2022 Frugal Living Challenge

cw18

Floss said:

Monitors use approx. 1 kwh a year, so not a massive amount. Although maybe it is if your bills are low enough to raise concerns with your providers. 

I just don't see the point in adding anything to my usage when it's unlikely to actually teach me anything

I've found figures that suggest the average 4 bedroomed dual-fuel house would be a medium to high user, and clock up 3,500kWh/year of electricity (which is almost 9.6 kWh/day).   This report also suggest an annual average of 15,000kWh of gas for that sized property (41 kWh/day).

From 2nd Feb 2021 to 31st Jan 2022 I used 1,433kWh of electricity, which is an average of 4kWh/day (slightly under half the average).   And I used 7,876kWh of gas over the same time span, or 21.6 kWh/day (slightly over half the average).   As a single occupant I would expect my electicity figures to be below average, but possibly not my gas by so much (the only difference should be the amount of water I have to heat).

So I checked the averages for other sized properties...

A 1 bed flat on dual fuel gives an annual average of 1800-2400kWh of electricty - so I'm below the low end of that!
And the average gas usage for a 1 bed flat is 7,000kWh, so I'm not vastly over that.     It doesn't give figures for a 2 bedroomed property, but a 3 bedroomed is up to 12,000kWh.



My water is even more significantly low.   According to my provider, the average 1 occupant home averages 149 litres of water a day.   I average 33 litres - and the bill I'm due next month is likely to be even less as my washing machine has been out of action since early December

General_Grant

Primrose said:

The talk of rising fuel bills has reminded me of the hay box cooking.  My mum used this a few times during the war when I was a tiny child when gas supplies were cut off during bombing raids and I recall having to cook some kind of stew in one for my Girl Guide cookery badge many decades ago.

For anybody not knowing what they are they're a large box of some kind with a lid insulated  with hay, straw or old woollen rags which creates a "nest" into which you place a lidded casserole container of some kind which has had its contents bought to simmering point. The insulation of the hay or other materials into which it's packed is supposed to keep it warm for long enough to cook the contents over several hours.

The contents may not necessarily still be "piping hot"  by the time you're ready to eat them but the secret is to cut the meat & vegetables very small so they cook more quickly, and if possible to use a cast iron or metal container that's capable of being taken out and given a quick heating reboot on top of a hob ..  

This is a fairly primitive method of cooking but everybody should try it at least one just for the experience of learning how to survive in a possible fuel emergency.   A large sturdy Amazon box packed with old towels or cushions and using a metal saucepan with tight fitting lid would serve in an emergency and perhaps be  a good indoor camping  "adventure" to try with children? Savoury mince with vegetables is probably a good starter experiment. 

You could also cook your porridge overnight using this method.

I have a small number of polystyrene blocks (about the size of a paperback book) - do you think they would work as insulation?

EskarinaWeatherwax

@General_Grant I’m using polystyrene blocks as insulation in my cold frame and they are definitely working there!

YORKSHIRELASS

@zafiro1984we have oil too, though we only have a small 3 bed semi and use about 200l a of oil a month between October and February.  On an evening we switch the heating off and sit in the living room with the open fire lit and the door shut, there is no-one else in the house though so it doesnt really matter how cold the rest of the house gets.  We have free wood too so this has to be cheaper than heating the whole house (although I know what you mean about the extra work).

We have had a day pottering about at home so nothing spent, need a few bits of food shopping tomorrow though, have made a list.  I have a few bits of clothes to sell so I need to get that done.  Heating oil gets delivered on Monday but we have a month to pay for it, I do have some set aside.

Finance spreadsheets updated today, must do my balance transfer tomorrow and then rejig my monthly payments.

nannygladys

CW - I had a water meter when my dds had left home, and proceeded to cut my water usage, collect water for toilet etc, then my bill came in and my bill had dropped by a huge amount, but like you when I actually read the bill  my charge for water used was very small and drainage to and from the house and sewage to and from the house made up the majority of the bill, so I then stopped being so careful and more or less stayed the same, in fact I've just had my 6 month Bill and its £20 less this time.

At the moment I'm worried about food and fuel, I seem to have cut down all I can on both, and not sure how much more I can do, I only have a small fixed income with no debt or mortgage (state pension), but I will have to manage somehow, a strict frugal mind set has now set in but it isn't practical for any length of time.
Nannyg

willow_loulou

@nannygladys
 I’m very worried about food and fuel, especially petrol-  as I can’t walk far I’m car reliant. I could get the bus to work but I can’t always manage the walk from the closest stop. 

So I have been proactive and bought a hydroponic kit - for small salad items and A sprouting kit. I’ve also stocked up on 10 multi packs of maggi noodles, various tinned meat,pies, soups and veggies, stock cubes and various extras like dried cheese and crackers. We can eat, albeit basic foods, for a month without buying anything else. So I’m hopeful this will supplement things a bit. 

