It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

ladyholly

Pollycat said:

Re clothes:
Have you considered looking in charity shops?

I've bought lightweight tops and half zip fleeces  from active shops (tog24, Mountain warehouse etc) in charity shops for a few £. Designed to keep you warm.
Great for in the house.

I do have fleeces but am reluctant to buy any more due to the micro fibre they release when washed. What I want is couple of heavy jumpers or cardigans preferably natural fibre and they cant be polo or turtle  neck as I find them really uncomfortable. The charity shops in my town are pretty poor especially in my size ( large - huge). As we have a high elderly population, not that I am young, I think much of the stock comes from bereavement donations and are really not to my taste. Perhaps I am too fussy.

Katiehound

ladyholly said:

Pollycat said:

Re clothes:
Have you considered looking in charity shops?

I've bought lightweight tops and half zip fleeces  from active shops (tog24, Mountain warehouse etc) in charity shops for a few £. Designed to keep you warm.
Great for in the house.

I do have fleeces but am reluctant to buy any more due to the micro fibre they release when washed.  

I have a load of fleeces so they are going to have to be worn until they fall apart! I realise that my dog walking fleece is still going strong at maybe 15 years old! (remembering which dogs I had when it was new) Others are still almost new in the wardrobe.

Wednesday2000

This just came up on my phone about thermal clothing at Aldi.

Aldi £6.99 SpecialBuy shoppers say give 'extra warmth for winter' is on sale now - Mirror Online

London_1

Gosh aren't we a frugal lot  I don't feel so bad about my indoor scruff clothes now

I do have a really thick cardi made in chunky wool that I got in a CS about three years ago but its really too big for me now as I lost about three stone over the past two years so It may get donated back to a charity shop.

 My eldest DD says when she's back from her holiday next month she's going to go through my wardrobe as I have far too many clothes to be honest, and most of them really don't get worn  very often.

 I bought some nice cotton skirts from M&S about three years ago and they wash beautifully and I wear them every summer as they are cotton and nice and cool
As I have lymphodema in my right arm I have to wear tops and skirts or trousers, and if I buy a dress it has to be around three sizes to big for the rest of me because of my 'chunky ' arm.
So I stick to seperates and have  a good stock of tops and skirts and jeans or joggers, so my dresses will have to go.

Its good to see we are all making good use of what we have and not buying more. I must admit I'm not keen on clothes shopping as my arm limits me to what I can actually find to wear.

 I have a winter coat with bell shaped sleeves that I have had for , oh about 7 years and it gets cleaned every summer and put away and brought out in the winter.

I do have a really smart coat I had made by a tailor locally which copied the coat and sleeves but its for very posh going out events which have become few and far between the older I have got Plus it cost me an arm and a leg,:)  and I've told my children the amount it cost me I want to be buried in it  

Sorted out my winter boots from the spare room yesterday and they are fine and are not in need of heeling at least so will get me through another winter fingers crossed.Also dug out my winter black tights that I wear under jeans or trousers I got them last years from Tesco's and they are really soft and keep ones nether bits warm

JackieO xx  

newlywed

Bought the suggested decathlon skiwear thermals and am pleased with them although obviously haven’t worn them yet.

I buy all my fleeces second hand because putting them into landfill isn’t good either. Gave one an extension on its life last year by replacing the dead elastic cord in the bottom and new cord zip pulls (for when I’m out walking and hands are too cold to find the tiny zipper bit). 

Have a stash of wool, so treated myself to some lovely looking slipper and slipper boot patterns. I did go through a load of free patterns but the patterns on Etsy just pleased me more so I went for it. £3 and £4 for patterns isn’t bad when I already have the rest of the supplies and can make multiples… and for gifts too.

I have made two fleece panels (from existing older blankets) to put at the bedroom windows (sewed elastic loops on the top and used plastic shower curtain hooks to hook on the pole supports) as we have eyelet curtains and rubbish windows so it’s cold round the windows.   Just need to do one for the full length patio door in the front room, but will need to buy the right size material for that.

Bought an energy monitoring plug (we aren’t on smart meters) and have been checking the kettle use so far and boiling only what’s needed.  With that and putting washing on early (economy 7) we look like we are on track to save nearly a tenner on last months electric. Pretty sure we haven’t changed much else though, so seems a surprising amount from two small changes and I’m wondering if I’ve calculated wrong. since April we have been turning everything off at the plug when not in use. Last month I was more careful with oven use but didn’t notice any major difference in electric cost - I usually batch cook anyway and fill the oven when I do use it. 

Nonnadiluca

DH bought a pure wool traditional Gansey when we were in Cornwall in March. It's so warm and looks great: the best £65 he's spent in a while! I'll get one for myself next time we go.

Florenceem

Someone told me that thinner layers are warmer than thick.
We were Blessed at my SA last week - gifted 3 black sacks of new with tags thermal underwear, hats and gloves for the homeless.

thriftwizard

@ladyholly, if there's a vintage market or emporium near you, that's a good place to look for good wool, wool-mix, alpaca & cashmere jumpers, cardis etc., usually at very sensible prices (does not apply in Central London!) - I'm always picking them up, washing & repairing if needed, with both invisible & visible mends, and they're one of my best-selling "lines", even in summer. (New campers never bring enough warm clothing!) Many of the ones I pick up are barely damaged; just a pulled thread leading to a couple of lost stitches, easily stabilised & embroidered over, or a tiny stain I can appliqué a motif from an old tablecloth over. These will have been rejected by the original owner or a charity shop & would otherwise go off to be chopped up & made into "shoddy" or similar, but have now acquired a bit of originality & eco-cred & my customers seem to love them! Lots of us traders do the same.

linz

I bet nobody can beat my winter hoody 😂 bought about 6 years ago in Nepal, supposedly yak wool (no idea if true) with fleece inside. It's the warmest thing I own, even warmer than my thick Rab down jacket.

ZsaZsa

twitcher1973 said:

I work and am at home with 4 dependent children.  

We have saved 100 kwh energy the last 6 weeks by not having the lights on in the house at all - I have turned them all off at the consumer unit.  When it gets dark the kids have a battery camping lamp each and I have candles.  It has been good because they dont get up until it gets light now, and settle down to bed earlier.

From tonight I am turning off the electric altogether at 10.30pm and putting it back on when I get up for work at 5.30.am I have sorted out the freezer so there is nothing in there that will perish. I take a electric reading every sunday and will see how much more it saves me turning this off. 

I am on oil  heating/hot water so will not be filling up this winter  at 90+ pence a litre it is not affordable for a 1200 litre tank - I have open fires and will be using them instead. I have enough oil in the tank to have the boiler on for 1 hour on a sunday for another 2 months or so, little 'un can have a bath once a week and showers the rest if needed.  The showers are on eco now so they arent really hot, the kids dont stay in them as long now. The washing up gets done with a kettle of water. All these little things will add up and hopefully help lower the bills. I use an old fashioned spin dryer and have left the tumble dryer for the scrap man.  The spin dryer is great if you have to hang up indoors because its raining outside.

I’d worry about causing damage to the freezer, they’re not designed to be constantly turned off and on. And once the electricity is restored, the freezer will be working harder than before to return to the correct temperature .

what sort of lightbulbs do you currently have? 100 units over 6 weeks sounds like an insanely high figure just on lighting, especially over the summer when it’s lighter out for longer. LED bulbs can be bought cheaply and cost fractions of pennies to run. Certainly cheaper than buying batteries/ candles. Things are bleak enough without making life harder for ourselves