Pay off mortgage and start having even more fun 😁

Ramouth

Great work on the batch cooking - I hope there will be some left for you too!  I love it when I can get a home made ready meal from the freezer - much prefer my own cooking to the majority of the vegan ready meals I can buy and so much cheaper!  Have you tried a girl called jack’s lentil bolognaise?  It makes a great lasagna.

Hope cats are settling in well - ours hid from us for the first couple of weeks but is now a bit clingy if anything - I think she just needed to learn to trust us.  Hopefully it is the same for Dotty’s aunt (sorry I can’t remember if you told us her name).

newgirly

No I haven’t tried that yet Ramouth I will do though thanks. The big cat is taking ages to settle, just when I think she’s not settling should she go back (breeders were lovely and said either cat can be returned at any time if they are not happy!) she has a tiny break through, this week it was allowing small annoying cat to sit near her in her bed, she’s still getting used to us, we have made her world small for now and she mainly just sees ds2 and dil and I go in to visit her, small steps! 

Small cat does whatever she wants and is hilarious, nearly lost my bedroom tv this week mind, she likes walking along of the very thin top of the downstairs one but luckily so far the tv can take it, when she tried this in the bedroom if fell of the tall chest of drawers, luckily I was coming out of the en-suite at the time next to it and managed to catch it 😆

Off to York on Monday for two mights with friends and unsure what I’m going to wear as it’s forcast to be very cold indeed, lots of my old jumpers were given to charity or cash for clothes when I had a clear out and I’ve not much left, slightly regretting that a bit now 😩 I’ve lots of ugly fleeces for indoors but not much else that’s warm and doesn’t look like I’ve kept it for gardening in! Also while I’m having a moan about clothes, why are all smart nice looking clothes so thin and cold looking? I must be getting old, I remember queuing outside clubs in hot pants in the snow with no coat years ago, now most sparkly outfits give me the shivers 😁

newgirly

Bit of spending today it was my return for breakfast with friend so:

• £10.85 breakfast 
• £19 primarni, thermal socks, fleece lined tights (amazingly warm) knitted tight roll neck, woolly hat, gloves.

All very necessary when heading to York next week during a big freeze where we will be outside a lot 😁

£1800/ £1483.11 so £316.89 left now.  

newgirly

Wow it’s cold this morning 🥶I woke up cold in the night and ended up putting on long pjs as and a fleece onesie and even socks! 

I’m worried I’m not putting the heating in enough and to see what other people might be doing now? Yesterdays new statement means I can now see the higher cost from the previous month as I started putting it on for about an hour a day late afternoon since the last statement, the cost is about an extra £60 pm for that hour. 

One hour a day makes little difference to be honest, our house is a 1950’s bay fronted mid terrace with a newish loft conversion.It has a conservatory with no internal doors on the back of the living/dining room (can’t fit the large table in if we were to add doors) so it gets cold. We do have blankets to use in the living room when just sitting. I’ve held off having it on more as I didn’t know what the cost might be, we can afford to have it on more and I don’t want to kill is off 😆

The kids are either out at work pretty good about it all, ds2 and I have had long chats about what the high prices actually translate to and is shocked and happy to wear his dinosaur snoodie 😂 but I think now might be the time to spend some more money on it, we currently have a credit of £465, our DD is for £280 and showing an idea payment range of £299-£333 as ideal. 

South_coast

How about setting the thermostat to a reasonable temperature so then it's the boiler making a fact-based decision about whether the heating needs to be on, rather than you as a human making an emotional one? If you end up with damp and mould issues from it being constantly cold and not aired that could end up costing you a lot more in the long run. What's the insulation like on the ground floor? Would it be worth seeing if you can improve that so you're retaining the heat better?

badmemory

For what it is worth, my opinion of not being warm (apart from my age related stiffness) is that a lot less gets done & with a lot less enthusiasm.  You land up not bothering cooking properly too, because it is just too much energy & eat more especially of the wrong things because you burn more because you are cold.  Alright don't wear shorts & a T shirt.  The problem to me with not having heating on to a sensible rate is that it isn't just the air that gets cold, your furniture does too.  This means that when you sit on your lovely settee it creeps cold into your bones & everything you touch takes heat out of your hands.  I had never realised this until I was regularly going to a friends house who was always hot so only turned the heating on when I was going.  I couldn't understand why I was always cold & thought his heating must be a bit rubbish but then I took a temp/humidity meter with me.  His house by the time I arrived was 3 or 4 degrees warmer than mine & felt much colder.  No drafts, it was just that everything you touched was cold & it leached all the heat from my body.

