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What have you done differently since we first went into Lockdown?

It's a year on Tuesday (23rd March), since Britain first went into full Lockdown in the fight against COVID-19.   The television is full of it this morning, which got me thinking... What have I done differently, possibly more frugally, since we went into Lockdown?  There are a lot of things that I did before, that many people have adopted during this time (cooking from scratch, baking, knitting, etc), but here are a few things that I do now, that I didn't habitually do before Lockdown:-

  1. Rather than boil the kettle repeatedly through the day when we want a hot cuppa, I now boil a full kettle first thing in the morning, make our breakfast coffee and then decant the rest into a thermos.  During the day, additional coffees are made from the thermos.  Later on, if we need a kettleful of boiling water for cooking dinner, I'll tip the remaining hot water back into the kettle before topping up.
  2. Regularly walking to L!dl.  Our local branch is 1.5 miles away and it's become our primary grocery shop.  We walk there about once a week to buy toiletries, dairy products and fresh veg. (Prior to Lockdown, we bought our fresh veg and eggs from a farm shop 5 miles away and split our supermarket shopping between MrT's and L!dl, driving to both.  The first casualty of Lockdown was the farm shop - they are in the  middle of a National Trust property and were forced to close when the "big house" closed.  They haven't reopened.)
  3. Buy the Sunday paper from the local branch of the C0-0p.  Again, this is a walk, whereas previously we'd drive to MrT's.
  4. Going for a walk "after work" every evening.  We've both been working from home since Lockdown started.  This is the only way to get that mental space between work-life and home-life, which we'd normally get from a commute.  Another plus side is that, unlike many people, I haven't put on weight. 
  5. As you may have gathered, I'm not doing a lot of driving now.  The money that I've saved by not buying a tank of diesel every week is going into the "Car Account" instead, to be spent on services, insurance, road tax and the inevitable replacement car.
  6. Tracking our daily spend on electricity and gas.  Every morning, I check the smart meter and make a note of what we spent yesterday, as well as what we did that would use a lot of energy (using the oven, washing machine, etc).  This started because our power company jacked up our direct debits and I wanted ammunition to prove that their assumptions were wrong.  (We're on a 2-year fixed tariff, when it expires, I will shop around.)  Yes, I've argued those direct debits down.
  7. Use my "morning commute" time to exercise.  Rather than get up later, now that I'm working from home - which might upset my husband's daily routine - I use that time to exercise.  I've done the Couch-to-5K and now run 3 times a week.  On the other 2 mornings, I do some yoga stretches and I've started doing a bit of weight training.
  8. Learned French via Duolingo. (It's free.)  Today is day 296 of my current streak of lessons.  I'm spending less than 10 minutes a day and have learned considerably more words than I did in four years of French at high school.  I'm not sure I can string a sentence together and I doubt I'd understand if my French colleague started talking to me in his native tongue, but I know far more than I did.

What about you?  What are you doing differently since you went into Lockdown?

- Pip
"Be the type of woman that when you get out of bed in the morning, the devil says 'Oh crap. She's up.' "

It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it - that’s what gets results!

2025 Fashion on the Ration Challenge 66 coupons - 4 spent.

4 - Thermal Socks from L!dl
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Comments

  • That's a really interesting point about the kettle - I'd never even thought about it. Anyone know roughly how much a full kettle would be per boil? Probably not trivial if added up through the day.
  • cattom
    cattom Posts: 259 Forumite
    100 Posts
    saved a few £s on beer, with the pub shut. in the supermarket, you can get a pack of four, for the the price of a pint in the pub.
  • purpleivy
    purpleivy Posts: 3,637 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    My hub has made some homebrew for the first time. 2 lots now. I've had more time for cooking and started to enjoy it again. I've been spending more time crocheting. Hadn't really done it properly every, but took part in a Crochet-along last autumn. Just finishing a  cot blanket  for new baby in the family. 
    [SIZE=-1]"Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad"[/SIZE]
    Trying not to waste food!:j
    ETA Philosophy is wondering whether a Bloody Mary counts as a Smoothie
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