The "Grand Plan" - Phase One well underway!

EssexHebridean

Hi Loulabelle - thanks for the response. Might be worth you trying freecycle for that buggy, failing that, ebay? Got to be cheaper either way than buying brand new? As for clothes - you've presumably still got those from your first which you'll be reusing, so that should help keep the bills down I guess. Congratulations on your impending arrival anyway - an exciting time for you eh! Glad to hear also that you're considering starting again with your OP's - you'd be starting from a good platform as well with still having the benefits from when you OP'd before - remember also that it's amazing how even a small OP now can make a big difference down the line......Good luck!

moominyak

Hi EH, just popping in to say hi - have just read through your thread and you're making me feel guilty about buying cr*ppy "meat" from Tesco - and me a former vegetarian as well!

I don't know of any decent farmers' markets around here but there are a few decent butchers, and tbh for the small amount of meat I eat it wouldn't cost me that much more to stock up there rather than buying supermarket rubbish.

I'm off out for a bit now but when I get back I'll be investigating threads for local sources of decent food!

Move_To_Portugal

Hi EH

Just read through your thread, you're doing really well. Very inspiring!

mtp

EssexHebridean

Well - inspired by SMF2 I too have decided to try to do some day-by-day monitoring of our energy use. With prices increasing as they have been, it will be interesting to see where we can cut useage. Unfortunately because of the muddle our readings were in until earlier this year it's not going to be possible to really compare very accurately with past quarters which is a shame, it will still be interesting to see what appliances affect things the most. We wll be day-to-daying our electric only - as I think I've explained previously we use next to no gas as we only use it for cooking - our quarterly gas bill has, until now, been met almost entirely by the dual-fuel and DD discounts! We have no central heating so already have the "put another jumper on" mentality. We rely on storage heaters for the bulk of our heating - they usually get switched on as close to 1st November as possible. The large one in the front room is not working at the moment - we were without it through last winter and had to admit that it was a bit nippy at times! I think some cash might have to be outlaid on a Sparky to come and take a look at it for us though.The other heating in the front room is one of those old fashioned two bar electric heaters which we know costs a bomb to run - however we have its use down to a fine art now - it goes on for 20 minutes or so with the curtains all drawn tightly and the front room door closed and hey-presto, one lovely cosy room. Further five minute bursts every hour from that for the remainder of the evening and we stay nice and warm.

SingleSue

Lol EH

My kids moaned like mad last winter as I too have the extra jumper mentality despite having central heating!

The heating went on for 1 hour late evening and one hour around 6-6.30 am (can never remember what it is), just enough to take the chill off but not exactly enough to make us warm like toasties.

That is one handy thing about pre payment meters, you can check how much you are using and cut down when it is getting too much although I do get paranoid in the winter and check constantly!

When it does get a wee bit too chilly in the front room, the quilts and blankets come into action (we have some just for that purpose) and we then get nice and toasty without paying out any extra.

The kids tonight also thought I had gone a bit mad....I chopped kitchen roll in half and we are using it as loo roll :rotfl: , well we ran out, no cash after food shopping earlier (where I forgot the loo roll) and my debit card got swallowed by the machine on Wednesday...not my fault, the blooming machine had a loose wire and switched itself off when I leaned forward to hide my details and obviously no bank open at 5pm on a Saturday night! Amazingly, the kitchen roll makes very good and comfortable toilet roll! :rotfl:

EssexHebridean

ROFL - well why not, cheaper than using tissues after all, and you have to have something!! I do now have a fantastic picture in my head of you sawing kitchen rolls in half with the bread-knife though!!

SingleSue

Lmao.....

That was exactly how we did it, although James didn't trust me with the electric carving knife and he did it.

Wish I had taken a picture of him....he would make a brilliant seamstress with his clean lines! :rotfl:

Move_To_Portugal

Hi EH

This is one of my main tasks this year, to reduce the gas/electric bill. We currently pay £121 for both, way too much. We switched a few months ago after BG messed up all our bills, however this £121 is based on our bills from BG which where higher as we were playing catch up. It's a bit confusing, sorry. Anyway the upshot is that we're aiming to reduce this monthly amount to £80 after the winter.

We plan to use the jumper/duvet heating plan this winter as well, although the kids will moan. It's much healthier for them anyway! At the moment I'm making sure I switch every appliance off at the plug, especially overnight. The kids are terrible for falling asleep with the Tv on and this all costs money. I'm going to start charging them 50p every time they do! lol

sorry waffled on.

-Laura

EssexHebridean

SingleSue wrote: »

Lmao.....

That was exactly how we did it, although James didn't trust me with the electric carving knife and he did it.

Wish I had taken a picture of him....he would make a brilliant seamstress with his clean lines! :rotfl:

ROFL - did he use his "After all, I AM the man of the house!" line on you Sue?!! :rotfl:

Move_To_Portugal wrote: »

Hi EH

This is one of my main tasks this year, to reduce the gas/electric bill. We currently pay £121 for both, way too much. We switched a few months ago after BG messed up all our bills, however this £121 is based on our bills from BG which where higher as we were playing catch up. It's a bit confusing, sorry. Anyway the upshot is that we're aiming to reduce this monthly amount to £80 after the winter.

We plan to use the jumper/duvet heating plan this winter as well, although the kids will moan. It's much healthier for them anyway! At the moment I'm making sure I switch every appliance off at the plug, especially overnight. The kids are terrible for falling asleep with the Tv on and this all costs money. I'm going to start charging them 50p every time they do! lol

sorry waffled on.

-Laura

LOL at the 50p "fine" idea - nothing like a loss of pocket money to focus the mind, as I recall. I'm "allowing" things that usually sit on standby - we have the Sky+ box, the Livebox for the broadband, and the microwave which is permenantly switched on as Mr EH relies on the clock on the front (I put it right every now and again and forget to tell him so he misses his train! ) I am kicking myself because the desktop computer was left switched on last night - if it's going to stay on I usually at least switch the screen off but the whole lot got left on so I guess that's partly responsible for a 2 unit overnight use. Today we've got the water switched on and the washing machine going so I guess that's going to make a difference to our useage - will be interesting to see how much difference.

I sympathise with BG messing your bills up too - ours were a total mess as they'd not read our meter for more than three years - we'd not exactly been organised about keeping track ourselves, and as a result they'd charged us an extra £200 + on one reading and too little on the other - it ended up with us getting a wodge of cash back from them but it all took several months to sort out. Bottom line is it would seem that they are still the cheapest for us but we may switch to their "click energy 5" online tariff in due course. either way, it won't be getting away from us again!

SingleSue

He tried to EH.....so I stared at him. He then switched tack and said that as I was getting old and my reactions slower, it was better to leave it to a young un! :mad: :rotfl: