Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Moorviews

We are still having a fire in the wood stove in the evenings as the temperature drops. I have built up a good amount in the electricity account but our boiler and kitchen stove run on oil which is still terribly expensive so we don’t use the heating, only the hot water. 

A few weeks ago I went through my wardrobe and it was a very self critical experience, or at least I made it that way. I think your labels are an ingenious way of creating a more positive experience. Well done for the weight loss!

I hope your telephone appointment goes well and that the doctor takes a helpful and supportive approach.

foxgloves

@Moorviews - Thanks. Yes, I usually adopt a 'beating myself up' approach to clothes try-on sessions, which is very unhelpful, so I just wanted to do things differently this year.

Re heating switch-off. While I am still convinced we made the right decision.....I mean, how much further into April can central heating be left on at the current eye-watering gas costs?....It was a little sobering to check the hall thermostat first thing & see the dizzy heights of 13.5°C. However, it's gradually been warming up & I've been busy cleaning, so haven't felt at all cold.
On the plus side.....it was very encouraging going into the utility to chuck some stuff in the washer half an hour ago & spotting that today's gas use on the smart meter is so far at 31p !! I'll take a few more chilly days for that. 
I'm very cynical about the oil & gas industry (& various other big business). Like everyone else, I've been hearing that energy prices should drop around midsummer. I also heard an economist talking about this in recent days & she said that while a fall looks likely, energy prices are exceedingly unlikely to fall back to anywhere near where they were prior to the inflationary pressures/energy crisis. My views (with no economic background but bucket-loads of cynicism) is that the oil/energy production side of the industry has made such colossal amounts of profit from the crisis, that I can't see them being willing to see that reduce. The capitalist system is, after all, that they see a greater return for shareholders year on year. I'll be delighted to see decrease in tariffs this summer, but shall wait & see how meaningful a reduction it turns out to be.
So back here at Foxgloves Manor, it's business as usual with the energy saving.
F x

Suffolk_lass

I am with you on energy prices F but we have about £600 in credit at the end of winter, with new solar panels and a battery (no SEG), a fixed tariff until the end of August and the aga is going off tonight - I might ask for £500 back and see how the credit accumulates over summer (we normally use about 25% of a winter month in a summer one).

As you know, I am also tracking heating oil prices, ready for when our 1200L tank drops below 2 marks. At the moment, with two markers, it is between 240 and 360 litres. If I wanted to buy 1000L I need it to have been flashing red on one marker for a month. Of course we might buy 500 if we think a move is likely. All academic with it at 60.78ppl for delivery of 1000L while we are away.

I need to do a proper energy usage check but I might have reduced ours by £100 over last year just be turning down the aga to be just up to the ideal line, and not in the white window (ideal) beyond it.

milann

I’m another trying not to use the heating. I was in on my own last night and just couldn’t get warm so at 8.30 I had a quick bath and went up to bed. I was watching tv in bed and fast asleep when Dh came in at 9.30. Living the high life here 😂😂😂

Cheery_Daff

We're about £300 in credit (just for electric) after the winter, which is good - current DD is £88, although I suspect they may try to up that after 2 weeks of electric heater use since the boiler broke 🙄 I'm afraid I'm not having a date cut off for the heating - I'll switch it on rather than being freezing (although we rarely have it above 16 degrees so the amount of time it's on for at the minute is naturally going down). I will be resisting any attempts to put the DD up while we're £300 in credit though!

foxgloves

It's interesting hearing about how everyone is approaching the energy bill thing. I'm not going to lie, it's been bloody cold today, but if we can stick out these few days, it will be money in the winter credit bank, & the forecast seems to be saying 20° next week. We do have a nice gas stove (you know the cast iron ones with a chimney, like a wood burner) in the living room, & although it's not a cheap appliance to run since the hideous gas price increases, it's still cheaper just to have it on low for a couple of hours on a really chilly evening than it is to be running the full CH. I'll be interested to peruse the next statement from the Cephalopods, which should arrive next week, to see how our usage is reducing.