Jessy103

Congrats on the new kitty! As someone who has 2x rescue dogs, it's tough when they're like that but she will come out of her shell eventually and in a few years, this few months of her being shy and nervous will seem like nothing 🙂

Our heating has been on for the past couple of weeks, first thing in the morning and then when we get from work. Not only is about keeping us and the dogs warm but it's about keeping the house damp free too.

newgirly

Thanks everyone, I have been putting in on since this trial month in the morning for an hour or so too, but on days when you are in all day it’s still cold once it’s gone off. South Coast the conservatory will need replacing in the near future (ideally with an extension) and the windows are old white double glazed so will also need to go. These are longer term things though so I’m not sure what we could do now really except have it on a lot more. The damp is usually not a problem but has been this year with much less heating - if I ever dry washing the windows steam up and get condensation, so I do always dry with a squeegee and towel as wet windows make it more chilly. 

Bad memory, I think that’s a great point about the furniture and I think it kind of applies to people too 🙄 if you get cold sometimes you just can’t get warm easily! I guess I’m wondering if people really have their heating on all the time? Or Al least all day long? I generally have it set low at night 14 or so then a couple of degrees higher in the day and then up the temperature to 17/18 for a bit morning and evening.
tThis week it will be on more as clearly it’s going to be very cold, I’m just concerned how big the bills could get very quickly if we don’t keep a very close eye. 

My parents are living in tropical temperatures all the time, most friends seem to be a mixed bag of having it on as usual and one who is struggling more financially setting a daily £10 spending limit on it - which goes very quickly…. 

Hi jessy, good to know the dogs usually settle, I really hope big cat does! She did venture out of the bedroom to hide under the dining room table yesterday so that’s progress 🙂

Dh wants to go to North Weald market today, we haven’t been for many years, I have no money to spend, nothing I need to get (unless I come across holly or mistletoe 😬) and it’s freezing 🥶 however  I guess I should as he’s always at work and I’m off on a girly York trip Monday so I should make the effort. I will only agree if he takes he electric van though as it a bit of a drive!  

newgirly

The market was disappointing yesterday, not particularly festive and no holly or mistletoe, more awful fake designer wear 😆 We went to an outside tree seller afterwards and they didn’t have any either, but they did have little £10 Xmas trees in a pot which dh bought for me 🙂 

Last night we watched the football with ds2 and his friends at the pub, not poor ds1 as he had an expensive overnight work do and it clashed with the Xmas dinner! He was told if he misses it he will have to pay so he was gutted, he is a very big football fan so I don’t yet know where there he did actually see it and pay or not yet.  Such a shame we didn’t make it though, there were men crying in pub! I don’t think I’ve ever watched a big game in the pub before, wow the language 😂

Still no money spent, I only had a couple of lime and sodas and they are 30p each which dh bought, he said why don’t we go to the pub everyday s it’s really cheap and much warmer than home 😁 not today though as I’m up and it’s on, I’ve loads of washing to do before I go away tomorrow so I’m going to blast it all day and get it all done, usually it would be on the heated airer or in the garden but that’s to slow as I’ve been busy and let it back up. Spending update: 

• Tesco delivery £45.06 groceries 
• £4.99 on a conical sparkly light up thing at the Xmas market Friday 
• £5.60 Tesco Xmas chocolate for ds1, I’m sending a treat parcel of whiskey/Prosecco  and chocolate up north as he’s staying with girlfriends family from the 23rd to new year 😢  looked at hampers but wanted to get his faves and it was cheaper 😆 will try and get dh to courier it from work if it’s better than royal mail….

Total £1800/ 1538.76 so £261.24 left an average now of £12.44 a day, but should be no spend days for the next three days as I’m home today and in York for two nights from tomorrow (seperate £200 saved from eBaying stuff), I feel this might actually be achievable! 

Ramouth

I have been less impressed with the Christmas markets I have been to this year too.  A lot of the same kind of stuff - I’m sure it was better last year.

Is there any way you can separate the conservatory off with curtains or something so that it can shut off when not in use to keep the heat in?  It’s chilly in our house too (half the roof has no insulation) but closing internal doors seems to help.