2022 Frugal Living Challenge

zafiro1984

Good news today. My ironheart woodburner having it's worn out parts replaced on Monday. The local wood burner shop rang today to say all the parts are now in and they will be coming Monday.

I can't wait, it will mean not using the electric oven, the electric hob, the electric kettle as well as turning the central heating temperature down and shortening the length of time it is on. Once lit, I try to keep it going 24/7, I should see a reduction in the kw used.
I never thought I'd get excited about the extra work it will be but these days I'm more interested in money saved.

I used it an awful lot earlier this year, late winter and early spring to do loads of batch cooking which was frozen in induvial portions. This has really paid off, I still have about 20 meals still frozen. We have been using them over the summer and until now, I just get a couple out in the morning to defrost, use the microwave to reheat and use the hob for vegetables. I'm going to do the same again this year once it is functioning again. No cost for the wood, we have so much here that has came down last winter in the wood that the neighbours also help themselves.  

Quite excited!!

Soontobeoap

@zafiro1984 that sounds amazing. I didnt realise you could get a burner that does all that.

We still havnt put our heating on. Genuinly havnt needed it with the higher temperatures that we are having at this time of year. I read somewhere that it costs £4.64 an hour to have the gas central heating on. We use ours for an hour morning and night so over the last 20 days we have saved just over £184.00 by notbusing it! I have a huge ironing pile  that i am keeping for the first couple of colder days so hoping to make it through to November now that we have got this far.

 £66.00 from the goverment for fuel costs has gone into the bank account this week, 2 days after the dd was taken by edf. 

zafiro1984

Soontobeoap said:

@zafiro1984 that sounds amazing. I didnt realise you could get a burner that does all that.

It's called an Esse Ironheart, basically it's a wood burner with an attached small oven and two hotplates. I wanted something where we could see the flames, look cosy, plus being able to cook. It seemed silly not to have a wood burner and use it to it's full potential as we have our own supply of free wood. It wouldn't work for everyone. It wouldn't suit a living room  - ours is at the end of the kitchen in an inglenook. I've had it quite a number of years, I think they have changed the model slightly because I run a couple of radiators off it which heat the hall and you don't seem to be able to get that model now. 

As I said it would not suit everyone but over the years it must have saved me quite a lot of money, however, it is harder work than just switching on a switch for the heating. There's the cleaning of it, chainsawing up the fallen trees (that's DH's job), moving the wood to somewhere to dry, making logs under 50cm that will fit in the burner. I use at least the equivalent of 2 garage fulls of wood a year. I bring the wood into the house every day and the 'log basket' in the kitchen is a French wine barrel, the sort they collect the grapes in, so that's quite large. Quite a lot of work but I'm glad I have it.  

Primrose

There may be an opportunity for some households to participate in a trial being run by the National Grid over the coming weeks , to receive monetary refunds for a trial running domestic appliances like dishwashers and washing machines overnight, to reduce daytime demand and to help national blackouts if we have a spell of really cold weather.  .  Householders could be paid up to £240 broken down into nightly payments depending on how often they run such devices overnight.

Up to 12 Tests will apparently be run between November and March.  It wasn't stated how and where the tests will operate but apparently households will need a smart meter to participate.  

I assume .further details will probably be notified by individual energy companies.    Not every heavy use appliance will have a built-in timer if they want to take advantage of such a scheme if offered, so having a spare timer device you can set for off peak use will I imagine be a necessity for anybody not wanting to get up at 2 am to switch on their washing machine ! 

 

joedenise

That's a good idea @Primrose but not for me unfortunately as I have solar panels so try to run my washing machine when the panels are producing power.  Even in quite cloudy weather there is still some solar gain which reduces the cost a bit.

Primrose

We're probably too old now to benefit from the return on investment for solar panels.

Also  what were young neighbour's trees when we perhaps should have installed them many years ago are now towering high monsters which effectively cut the sunlight out from our roof now for a large chunk of the day.

I wonder what the compensation is, or a householder's rights are when that happens? 
 Zilch I suspect.   
 As usual, like the old menace of those fast growing conifers which cause so much trouble between neigbours, local councils and the legal system are generally too slow to react.   However   suspect the issue of tall growing neighbouring trees and blockage of sunlight from solar panels could become an increasing issue for some people in the years ahead as nature takes its course.

Elisheba

Hope the heated body warmer keeps being a success @2Scratters. My heated hoodie is an absolute essential for me now.  It has changed being economical with the heating from being a rather unpleasant chore into something I don't even notice doing anymore.

Tanya12345

Afternoon All,
Fab work on all the energy saving.
zafiro1984 - that sounds like an ideal woodstove....will be investigating !
All ticking along here, no heating on yet - am going to try and avoid it altogether as we are on oil and I can't afford to refill the tank. We are both OK with extra layers, using the woodstove and will see how it goes - easy to make the decision when it 17 degrees outside, may have to revisit when it gets chillier. ....
Genius to use Greenhouse to dry stuff, the Polytunnel is being rigged up for drying now !
Working on a sort of barter system with the neighbours as shopping is off the menu at the mo, so far we have Sourdough Loaves, apples and veg  for milk ....
Will try a "stall" at the end of the drive when the Gardens start producing again but right now I think I'll need all our squashes 
Keep flying the Frugal Flag y'all xx

Sweetlittledaydreams

Both payslips have come in, makes the long hours worth it. Going to a friends tonight, she's providing the food and I'll bring the drinks, hopefully have a good catch up and a relatively cheap night compared to if we were going out. Used my £20 off voucher on last week's shop and got some extra storecupboard things in that too so that's good. Also treated myself to a fluffy oversized hoodie for £20 which is helping me keep the heating off for longer. Have an extra 12.5 hours work booked for tomorrow so that'll bring some extra in, plus being out of the house means not using any extra gas and electric. Have booked a holiday in January so I'll be working as many extra hours as I can to pay for that, and saving money on bills now won't be so difficult when I know I'm doing it so I can enjoy myself in a few months time!

newlywed

Still 20 C in our flat today, with windows open and no heating on. Long may that last! 

And no it’s not a well insulated flat, it’s ground floor, concrete floors and is freezing in winter, but we live in the south of England, and rarely get more than a dusting of snow.