What small DFW things will you do w/c 5th August?

La_escocesa

Wow, busy little thread this week Nice to catch up with everyone.

I think we've decided not to move house just yet... Latest house on the market would be an additional mortgage of £184k for us but we both still think ours is better for us... It'd basically be gaining 1 more bedroom and downstairs shower room in a better area, but really doesn't seem worth it, especially as our study is so cramped (so that would be moving to a bigger bedroom) and then the only extra room we'd be getting would be a box room (smaller than our smallest room). So still no guest room, no utility, no gym space/garage... Pointless...right?! Basically only paying for better area and being able to walk to work, which I would love but I'll suck that up...

Deary me, I've moaned so much baby is crying... Be back soon with my list!

allydowd

Hi August Austerity-Fans,

Wow. We have been busy!




The storage unit is bare except for 5 items. 3/4 of the stuff in storage was empty boxes! :mad:

Just appliances and some oddments to sell and a LOT OF recycling to do.

Completely reorganised our storage room at home and used the loft space which we've never been up in!

I can't believe how much we got done in a day. As soon as we've sold the appliances we can lose the storage facility and save £100 a month.

Up the revolution!

We practically need a skip for all the cardboard we've still to take to the coup/tip. I took one carload of cardboard and unsalvagable junk there earlier already.

When we first got the storage we were in crisis and DW and a friend just threw everything in there and locked the door. I hadn't realised that over half the stack of boxes we were paying to store was empty.


Today's job is to tidy up as we have recyling all over the flat and items for sale everywhere.



Detach Declutter De-stress




Debt-Free-Nillionaire Continuity Plan Year Five:

* Check online banking. Done.

* Continue my Challenge 500 miles challenge to travel 500 miles for free before the end of 2019: walking, hiking, climbing, cycling, running and swimming. I'm up to 304/500. None today yet.

* Take packed lunch to work later. Done.

* Bedroom tidy. Done.

* Office tidy. Done.

* Take remaining cr*p to the coup/tip. Done.

* Get recycling out of kitchen. Done.

* List items for sale on local Facebook page. Done.

* Look at Music Magpie. Done.

* Activate new emergency credit card. Done.

* Collect NHS prescription when I drive past Pharmacy. Done.

* Drop off some magazines at local book shop. Done.

* Donate old but usable set of bedding to charity. Done.

* Parcel up items to send to the US that have been in the sitting room for weeks. Done.


* Locate manuals that go with applicances we're selling. Done.




“Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.”

carrielovesfanta

Hey guys,

Big hugs to all those who didn't sleep or are feeling meh xx

I was training this morning so couldn't post. Just a small list though.
:heartpuls B/L/D from stores - done
:heartpuls Charge phone in work - done
:heartpuls Gym after work - done
:heartpuls Chanced hanging the washing outside - done
:heartpuls Possibly treat myself to a small glass of homemade wine - done

Have a good one all

clf x

Grazeley

Today I have charged my phone at work - I was shocked this was a MSE thing! How much help do we think this adds (genuinely intrigued?)

carrielovesfanta

Grazeley wrote: »

Today I have charged my phone at work - I was shocked this was a MSE thing! How much help do we think this adds (genuinely intrigued?)

Google reckons about £1 a year based on a daily smartphone charge. I know it's not much, but it's more the principle of the very small things adding up. Foxgloves had an excellent list once of all the little things she did. I'll see if I can find it.

