2022 Frugal Living Challenge

Primrose

Sept. Dual fuel usage cost £145. October 1st meter reading just flagged up £173 so even with mild weather  and really watching consumption cost is already owing up.

Jazee

Similar here.
Sep £102
Oct £139
No heating on yet.

willow_loulou

Auti said:

Hello, i am curious having just seen an advert for clothes washing from a detergent company. It said wash at 20 degrees C and stains would come out etc etc. I am thinking ok stains may come out but all the germs will still be in there - would the germs survive? If they so surely it is not safe to wash so low (even 30 degrees C) and they are just using the *save energy* angle to the detriment of health. I am getting very confused over all this as to what the true, all round, safe way is. Thank you

I can tell you from very recent experience that 20 degrees does
not remove sweat - my son works in a bar/club on a caravan site. During the summer particularly he obviously sweats a fair bit as clubs even with the air conditioning are hot places. He worked 5pm - 3am. I tried the promised 20 degree wash and the shirt smelled as bad as it went in. I tried a pre soak, not much better. I chucked it in on a 40 degree and lo the smell was just of freshly washed clothes 

If it’s like that with sweat I can’t imagine it being much better with other germs or bacteria. 

These tops went straight in the wash btw- he only had 3 so it was a constant turn around. As I drove him and picked him up I would put them on before bed. 

Luckily when the heat wave happened his boss gave them double the shirts bad at some points they were changing during the shift! 

willow_loulou

Another day another round of trying to organise my pantry. I don’t know why I’m trying until my new shelving arrives but hey! 

Today I started some seeds and planted up my ginger I’ve grown on from sprout. I don’t eat a huge amount of it but this was my daughters ginger so I thought I’d grow it and see what happens. It’s HUGE! I need a pot 5 x the width I thought I’d need lol. So it’s in a bigger one for now but it’s back to the charity shop soon for a better solution. 

YoungBlueEyes

Can I ask, do you use soda crystals @willow_loulou? Just wondering if my ph theory holds up…. 

Auti

YoungBlueEyes said:

Can I ask, do you use soda crystals @willow_loulou? Just wondering if my ph theory holds up…. 

I use soda crystals and yes I googled after I read your post and it is right I use them to keep clothes and towels soft and to combat Limescale and smells as well as keeping washing machine clean. 

YoungBlueEyes

Woohoo! I got one right! 

I use them for the softening aspect mainly. I couldn’t remember where I got the ph thing from, I was beginning to think I’d made it up. I’m glad it works 😊

willow_loulou

YoungBlueEyes said:

Can I ask, do you use soda crystals @willow_loulou? Just wondering if my ph theory holds up…. 

No, I did in the pre soak but not in my machine itself. 

cw18

Primrose said:

Sept. Dual fuel usage cost £145. October 1st meter reading just flagged up £173

The bill for my September usage came in at £56.38

Only just entered readings for bill covering October usage, but indications are it will be around £94

(If I were still on September prices it would have been around £78)

In terms of kWh, Elec is up by 20% - but Gas is up by 200% !!!!

However, they're both down on October 2021  

Elec has dropped by 11.7% and Gas by almost 36.5%.

And it looks like I was at home for 13 days in October 2021, but I was home for 16 days last month so I'd have expected an increase in both.....

Floss

cw18 said:

Elec has dropped by 11.7% and Gas by almost 36.5%.

And it looks like I was at home for 13 days in October 2021, but I was home for 16 days last month so I'd have expected an increase in both.....

But it's not been cold yet. What were temperatures like this time last year?