The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

euronorris

Trying to convince DH of the benefits of turning the heating off in the bedroom, and opting for an electric blanket instead. It's hard to compare though as cost of using the electric blanket is easy to calculate, but the cost saved by turning off the radiator in the one room is less so. Perhaps we should start with hot water bottles/microwaveable things first and see how we get on?

We already took steps to reduce our usage recently, so I shall take another meter reading at the weekend and compare our usage to this time last year to see what impact we've had.

Thriftygifty

I'm having a wobble day, my hours have been cut with one client due to decline in workload, grateful I still have some work but still a kick in the teeth and having trouble finding happiness today.

I'm really worried about our energy bills along with everything else 🙄. My main issue is the amount of washing that I do and I don't really know how I can cut down on it, children are messy! How much on average for an hour 60 degree wash is that likely to cost? If I could have in my head say kettle is x amount per boil, oven is x amount for an hour it would be better for me to visualise and justify the costs, I am not good with unpredictable costs I find them extremely stressful. 

What I have started again this year is writing down everything that we spend each day or don't spend, I did the whole of January it might not sound like anything big but it was interesting, in total we spent £10.60 on parking, this is not a cost that I like.

DawnW

@Thriftygifty have you thought about washing at a lower temperature? I do most things at 40 degrees, and it is fine.

euronorris

Having just compared our energy usage from October 2020 to January 2021, with our usage over October 2021 to January 2022, it seems that we have reduced our electricity usage by 120kWh over that time, and our gas usage by a 1,000kWh. If that is correct, then we have reduced our estimated winter monthly cost from £142 to £123 (based on the current rates), which gives me some hope.

Thrifty, I had gotten into the habit of using a 60 degree wash when covid started, but I dropped to 40 at start of October and it def seems to have had an impact. I bought some Astonish Oxy Powder from B&M at £2.99 (big tub) that I can add a scoop of to the wash for anything stubborn or that I'm concerned about for hygiene reasons. Going to trial doing some at 30C now and see how we get on. I also switched the dishwasher to the eco mode as standard. It takes longer, but the temp is lower so it costs less energy. 

Kids and washing just can't be avoided sometimes though. DD had a wee accident overnight a couple of weeks back, got her bedding, duvet, carpet, her clothes and my clothes (as I was carrying her to bathroom as quickly as possible) and bath mats. Of course all had to be washed, and then sunday night she had the vomiting bug and it was clothes, carpet and bath mats again. C'est la vie.

Si_Clist

@euronorris - just a couple of thoughts, but you say that you're considering turning off your bedroom heating and using an electric blanket instead.  Does that mean that you keep your central heating running overnight? 

And ref using 30°/40°C washes, don't forget that you'll need to do a machine-cleaning cycle every now and then to avoid the build-up of bugs, fungus or whatever.  Bunging all the towels in for a hot wash every 6 weeks of so does the trick for us

euronorris

@Si_Clist yes, on the basis that I can't get DH to agree otherwise. He does stay up much later than I do, as he struggles with insomnia. But even then I'd prefer it if we had the timer on so it went off around 1am ish and came back on at 6am ish. That would be another saving made. Maybe I can persuade him after these latest price hikes!

euronorris

PS, I do a clean cycle on washing machine twice a month. Having had it get quite gunky in the past, resulting in me spending an age and multiple clean cycles to get it back to optimum, I've learnt my lesson that it needs to be done regularly.

Auntycaz

I always add a little washing soda and reduce the amount of laundry powder/liquid slightly and add some white vinegar to the final rinse. I also make sure I dry the rubber seal to prevent it getting gunky. I live in a very hard water area so have to prevent limescale building up. I also do a really hot wash for tea towels bath towels etc about once a month.

LadOnTheHill

An energy monitor plug will show you how much an individual appliance costs to run. They're about £15 on the big river site, you plug them into the wall, then your appliance into it, and it shows you how much energy it's using. With a kettle it's pretty easy to work out without one. Your kettle will be rated at (for example) 2000w. If it runs for ten minutes a day, it uses 200w. If your electric costs 25p/kW, then it costs you 5p a day to run. You'd need to time how long it was actually running for, obviously boiling just the water you need is better.

A washing machine is more awkward to work out, because the heater will use a certain amount to warm the water, where the drum rotating will use a lot less. I seem to recall some libraries loaning energy monitor plugs out. Maybe we should set up a thing here on mse where someone can borrow one for a fortnight, or something?

RAS

There was some discussion about seeds a while back? Wilko's are in.

A few at 25p including the mixed lettuce which was very good last year - 6 different ones.

If you grow brassicas, they've a choice of brussels, cabbage, broccoli, and I think cauli all at 50p which is very good. And a decent selection of other things you may not get from Lidl at the same price.