Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Humdinger1

Glad you're feeling about back to normal @foxgloves.  The joy of everyday...onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

foxgloves

Thanks, @Humdinger1. I do enjoy a bit of kitchen witchery, & Postie brought a nice bundle this morning, so have also sat & opened that over a coffee. 
It's true I find simple joy in everyday tasks. I'm never going to be a thrill-seeker or a risk-taker. Quite happy to leave bungee jumping to others!
F x

foxgloves

Well m'dears, I've done everything on my list except for finishing that never-ending mitten, so that will be my very next job. Mr F unexpectedly arrived to wfh this afternoon, as he needed to visit a site much closer to home than his base, so he says he'll cook tonight & I can get those fiddly thumb stitches picked up. I so hope that this is my final mitten-cussing day & that I will be gift-wrapping them tomorrow. 
One extra task I've done today was updating the energy bill log I like to keep in the back of my trusty Money Book. I've 3 years of monthly spend on Electricity & Gas logged, which is useful to monitor changes in usage. Last billing cycle with the Cephalopods was 21st Oct to 20th Nov and as we were also on holiday during the exact same week last year, it has meant that I was able to do an accurate comparison. 
Oct 21st - Nov 20th 2022:  Total cost (Gas & electricity combined) = £128-27
Oct 21st - Nov 20th 2021:     "       "        "    "        "               "          = £94-56
That shows an increase of £33-71 for the period this year, compared with last year, bearing in mind that we were away (& heating turned down to frost setting) for the first week of November both years.
As energy prices are widely considered to have increased by 90% compared to last year, I think these figures probably show that our energy reduction measures have had some kind of effect. Like most people, we are trying to be sensible on all the different little wastages (small aggregate gains theory) like lights, not over-filling kettle, etc, but I think the main saving has probably come through heating changes. Mr F turned the dial down on the boiler without us noticing any difference to water temperature so far. In terms of heating, last year, we had the thermostat set at 18 deg from 6 am to 5pm, then 19 deg from 5pm to 10pm, then back to 18 deg overnight. This year, we have set it for 18 deg from 6am through to 10pm, then on 14 deg overnight, so that it would only come on if it did drop extremely cold. We were also lighting our gas stove last winter. It makes me sad not to use it, as the fireplace/chimney was one of things we had done as part of our big home renovation project between 2020 & 2021, but we have only had it on once so far this season because I think it might possibly be a bit of a gas-gobbler. We do intend to light it, probably on weekend evenings for a little while & over Christmas, but we will make sure we turn the lounge radiator off so that we are off-setting a bit of cost that way. 
The other thing I've been experimenting with this past week is siting the CH thermostat in the lounge during the day. It usually sits in a cold open plan spot in the hall, thus triggering the boiler to come on quite frequently during the day. My experiments with moving it haven't been very scientific but Mr F did mention that the smart monitor was at over £7 for gas the other day, when it was both a cold day & the thermostat was in the hall. Anecdotally, I think it's around £2 less than that when it sits on the lounge bookshelf. If I was feeling particularly cold in other parts of the house, I'd move it back to the hall (our problem is that apart from the lounge & bathroom, our downstairs is quite open plan due to some numpty removing a kitchen wall back in the 1980s). 
I can't remember a time in my entire adult life when the cost of energy was such a major topic of conversation as it is at the moment. I was a child back in the 1970s energy blackouts & we did chat about those with our friends, but only in terms of how much fun it was playing games by candlelight & trying to read in the dark - very different from now, when everyone is wanting/needing to cut down on expenditure with many people being forced to endure worrying levels of privations.
We are living through crazy times, are we not? Have been considering volunteering for the local food bank. I've worked in socially disadvantaged communities & been involved with signposting to various services, etc. I enjoyed occasionally helping at a mental health charity a few years ago, until it sadly closed due to lack of funds. I'll give it some thought in the new year.
Mitten-knitting time now or the bloody thing will still be on the needles tomorrow.
Take care all,
F x

Cheery_Daff

Interesting thoughts about energy saving foxgloves. I think I'll try and check our usage compared to last year too, although our electric use wasn't particularly high, we too have been more mindful eg about not just doing one pizza in the oven 😂

Gas use is a frustrating one for me - we've got an LPG tank so no meter, and the only way of monitoring consumption is tracking how much we had delivered each time, but that only happens 3 times a year, and not on the same dates (or even the same months) so it's all a bit vague! I know we were very low when we had a pre-Christmas delivery last year though, and now we're at about 50%, so there's probably an improvement. 

Interesting about thermostat too. Ours is attached to the wall in the warmest room in the house, so we can't move it. 

I didnjust write a massive post about our thermostat use but I can't imagine it will interest anyone else so have deleted it 😂

Makingabobor2

Interesting comparisons with the energy usage. Our readings are sent on the 17th of the month, so will be interesting to see how our compares this year, since I've had the heating on a bit. I have the thermostat down a lot lower though, so hoping it makes a difference. 

Debsnewbudget

I have done a 3 year analysis of energy but used actual usage rather than monetary amount.
we had a new boiler in March and that along with being careful has meant a big reduction in our consumption 
I have been trying to get dh on board and showing him the figures meant he did a graph of them and started the discussion 😂. If I had only known a graph was the answer, I would have done this ages ago.

milann

Oh dear…..hope you are feeling better after your fall. I’ve done a few spectacular ones myself….one near a local secondary school and lots of pupils ( who all get tarred with the same brush oats being thugs ) stopped and offered me help and asked if I needed somebody phoning. I phoned the school and thanked them 👍 although unfortunately I didn’t have any names. That ended up with 2 operations to my elbow 😳
The small differences really do make a difference. We tend to only use the boost setting and have it set to 18 degrees. I have been guilty of having had several boosts today as well as the flames on the gas fire on. We’ve been away for 4 days and the house was very cold. We only usually have the fire on at Christmas. The flames did give the visuals of making me feel warm. Dh was saying we’re over £500 in credit but we won’t be if I carry on like that 😏

Onebrokelady

I had my heating on all day yesterday but it's been off a few times today because I was moving around more. My thermostat is in my living room at the moment. I put it in the kitchen yesterday because there is no heating in there unless we are cooking but it didn't seem to work as well 🤷‍♀️
I don't have any heating on overnight because I get too hot, I also have my window on the latch so there is some air coming through. Last night I slept with my feet poking out of the end of the duvet 😀

foxgloves

I get too hot at night, too @OBL & always have a window cracked for fresh air. I'd rather have an extra blanket on & have a cooler room, but it must be difficult for people who really feel the cold. I think our thermostat is set at 14 deg at night, so the heating hasn't been coming on until 6am when our daytime temperature setting kicks in. We are going to monitor things over this coming cold spell to see if we need to change anything, but it's worked so far. It's surprising how much difference that the oven & even the slow cooker make to generating a little extra warmth in the kitchen.
F x

foxgloves

Thanks for all your comments, which I've enjoyed reading. I think we are all monitoring energy use much more closely now & experimenting with different things. I agree that all the little measures add up. More energy price rises coming in 2023, so I think most of us have no choice but to try & get some kind of a grip on our gas/electricity expenditure.
F