Low energy lifestyle - in case it helps

MarcoM

Planeteer said:

@EssexHebridean @pochase thank you both for your thoughtful responses. I can see that there's advantage (if not privilege - loaded word...) implicit in some of my suggestions. To be fair, I was merely sharing my lifestyle, not speaking Gospel to every Briton.  Maybe I will delete this post if it strikes a wrong and unnecessary chord for people. No harm intended...

Hi may I ask where you spend the winter months?

Linda_Bowers

Planeteer said:

@EssexHebridean @pochase thank you both for your thoughtful responses. I can see that there's advantage (if not privilege - loaded word...) implicit in some of my suggestions. To be fair, I was merely sharing my lifestyle, not speaking Gospel to every Briton.  Maybe I will delete this post if it strikes a wrong and unnecessary chord for people. No harm intended...

Hi, as someone not in a position to take up a lot of your suggestions, it’s nevertheless interesting to hear about ways of managing, from everyone, yes matter what their income or age group! Thanks for posting 🙂

Linda_Bowers

That was supposed to say NO matter - my predictive text is currently reversing yes and no for some bizarre reason!

username

It's an interesting post from trom another perspective and lifestyle, it certainly won't be atypical of what people here would have and live.

The fact that you've a detached property in central London with outdoor garden space and can live away for months abroad does indicate some level of advantage as you so put it.

Just out of interest what is it you do for a living that enables this? Does your employer have a base another foreign country which you go to or can you go 100% remote working for those months?

Coffeekup

Planeteer said:

So buying one airticket abroad for a stay of 1-4 months is much more carbon friendly than short-stay flights. 

I don't know anyone who has more than 5 week's holiday entitlement a year. Excluding my 96 year old Gran.

Planeteer

ariarnia said:

Planeteer said:

So buying one airticket abroad for a stay of 1-4 months is much more carbon friendly than short-stay flights. Also, depending on your destination, you can get tickets near the winter heating difference. Your sustenance costs will be needed either way, wherever you live. Energy costs in winters abroad always without heating, hence cheaper.

For the winter months here, I did make do with indoor activities. Luckily, our council also offers free gym and swim on the weekends. 

yes the price of tickets can be near the winter heating costs and you do need to pay to live wherever you are. that's why i said you should include those costs in your figures above and not leave them out to suggest you were an unusually low energy user by comparing your costs for 8 months to someone else's costs for 12 months. 

for the winter months here you did indoor activities, so can you share what your energy bills were for those months and compare them to the costs of flying to somewhere hot and living there for those months? i'm wondering do you actually make a saving or do you about break even.

i know a few people (mostly older) who used to do something similar and it worked well for them (more because of the lifestyle not because it saved money) but generally it was only after they had taken early retirement and paid off their mortgage as most of us can't take months off and expect a job to be waiting for us back home. i did know one person who did it in his 20s but that was becayse he worked like a dog in seasonal work and only lived in rented accommodation with the bare minimum of stuff because what he earned during the summer paid for his winters traveling and he'd store his stuff at a friends house (i also knew someone who did almost the opposite and worked all kinds of jobs over winter to pay for them to go to festivals all summer). again that was great for him but i wouldn't want that lifestyle myself. not enough security for me. 

@ariarnia thanks for the interest. So I've tried the winters away thing for the coming winter and the previous two. My additional expenses have been flights (between £1-30-600, often with Avios or EasyJet), Rent (AirBnB, or family, c €1000 pm), and extended travel/medical insurance (£180 pa).  My work allows me to work from anywhere, and I have an understanding boss. I just make sure I don't run up any tax obligations elsewhere. On the whole, it's been of value to me, especially in the first pandemic winter!

Planeteer

MarcoM said:

Planeteer said:

@EssexHebridean @pochase thank you both for your thoughtful responses. I can see that there's advantage (if not privilege - loaded word...) implicit in some of my suggestions. To be fair, I was merely sharing my lifestyle, not speaking Gospel to every Briton.  Maybe I will delete this post if it strikes a wrong and unnecessary chord for people. No harm intended...

Hi may I ask where you spend the winter months?

Sure, so far I tried Canaries, India and this year south of France. 

Planeteer

Coffeekup said:

Planeteer said:

So buying one airticket abroad for a stay of 1-4 months is much more carbon friendly than short-stay flights. 

I don't know anyone who has more than 5 week's holiday entitlement a year. Excluding my 96 year old Gran.

I don't go on holiday, but work remotely and take some time off to travel locally.

mmmmikey

Interesting to hear about your lifestyle choices, thanks.

Just one point to raise if I may. Water heated to 37 degrees is the perfect breeding environment for legionella bacteria so although it makes sense from a money saving perspective there is a significant health risk in doing this that you should be aware of.

Not meaning to pick holes, I certainly found your post interesting, but felt I should raise this as it is an important safety issue.

Thanks

Planeteer

mmmmikey said:

Interesting to hear about your lifestyle choices, thanks.

Just one point to raise if I may. Water heated to 37 degrees is the perfect breeding environment for legionella bacteria so although it makes sense from a money saving perspective there is a significant health risk in doing this that you should be aware of.

Not meaning to pick holes, I certainly found your post interesting, but felt I should raise this as it is an important safety issue.

Thanks

@mmmmikey thank you very much - also for the pointer. I had been reading up on here about that point, and came to the conclusion that is an issue if the heated water is stored. We don't have a hot water cylinder, just a run through combi boiler - and neither do we drink warm water from the tap, so I'm hoping that's ok? Happy to be corrected though!