Prepping for the challenge ahead...

JinJinBlue

Ahh! Lavender bags! Thanks for the reminder. I have some so must put them in with my jumpers. Well done on the poncho. What a bargain. 

euronorris

Have you all seen the latest predictions for October and Jan for energy prices? Up 82% in October now (£3,582/year on 'typical' use), and a further 19% in Jan (£4,266/year on 'typical' use)!!!!

Terrifying prices!!

slm6002

It may be wishful thinking but is there any glimmer of hope that these prices might go down at some point, or is this it now.

The children are used to me telling them no we cant have the heating on and to go and put another layer on.  We have extra duvets on the sofas come winter.

Another silly / obvious hint is to close internal doors.  We have a draft coming from our hallway so by shutting that door it makes an awful difference.  And then if there is still a draft, make a draft excluder.

If you need a burst of heat maybe nip to places like the local library as they have their heating on there and often have groups to join, or sit and read a good book.

Love this thread and am following for any new tips.

Scrimps

euronorris said:

Have you all seen the latest predictions for October and Jan for energy prices? Up 82% in October now (£3,582/year on 'typical' use), and a further 19% in Jan (£4,266/year on 'typical' use)!!!!

Terrifying prices!!

Ive been looking for a thread like this and just read it from the beginning.

My biggest concern/prep at the moment is energy prices followed by food prices.

I bought an electric pressure cooker (just before it was 30% off!!) to enable me to cook dried pulses much more cheaply and will be eating less meat myself. We have 2 boys under 5 who unfortunately we have raised quite fussy, so they eat either oven food or home made burgers/tinned salmon fishcakes etc...usually has to be quite dry food. This does mean our gas oven (with a broken door seal and dodgy thermostat) gets near daily usage, I have been thinking of an air fryer but they're so expensive I'm unsure of how /if we would recoup the costs. In winter, I do time it so the heating only comes on after the cooking is finished so the heat from our small kitchen also heats the living room a bit and cooking with gas is much cheaper than with electric.

I read on the main MSE site that I can turn down the setting in the boiler so the water doesn't come out quite so hot and the radiators don't get as hot either so I will experiment with  that. Even with radiator controls i fi nd the bedrooms bake whilst the living room is cold. I also need to dig out the manual to turn off the water 'pre-heat' function. I didnt know this last one was possible and it used to drive me potty when I could hear the boiler clicking on at 3am to 'pre heat' the water that i wouldn't be using for another 4 hours or so.

We're already relatively low energy users but have agreed we will be even tighter in the winter with the heating. We both work from home and bought some very nice winter jumpers in the summer sales and plan to go out for walks at lunch time to keep our bodies warmer from the exercise. The boys are already conditioned to using the sofa blankets at winter time, even in summer as its a comfort thing. They also really like the bedsocks they got for Xmas last year so that'll help.

We had external wall insulation put on a few years ago which has helped with the condensation damp in the house but we do find that if we don't run a dehumidifier sometimes, despite daily airing, everything can start to feel a bit clammy....can feel it on the bedding etc. So I think that'll be an unavoidable albeit occasional cost. 

LittleGem

Not sure it’s so much preparing as making small changes but we are really starting to focus on our energy usage. At the moment the boiler runs for 20mins a day to heat our hot water, we bath the kids together (not every night) and one of us will use their bath water afterwards with a top up of hot. 

I’m a tea addict and was forever boiling the kettle then getting called away/distracted so now a full kettle gets boiled in the morning and the hot water goes into a thermos for the rest of the day. I find even by 5/6pm the water is still perfectly hot for a cuppa. 

Effician

LittleGem said:

Not sure it’s so much preparing as making small changes but we are really starting to focus on our energy usage. At the moment the boiler runs for 20mins a day to heat our hot water, we bath the kids together (not every night) and one of us will use their bath water afterwards with a top up of hot. 

I’m a tea addict and was forever boiling the kettle then getting called away/distracted so now a full kettle gets boiled in the morning and the hot water goes into a thermos for the rest of the day. I find even by 5/6pm the water is still perfectly hot for a cuppa. 

Stick with getting that energy use low, the more you look for energy wastage the more you'll find, probably the most financially rewarding prepping you can do at the moment.

CJRyder

Would an internal cat flap be a good idea to allow internal doors to remain shut?