EDIT: found it!
Hi. I promised SettingIn I'd post a list of all the little bits of energy saving we do, so here it is. Should add that we are far from perfect & we have not reduced our monthly payments but this last quarter's dual fuel bill was within £1 of same quarter last year despite unit price & standing charge increases so I can only assume all these little bits we do are helping hold things steady. I'm sure lots of people on here will already do lots of these.....please skip post if it gets too tedious :-)
*We are on Economy 7 tariff for our night storage heaters which is less than half daytime tariff. Washing machine set on timer to make use of this, also charge gadgets & sometimes use slow cooker overnight.
*Make use of half load setting on WM if not much washing. Better still if only few things, handwash & just use WM for spin cycle. Use the hot soapy water for doing floors.
*Don't leave any electrical items on standby.
*Don't leave TV on for background. Is anyone properly watching it? As in PROPERLY, not having an eye on it while doing something else. If not, switch it off. Ditto computers, gadgets, games, etc.
*Use slow cooker regularly for stews, soups, stocks, joints, etc.
*Replace baths with showers. IF ONLY!! Impossible in our house as mr f must have been hippo in former life - big expensive wallowy bath every day. I can't win on this one, so we share bath water or I use it to soak household laundry such as blankets, pet bedding, chair covers, etc, or bucket some out for washing floors or outside cleaning jobs because we've PAID to heat that water.
*Combine baking jobs. Make a cake while oven already in use. Make bread when oven on, so it will rise well without additional heat.
*Try not to use electricity out of habit. i.e Our spare room is barely used & is very clean. So why was I vacuuming it every week? Now do it fortnightly, ditto conservatory while we're not using it much.
*Wear lots of layers so you can turn the heating down or off. Nobody is allowed to say they are cold in our house if they are sitting there in February in a silly T-shirt!!
*I read our energy meters every Sunday & keep the figures on a chart. useful as can see how we're doing & investigate any sudden weird increases. Also get to see how turning down heating settings just one notch does show up in lower weekly useage figures.
*Let hair dry naturally. If need to tame it, let it get nearly dry & just finish off with hairdryer.
*Don't leave lights on. Also, we just have one small lamp for evenings if we're watching TV & often none as we like candlelight.
*Keep freezer full so it works at its most efficient.
*If we know what time we're off to bed, we'll often turn the fire off half an hour before. Small saving but over a number of days/weeks, it all adds up.
*Only boil the water you need in the kettle. Save any extra in a flask towards next hot drink.
*Switch off iron for final garment. There'll be enough residual heat.
*I only vacuum weekly. We have lots of hard floors. If they look gunky mid-week, I use a long-handled dustpan & brush.
*Use a steamer pan to cook all your veg on one gas ring.
*Dry washing outside on line as often as possible, as the free option.
*We turn the spin cycle on the WM down in summer if weather hot.
*Keep asking yourself 'Does this need to be on?' If the answer is 'Yes', does it need to be on this setting? Could it be turned down?
*We've invested £80 on a heated airer which our energy readings show is using less energy to dry laundry than turning up the heating as we used to do.
*Check for the worst draughts. Have got 2 thick curtains over doorways plus TWO draught excluders over lounge door. The double sided one has made a noticeable difference.
*Put another blanket on our bed & if it's really cold, pop a hot water bottle down it half an hour or so before we turn in.
That's all the things we do that I can think of. Hope one or two of them at least help somebody. One thing we can be assured of is that energy prices are not going to start falling any time soon. Even the people in favour of fracking (i.e not me!) are now saying it won't reduce household gas bills, so we've come to the conclusion we just have to use less.

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all

I need your help, I was with you a while back and for all sorts of reasons have not done too well with debt busting just lately. DS1 has now moved out, and DS2 goes to Uni next month, so there is no excuse for not cutting back on the grocery shopping and household bills.

I have lots of plans, just need to put them into action!

PurpleFairy26

YORKSHIRELASS wrote: »

Hi all

I need your help, I was with you a while back and for all sorts of reasons have not done too well with debt busting just lately. DS1 has now moved out, and DS2 goes to Uni next month, so there is no excuse for not cutting back on the grocery shopping and household bills.

I have lots of plans, just need to put them into action!

Welcome back yorkshirelass pull a pew and have a brew :T good to see you.

PurpleFairy26

Baileys_Babe wrote: »

Foxgloves I too was awake between 3:30-5:30, shortly after I finally got back to sleep an alert sounded on OH's phone, disturbing only me. This alert has awoken me a couple me times in the past, I've asked him repeated to ensure it doesn't happen again but it is a low priority for him. I'm feeling emotionally fragile and I've kindly wrestled the baton of grumpy from PurpleFairy and it appears to be embracing me.

Sorry you are feeling fragile and that you've got the grumpy baton hope the day got better.

PurpleFairy26

Day was a success if a liitle stressful. Home now and feet up for a little before bed. In the same vain as CLF posting a top tip list from foxgloves energy saving. I thought I'd post a few things I do regularly that newbies to the thread might find useful (but I don't post on my lists as I don't want to bore you to sleep :rotfl:) feel free to post some of yours, maybe useful to someone.

Use refillable water bottles, empty each night any left either in to kettle or on to plants to water or in cat bowl
Save butter wrappers in fridge and use to grease trays, cake tins
Save kitchen foil and baking parchment to reuse if not dirty
Freeze anything and everything, todays additions are a half bag of fresh spinach (unblanched and still in bag it came in) and half a jelly stock cube
Have a pepper tub in freezer and put in any tiny bit I cut off a pepper and then use from frozen for hot dishes such as bolegnase sauce
Save all my glass jars for jamming, chutney, nice gifts or filling with spices/herbs
Make and freeze own pesto from basil. Don't use pine nuts as they are not :money: and just leave it nut free
Save envelopes/ scrap paper to write shopping lists, freezer lists, options for money shuffles on pay day....

I'm sure I'll think of more. Hope it's useful for someone. Purps.

Baileys_Babe

PurpleFairy26 wrote: »

Sorry you are feeling fragile and that you've got the grumpy baton hope the day got better.

The first half was awful, argued with OH, it improved later, we went out for a couple of hours walking in the sunshine just the 2 of us