Frugal fuel tips

sillyvixen

With regards to the M&S top of the range thermals I purchased 7 of the long sleeved tops for hubby as part of his Christmas present in 2020. Mr sillyvixen has always worn long sleeved tee shirts under his shirt as long as I have known him, he feels the cold and only ditches them in the hottest days of the year (usually 5 days per year). Last week he was working in Germany and we were away for the weekend (moved from late march 2020). As we did not have time to do washing between him returning and having to go away it was a matter of changing dirty for clean clothes in the case and getting on the road. So washing done on returning home, but today all themals are drying and hubby has had to find an old long sleeve vest - he has moaned all day about being cold. He didn't notice how much warmer themals were when he got them but does now he has used an older tee shirt.

Rosa_Damascena

I bought a load of baselayers from Primark last week, having watched for a reduction in price to make way for summer stock. I also bought some from Asda.

I love being warm but I dislike large energy bills. 

yellowstickerfan

Thanks for such a brilliant thread !! My experiment tonight is allowing my oven chips to defrost on the tray before putting them to cook...I am in a rented property with an electric oven which seem to make the smart meter go crimson !! I can't see it willa affect the taste since surely they defrost in the oven then cook and crisp up ? 
I love baking but the cost of using the oven has out me off a bit 

LadOnTheHill

I've been known to defrost things in the fridge. It takes longer but makes use of the cold. Cooking from frozen means you pay money to keep the food cold,  then you pay again to warm it up,  which takes longer because you're coming from such a low temperature. Coking from room temperature costs less.

joedenise

I always get frozen stuff out and defrost in the fridge overnight and then get out about an hour earlier than I want to cook it so it comes up to room temperature.  Definitely shortens the cooking time.

luvchocolate

I also try to plan meals so the oven does the whole meal  e.g roasted vegetables 

MrsPorridge

I very rarely cook anything from frozen, always defrost first, despite what the instructions might say.  I haven't cooked oven chips from frozen for years.  I do it because I want to make sure that my food is properly cooked, not from a moneysaving point of view.

littlemoney

Topher said:

I managed to get my dual fuel bill down to a manageable £65 last month but I barely used the heating, was disinclined to move around the house and quite frankly felt miserable much of the time. 

The sleeping bag definitely helped during the day but was a bit of a PITA wrt comfort breaks.

I know that feeling, I really have to weigh up saving money on fuel by sitting in thermal clothing, extra jumpers and under quilts and feeling low and less like getting up and doing chores, or having a few degrees warmer by using the central heating and feeing motivated to get things done, cooking from scratch in the slightly cooler kitchen for example. I’ve had years of zero choice, but once my family was moved past survival mode economically, I swore I’d indulge on warmth first and foremost. The feeling of wellbeing goes a long way to helping tackle all the other aspects of life.

I think you have just summed up how I've been living the last 3 months. I haven't felt well so spent  much of the time sitting around just like you described. Currently I'm not in survival mode but it's difficult to change the habits formed over many years of watching every single penny.

CCW007

First trip to M&S for a couple of years and I picked up some long sleeve t-shirts to use as thermals (I wear a vest top or short sleeve t-shirt, then a long sleeve t-shirt with a jumper or fleece on top).  Pack of two t-shirts for £5 so I picked up two packs and got four tops for £10.  I do have thermals but don't find much of a difference between them and regular layers.

Another plus is I've lost over a stone so far this year and can now getting into two brand new pairs of fleece lined walking trousers I had in the cupboard unworn.  I tend to wear thin leggings under trousers and thick walking socks with slipper boots and that keeps me fairly warm but the fleece lined trousers are great.

All helps to keep heating costs down - heating oil here has gone from just under 60p a litre at start of February to almost £2 a litre currently.  We have enough oil to see us out but who knows when the cost will come down so we're preserving it for as long as we can. 

Broomstick

It's probably only the tiniest saving each time but the pennies do add up. When I put anything on to charge (eg mobile, laptop, rechargeable batteries etc), I try to set a timer so that I don't to forget to unplug it as soon as it's done.