2022 Frugal Living Challenge

nannygladys

Not sure about how many kw I use a day, but I have read the smart meter each night for over a year now (and several times a day just lately) to see how much that day's g&e has cost me and then think what I have been using. I now only watch the TV programs I want to watch and turn the TV off otherwise, the kettle I only fill it with as much water as I need and have a couple of cold drinks each day, the washing machine is used at a lower temperature setting and I'm getting quicker in the shower(lol), as these are what seems to drive the daily prices up for me. Not sure about the freezer but I have started closing the fridge door when I go in for a bit of milk and the same with the freezer when I go in there. I'm interested in the pounds it's costing me on a daily basis and the difference my small changes make. I haven't had my heating on for a few weeks but I know it costs quite a bit, so will have to assess that when the time comes. I will keep doing my readings and see where else I can cut down and if it gets too hard .... don't know ....
Nannyg

otb666

i guess we will have to see how this all pans out.  I do think its something that may be relevant in the future and worth keeping an eye on to check you are not spending more on storing food than worth the cost of food itself. We are due a cold snap 1/4 when prices are due to rise.  I am fixed til 2/24 but will have to adjust spending if prices continue to rise.  Luckily dont need to use car anymore But having to.keep a close eye on food spends for sure

cw18

zafiro1984 said:

cw18 said:

 my daily average consumption for electricity in 2021 was only just over 4kWh.

Wow just over 4kw daily, how do you do that? I thought I was frugal getting mine down from over 20kw a day in 2021 to just over 14kw daily this year. I must be missing a few tricks.

For starters (and probably the main reason for it being so low), I live alone and I'm out of the house at least 6.5hrs on a working day - normally more.

And I don't have an electric shower - they can eat electric.
My household heating is gas, as is my hob.

Other than that I can't think of anything that I'd expect my kids would class as me being a miser for (unlike with my gas and water)

Most of my lights are LED, but I think that saving is fairly insignificant (I already had energy saving bulbs).

Biggest saving is probably my 'oven' cooking.    As I'm only cooking me the majority of the time, I don't need the capacity of my built-in electric oven.   So when I need to use an oven, I use my combi on the conventional setting.   Heats up much more quickly, and has a much smaller capacity to keep warm.   When I want a jacket potato I use it on a combi setting - 400g of jacket potato in around 14 minutes.

Bolognese and chilli are almost always cooked in my slow cooker - as are any gammon joints or full chickens that I do (not regular events).   I've also done beef and pork joints in my slow cooker, and think I'm highly likely to do them that way again (only buy them on yellow stickers or very special offers).

Oh!   And I don't use a tumble dryer!   I do own one, but it's only been used twice in the last 5.5 years.   I used to need one (when hubby was ill I was washing bedding every other day - if not every day - so I replaced the one I'd needed when the kids were little for a more efficient one), and I don't see the point in getting rid when I have space for it.   It's now approaching 15 years old, so I'd more than likely have to give it away if I wanted rid......     That's probably the one area my 2 eldest would consider me to be a miser, as they both throw everything into a dryer!   My daughter I can understand (single parent to 4, who works 3 long days a week), but my son lives on his own so his only excuse is that he has no outdoor area (but I don't consider that a valid argument as I dry all mine indoors )


I found an article that listed average usage figures for 1, 3, 4 and 5 bedroomed dual-fuel properties (don't know why it doesn't include 2 bedroomed!).   According to that, a 1 bedroomed property uses an average of between 1,800 and 2,400kWh of electricity per year.   As I live alone I would expect to be somewhere around that amount - and am showing as 1,450kWh for the last 12 months which was nice to see

The bigger shock was my gas.    The article says that a 1 bedroomed property uses an average of 7,000kWh/year, whereas I'm using 7,500kWh.   BUT - and this is where the shock came in - I'm in a 4 bedroomed property.   The average for that size is 15,000kWh/year !!!!!

MazzieD

I think I would be seriously concerned if my fridge freezer used 2-4 Kw a day.  My average daily consumption is 2-3Kw in total  My hob and oven  are electric so that's the main part of my bill apart from boiling a full kettle (once a day).  Like @cw18 I don't have an electric shower,  My work laptop has rechargeable batteries so doesn't have a large impact on my bills.  Only gas I have is heating and hot water and I try to keep both to a minimum.

spudsmum

I just looked at some average power consumption tables, and was really shocked to see average gas consumption listed as anywhere from 8-12,000 kwh per year. We don't even use 4,000.

Our heating is gas (and our 20 year old boiler is probably very inefficient) , gas hob, we have a gas fire in the lounge and our main shower is plumbed in rather than electric so that runs on gas too. I would have thought we were fairly average users but it appears not.

Electricity usage is pretty accurate although I think that's quite good to say there's 5 of us in a big draughty old 4 bed house. I work from home all day and I have a teenager who seems allergic to turning things off. 

In other news norovirus continues to burn through the house - it's been 5 days now and I still don't feel 100% — after being smug and thinking he'd escaped it, looks like husband has now started with it so that will be him off work for a while (he works in food so needs 48hrs symptom clear before returning)

Shopping came in £22 under budget at £53. Very happy as no visits to the pantry to subsidise us this week and included £10 worth of ingredients for the cake I'm making for MIL's anniversary party (in lieu of a gift) had a few sundry expenses to pay out like eldest child's subs for his athletics so I have about £40 to last me until Friday which seems very doable as no plans to go anywhere. 

Suitably Frugal mothers day - meal out with the in laws was cancelled due to us being ill (they'd have bought meal but we generally buy them a drink) 

My gift from my husband was a takeaway - he's saved his own pocket money for it so it didn't have to come out of our household budgets which was, nice. We're going to wait until we both feel 100% though so that, will be something nice to look forward to. 

cw18

spudsmum said:

I just looked at some average power consumption tables, and was really shocked to see average gas consumption listed as anywhere from 8-12,000 kwh per year. We don't even use 4,000.