I’ve also signed up to oddbox veg boxes (first one half price using FARMFRESH code) to help keep me out of the supermarket. 

Essentially it’s £12:99 a week but I should in theory only need to spend a few £ more if Olio keeps providing bread etc. We will only eat meat or fish twice a week and that will be whatever os cheapest. 

It’s a control thing for me, when things were out of my control I got very miserable. This really helps. 

zafiro1984

nannygladys said:

CW - I had a water meter when my dds had left home, and proceeded to cut my water usage, collect water for toilet etc, then my bill came in and my bill had dropped by a huge amount, but like you when I actually read the bill  my charge for water used was very small and drainage to and from the house and sewage to and from the house made up the majority of the bill, so I then stopped being so careful and more or less stayed the same, in fact I've just had my 6 month Bill and its £20 less this time.

At the moment I'm worried about food and fuel, I seem to have cut down all I can on both, and not sure how much more I can do, I only have a small fixed income with no debt or mortgage (state pension), but I will have to manage somehow, a strict frugal mind set has now set in but it isn't practical for any length of time.
Nannyg

Thinking about water - our sewage is not on main drains. We have a tank that leads onto a reed bed. Last year we had to have the tank emptied, which was the first time in 18yrs. We obviously had to pay for this, I can't remember exactly how much it was but it was somewhere near £200.  However, on our council tax bill 'drainage' is still listed  When I enquired I was told it was for general drainage  - sewage and road drainage - we have no drains at all on the lane. I really don't think this is fair.

Being frugal has really kicked in this year. I'm questioning most things.

nannygladys

zafiro - it sounds like a blanket charge for everyone regardless if you have it or not, I wonder how many people pay it and not know. Is there a way of you applying to not pay it or does everyone have to pay regardless? Doesn't seem right because you are paying the bill twice.

cw18

zafiro1984 said:

Thinking about water - our sewage is not on main drains. We have a tank that leads onto a reed bed. Last year we had to have the tank emptied, which was the first time in 18yrs. We obviously had to pay for this, I can't remember exactly how much it was but it was somewhere near £200.  However, on our council tax bill 'drainage' is still listed  When I enquired I was told it was for general drainage  - sewage and road drainage - we have no drains at all on the lane. I really don't think this is fair.

Being frugal has really kicked in this year. I'm questioning most things.

Are you in Scotland?   I know water charges are included in the Council Tax up there, so rules may be different......

My Mum has a property in the NW of England which has a septic tank.   It's also on a private water supply not mains.   There's no water bill at all for the property - not even for rainwater drainage which my Mum had thought there was for a while.   I tried setting up access to an account on-line, but was greeted with the information that there's no account for that address.

Ellie79

Morning all. Apologies for the radio silence, I have just been so busy at work that my downtime has mostly been reading books (free or 99p!), sleeping (not enough), or binging tv series.  3 am this morning saw me wide awake and in a fettle, because I really have not been budgeting and I have some bills that (due to not budgeting) I had forgotten about which now put me perilously close to the end of my funds. Quite irritated! 

So, downloaded a budgeting app and went through my spends (arrgh) and then when OH woke up he took one look at me lying in the relative warmth of the bed and said oh no what have you done, I can tell you are on an economy drive just by the body language. What can I say!  He is right. I have a decent wage, after years of being very poor. I need to get back to the mindset of being on a tight budget. Last year by now I had saved 1/3 of my council tax bill. I am not even close and that annoys me what with the cost of everything rising so rapidly. I shopped at A!di this week and that was a disaster as they had next to nothing that I normally get from there. Therefore I have gone through alll my finances and married up calendars (accidental benefit being my diary has never been so organised!), payments and what I want to achieve for this year. I have worked out days I am at work (I still work from home 2-3 days a week) as these are pinch points where my spend on cr*p from the cafe there goes up. I also am more likely to go home via the shop and buy wine or chocolate/takeaway because I am tired and stressed.

This is more for accountability than anything else, plus OH is not quite as on board as I would like, and probably need. He is likely to go to the shop to buy something if he thinks we don't have it or if he just fancies something different. That means his spends add up and then its a vicious tug of war to keep on an even keel. I can cook, I can batch cook, although I will admit I don't particularly like to as don't enjoy the reheated food so much. I will be growing my own again this year but that's more to supplement (and for my mental wellbeing). I know the biggest spends we have is food/food related so that is what I am tackling now. Alongside a bad tendency to buy rubbish we don't need. I am therefore limiting what we do buy, putting some of the online browsing energy into improving some aspects of work and allowing spends (saved in a m*nzo) to decorate both kitchen and bathroom over the half term to keep busy and moving forwards. Phew. Sorry for essay!