My house is 8 degrees. 8 degrees

[Bonecold]

Heating oil ran out yesterday. I have £200 in the savings pot with boiler juice. For a minimum order I need 500 litres which is £468.

So I’ve left the heating off until either the price per litre drops, the weather gets better, or my savings pot reaches the amount needed to do an order (£65 DD a month).

In the meantime I have a fire place so I can heat one room (but no wood so have to outlay for that).

I can’t work out if I should:

a) remove the £200 from the savings account and spend it on wood/coal to get through to warmer weather. Pro - would be warm now, Con - even further away from filling the tank

b) heat one room with wood, live near a wood so could scavenge enough wood weekly to do this?

c) plug in electric radiator. Pro: heat, con: eats electricity

D) small loan for £300/400 and top up oil. Pro: heat, con: small loans have huge interest and would be another bill each month

I’m at work all day and kids at school usually so it’s not like we would be freezing all day and can boil water for cooking and have electric shower for washing. But it’s Easter holidays here so they’ll be home for the next two weeks now

What would you do?

Check out some of the charities that will give you oil. Just need a photo of empty tank and proof no money for oil. Think they give you 200litres enough to tide you to warmer weather.

Pallets burn well. Perhaps go to a B&Q or similar and see if any are going free. Where DH worked in the UK, they would give away pallets for free as cheaper then getting rid of them and the company had no use for them.

Forgot to say, I find anything under 30 C very cold now (hot country and we get 3 months of "winter" when the top temps are anything between 23C up to 27C and I find it very brisk!). I really feel for you. With Easter holidays over in the UK, is it possible to just send the kids to friends houses every day? Or the local library or leisure centre for swimming etc? Although I know over here, it's costs about £5 equivalent for swimming unless you're a member, so not cheap if going daily.

[quote CheshireCats]@Blondeshavemorefun

It varies according to the size of the house, whether you are running a shower off it (shower can be all electric or run from the oil boiler)
And then obviously, dependant on how long you have the heating on, how many people are having showers etc.
I have a fairly large old house and we only have the heating on in the evening for 2 or 3 hours
and maybe a couple of hours in the day time at the weekend. Our shower / hot water works off the oil too. We live rurally and it's cold here from October well into May ( I've known it snow 3rd week in May)
We use 2000 litres a year.
[/quote]
So around £2k in heating of £500 ish for 500l

Was trying to work out if oil was more costly then gas electric etx

Seems to be the same but oil you have to pay upfront and can’t spread over direct debit is that right

@Blondeshavemorefun

I asked before. How long does 500l of oil last for

Obv get it varies how much have heating on etc

In winter in our house about 8 weeks. In summer about 16 weeks.

Also oil prices fluctuate a lot, and there’s no price cap so who knows how high it could go? There’s no limit. And you have to basically gamble on when you order it, depending on whether the price is going up or down. That can be a good thing - we paid 10p a litre in 2020 at one point. But it means we’re at the mercy of events like this, especially as most oil boilers do not like running out of oil at all so leaving the tank empty can cause more problems beyond being cold. And of course you’re also vulnerable to theft from the tank.

Hello OP,
this thread has made me feel so sad . You are an amazing resourceful mum and probably working your arse off to support your family. Reading through all of this should be compulsory in schools and parliament. It’s a snapshot of real life here in the UK in 2022 , with the age old ‘experienced v entitled’ clear .
For those preaching frugality from a safe place - be careful , life options can change in the blink of an eye and there is very little in the way of a safety net now.
Good luck OP, I respect your wish not to accept cash to help you out , if you change your mind PM me as I can help . I’ve been there and it’s not good.

Don't know where you are but can you go to an oil depot or garage and fill small barrells with kerosene and put it in oil drum yourself. I do that..

This like like going back to the 50s. When I was a child my parents sometimes couldnt afford to buy coal, we had to burn chopped up wood that we could scavenge. I remember burning old shoes and we even chopped up an old chair from our front room that we werent using. We went to bed early to get warm and had my dads old army greatcoat over us as we didnt have a lot of blankets. I never thought I would see the day when we had to go back to "the good old days" I feel so sorry for young families now. At least we knew no better and were used to scrimping a scraping.

My fridge is 8 degrees. Do you think that humans, especially child humans should be kept at 3 degrees warmer than cheese??? Stupid remark.

@Patented. My fridge is 8 degrees. Do you think that humans, even child humans should be kept at 3 degrees warmer than cheese??? Stupid, unhelpful remark.

@Spottingtwerps

My fridge is 8 degrees. Do you think that humans, especially child humans should be kept at 3 degrees warmer than cheese??? Stupid remark.

I couldn't agree more and I don't mind a cool house.

Not at all relevant but shouldn't your fridge be more like 5 degrees.

I hope you’ve had a warmer day today. You seem very resourceful, I’m sure you’ll get through this, but I’m sorry it’s so difficult right now.

@alwayscheerful that is what I meant to type. Hence being 3 degrees warmer for cheese! I am sleep deprived 😴

[quote Spottingtwerps]@alwayscheerful that is what I meant to type. Hence being 3 degrees warmer for cheese! I am sleep deprived 😴[/quote]
Really glad to hear that man

My fridge is 8 degrees. Do you think that humans, especially child humans should be kept at 3 degrees warmer than cheese???

Why is your fridge so warm?

Ah ok, X post.

My fridge is set to 3°. I'm now wondering if this is too cold...

Between 1 and 5 degrees

Thank you 😊

We have in the past lifted and propped up our oil tank (so that oil reaches the oil feed) with bricks. Given us a couple more weeks of heating.

I'm with boiler juice and pay monthly I ordered 100 litres on their website ( £200 !!! ) It comes in 20 l containers . It's an outrageous price but needs must .

I was boiling this morning at 19 degrees as it's warmer and sunnier outside

My thermostat is set to 19 in the mornings for 3 hours
It's been turned down to 16 degrees recently (usually 18-19) for the rest of the day and 6 at night

It was always set to 20 in the mornings for 3 hours - 19-20 the rest of the day and then 8 at night

Recent events means I've reset it all to 19 in the am from 5.30 - 8.30 - 16 the rest of the day and 6 at night. It was bloody freezing at first getting used to it as we had a cold snap with snow the first night I reset it - I've never felt so cold at night ever as I'm usually too hot at night - but with an Oodie and Wooly socks it's been fine adjusting and this morning I felt too warm so

I thought the teen DCs would complain about the cold but they prefer it being a bit cooler and just put on their Oodies or dressing gowns when need be.

You can feel the chill in your bones more but nothing extra layers can't solve

@NoCleverNickname

Pallets burn well. Perhaps go to a B&Q or similar and see if any are going free. Where DH worked in the UK, they would give away pallets for free as cheaper then getting rid of them and the company had no use for them.

Good idea! They are not treated wood so should be safe to burn.

Last night's BBC Newscast podcast features a family in a similar situation. Their house is 9 degrees and they haven't had heating for 3 weeks because they don't have any oil. They both work full time.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0bzdb3t