragu or chilli.

It is clear I have insufficient jars. Off to order more...

milann

The harvest box from your friend sounds lovely. I’m also liking the idea of cooking the chicken from the heat of the bbq 👍

foxgloves

@Milann - That cold chicken cooked on the last of the BBQ heat was lovely.....smoky, juicy & tasty. We decided that with the energy price scenario, it'd be ridiculous to leave still red-hot briquettes to cool then chuck them, & heat the oven up the next day. We'll defo do it again & even see if we can meal plan in such a way as to get another day's worth cooked too.
F x

foxgloves

@Suffolk_lass - Yes, the public sector profession in which I worked for most of my life has been devastated by Tory cuts. And yes, they WERE Tory cuts. I worked under the Other Side too & we had demonstrably more funding & respect as well as much needed upgrading of services. My sister -a teacher- also saw more funding going into her school..It winds me up to hear 'They're all the same'. They're really not. The truth as I see it is that no Party is perfect, but the key aim HAS to be keeping its citizens safe & secure.....not just wealthy donors & their own voters. If one day in the future you see a little old lady (she'll probably have purple hair by then but will defo be wearing lots of earrings & bangles) standing on a wooden box somewhere on a sea front waving her umbrella & ranting about the government, you'll know that we DID manage to fulfil our plan of moving to Suffolk!
Re courgettes....I've done a few jars of pickled ones, which are nice to top burgers or salads.
F 

slm6002

Another one from Suffolk here and am too working in the public sector. Will keep an eye out for you on the sea front lol. Not been at the school for long so not had the experience to see much, but I do know my own children's schools need more repairs and funding and to be able to hold onto their staff.  Moral is low, looking in from the outside.