Our heating is gas (and our 20 year old boiler is probably very inefficient)

I'm seriously impressed with your gas usage !!!!

Like you, I have a 20 year-old boiler.   It was 'condemned' a few years ago, but only in so far as it's much too old to be sure of being able to get spares for it.   Apparently, if it breaks down my only option will almost certainly be to buy a new boiler.   I was told this by the service engineer at annual service time - back when I had breakdown cover on it.   When I was told the same again the following year (different engineer, but same national company) I cancelled my cover.   I was told that if they couldn't repair it they'd refund what I'd paid for the contract for that year - but it was getting very expensive, and I pointed out to them that I had no chance of saving for a new boiler when I was paying them £30-ish a month !!!   (Contract also covered hot water cylinder, radiators, controls and pipes - but still much too expensive.)

Since cancelling I've changed the control panel myself twice - something I couldn't have done without invalidating my contract unless I paid for an inspection of my work !!!  One change was so I could set different times for every day instead of 'weekdays' and 'weekends' (not a lot of use when you work Saturdays), and more recently to a Smart one.  My OH also replaced the divertor for me - the part having been bought from eB@y for about half what I used to pay a month for my contract.being able

The big question (if I had the money to pay to change it without needing to borrow anything) would be how much MORE efficient would a new one be.   Given I'm only using half the average for my size of property (and am comfortable enough with my heating level) I think the payback period would be a long while - but am also concious of the fact it would be kinder to the environment.

DawnW

@cw18 I am not really sure how much kinder to the environment it is to buy new things, however much more efficient, than to simply keep your older ones. Not only is there the energy / material use / pollution involved in making the new thing, but also in disposing of the old one. Personally I prefer to hold onto 'old' stuff as long as possible tbh.

cw18

DawnW said:

@cw18 I am not really sure how much kinder to the environment it is to buy new things, however much more efficient, than to simply keep your older ones. Not only is there the energy / material use / pollution involved in making the new thing, but also in disposing of the old one. Personally I prefer to hold onto 'old' stuff as long as possible tbh.

Which is one of the reasons I'm holding off trying to find the money for a new boiler     I relented and replaced my washing machine (22 years old) - mainly because it had leaked a bit on and off for a bit, which hadn't been completely resolved by a service and repair a few years back.   The total off-load of water from a cycle via the bottom of the machine last December was the final straw - although it did take me almost 3 months without a machine (pricing up call-outs to see if it could be repaired) before I finally made that call.

I very much buy into to the 're-use and recycle' mantra - I'm just not very good at the 'reduce' part which shoud come first

RateTartExtraordinaire

We have 2 bedrooms, gas central heating (old boiler) and gas hob. Electric shower but used sparingly. Washing machine/ Tumble drier, but never tumble dry as it's pegged outside or hung indoors. We have a fridge freezer, with a small freezer section that is packed to the max usually.

Gas usage in the last 2 years has come down from 9000 to 7000 KWH Gas.
But the electric usage has gone up from 1850 to 2400 KWH. 

The increase in electric usage is definitely due to my partner working from home permanently now. I was working from home too, for a while, but stopped in December 2021. 

The reduction in Gas usage is definitely being more mindful, lowering the thermostat setting and limiting the hours the heating is used.
I'm going to see if we can get the gas consumption down more this year (and electric) with batch cooking, boiling the kettle less often with help of a thermos flask, plus I've put curtains up to cover the front door.
Planned for 2022 is some redecoration which may help the heating costs. I've noticed that one sections of the downstairs outside wall at the back of the house had plaster removed to put in damp course and then previous owner put wood paneling up over the bricks and never plastered. I'm sure some plasterboard over the bricks would stop the draft that I can feel around there. All the heat from that room is seeping out that wall. It was so cold working in there from Oct to Dec, I was wearing a scarf and gloves.
My partner got first dibs on work from home and uses one of the bedrooms upstairs. It is lovely and toasty in there all year, he keeps the curtains closed to stop screen glare so that must help reduce heat loss too.

I have a fan assisted electric oven and no microwave. I considered buying a microwave as a more cost effective way of heating and cooking. Especially now I am batch cooking and need to reheat dishes. Also I make my porridge in the morning. At the moment I use the gas hob.
I've cleared a spot on the worktop but haven't taken the plunge yet. I've had bad experiences with microwaves in the past breaking down. Wondering if it was because I went for the cheapest options

 Anyone really happy with their microwave can recommend one?

It would need to be a stand alone model. I've seen mention of combi ovens and I'm curious would that be more cost effective than my main electric fan oven for most things?


 

DawnW

cw18 said:

DawnW said:

@cw18 I am not really sure how much kinder to the environment it is to buy new things, however much more efficient, than to simply keep your older ones. Not only is there the energy / material use / pollution involved in making the new thing, but also in disposing of the old one. Personally I prefer to hold onto 'old' stuff as long as possible tbh.

Which is one of the reasons I'm holding off trying to find the money for a new boiler     I relented and replaced my washing machine (22 years old) - mainly because it had leaked a bit on and off for a bit, which hadn't been completely resolved by a service and repair a few years back.   The total off-load of water from a cycle via the bottom of the machine last December was the final straw - although it did take me almost 3 months without a machine (pricing up call-outs to see if it could be repaired) before I finally made that call.

I very much buy into to the 're-use and recycle' mantra - I'm just not very good at the 'reduce' part which shoud come first

I had to replace my washing machine, which was of a similar age, last year. I'm not good at 'reducing' either.