Anyway.....has there been any frugal activity apart from the above? I've cleaned the house using the usual minimal products & used a couple of charity bags which plopped through the door last week as free bin liners. Ate some more of the using-ingredients-up muesli I made before Christmas. It's nice - I might investigate the cost of making my own in future, as I can buy small amounts of nuts, seeds, dried fruits, grains, etc, at our eco-refill shop in town.
Managed just an hour in the greenhouse before the rain set in, but it was sufficient to pot up 3 more trays of seedlings & do some watering.
Also wrote a list for town tomorrow morning. We've got to go in to pick up the non-Waitbl00m part of the grocery shopping, so we may as well make best use of the car parking charge. 
I see that Ash has decided to perform an extreme pedicure all over my newly-vacuumed rug. I'll see if I can distract him with a warm lap.
Stay cosy, keep your mitts on your pence,
F x

foxgloves

Hello Saturday Savers,
Not much to report today. Definitely not a no-spend day as we've been into town for the rest of our grocery shopping list & I've also bought a few things from my Personal Spends - one of them is a herbal supplement I'm going to try for issues of a female nature - these things are never cheap, so I was pleased to discover they were on a 3 for 2 offer. That will give me time to give them a good trial period. Also treated myself to a magazine. Restrained with meat-buying - Mr F is known to get the 'red mist' in these carnivore-based scenarios. The only item on our list was a pack of our local butcher's Aberdeen Angus burgers, but as they were part of a 3 for £10 offer, he was suggesting all sorts of other things we could also buy. I said that we needed to wait until we had more space in the freezer & then have a proper think about what we could usefully buy to stock up. He concurred that this would be a better way forward. 
As I hadn't been anywhere since first feeling poorly, it was lovely to call into our favourite indie coffee shop too, & have cheese scones & skinny cappucinos for breakfast - Personal Spends again, I hasten to add, so budget-neutral. Sometimes, the simplest things are the best, aren't they?
No surveys around yet today, which gave me time to work on a study I was recruited for (from local university) about my diet, food security/supply, obesity, etc. It's interesting to do, but time-consuming filling in the food diaries. I do feel that I'm helping contribute to a valuable study though.
I haven't made any plans for this afternoon, but I can see that the sun is making a vague effort to put out a ray or two, so I might aim to have an hour or two in the greenhouse. Now that I have made good inroads into potting up seedlings, I could do with having a good tidy-out so that there is nothing taking up valuable greenhouse space which could just as easily be packed away in the shed. Everything takes me twice as long in there at the moment because it is so cluttered & time is money, is it not? Really hoping for a dry day tomorrow, as Mr F has promised to do some of the heavier garden jobs which currently need doing, & that would be so helpful for the week ahead. I could also aim to get my vegetable troughs sown while he's around to move them to where they need to be. 
I've been perusing metal obelisks with a view to buying one to stand in front of our new stretch of fence, for adding a bit of 'green' height before I decide on climbers & get them established, but then it struck me that I have one standing in another flower bed which wasn't used at all last year (except by sparrows playing 'I'm the king of the castle') & so I may as well use that & save my money. Another item shopped from home.
Well, those two wobbly sun-rays are already wavering, so I think I will sign out, go & fetch the shed key & see if I can make inroads into my very cluttered greenhouse.
Hope you're all managing a decent Saturday so far,
F x 

foxgloves

Oh my goodness, the greenhouse is looking better for that couple of hours. Sunny too. I actually had to take my coat off! Moved all my summer agapanthus pots outside ready to arrange in various flower beds when it's their time. Moved all the flower seedlings I've potted up into module trays (or my home made equivalent of yoghurt pots arranged in large seed trays) to stand on the greenhouse border. Sorted veggie babies into some sort of order on the bench. I shan't bottle cloche them now, but will continue to cover with a big sheet of bubble wrap overnight. Then watered everything with dilute seaweed solution for a nutrient boost, as I do find that seedling growth seems to be checked when potting up into peat-free compost. I always use this, as disagree intensely with the unnecessary destruction of peat bogs, but my bestie (who has an allotment & a cracking garden) & I both think, based on our observations, that fragile little seedlings with their delicate roots, struggle with immediate access to nutrition from these rougher composts, which pauses their growth. I get around this by applying seaweed solution, so will be interested to see the results. 
Forgot another money sense thing I did this morning. I popped into our local.building society branch to get our pass books updated, including the interest.
There were two new accounts being advertised - one a new ISA paying 5% if I remember rightly, but there were Ts & Cs, and the other was similar to our current regular saver, but with a better interest rate. Something to think about, anyway.
Anyway, a film planned for tonight & Mr F is cooking, so my only job is to pop down & cover up the plant babies.
What a difference it makes to feel the sun on our faces, doesn't it?
F x

KajiKita

I was working in the veggie patch today, in the sunshine, and I was almost getting hot! 🌞😊 

I like your suggestion of using dilute seaweed feed on stuff growing in peat free (which I also use exclusively) - I will use some of that on my tomato babies tomorrow. 😊👍

KK

foxgloves

It's certainly magic stuff, @KajiKita - I always think that if it fails to bring a sad wilty plant friend back to life, then it probably wasn't salvageable in the first place.
Just having a coffee & admiring 🍐 tree blossom.
F