I live at home with my mom. Many people will probably judge me and think it's a free ride in this life but that's not the case. I help and I pay towards bills and help by doing groceries and other help too. My mom is aging and she is single too because my father ran from the scene when I was small so maybe I also provide some security in the home too in that she's not alone.
Anyways, every winter when the electricity bill comes in and it's usually higher because it's winter months, she doesn't look much beyond the price or the bill and she will automatically judge me as if I am the only one responsible for the high bill. The bill would often be hitting 300. She thinks I am responsible because I have a smartphone that needs charging every day and clearly it's me responsible for the high bill. Even though I am usually fairly energy concise. I work hard and I never get a chance to sit down in front of the TV. I am often happier sitting down with a book or my hobby (knitting/crochet) than I am sitting in front of a TV. So I am not draining energy with a TV on. Usually with laundry I do one 60 degree wash a month and that's usually socks and undies and then the rest is usually quick 20 minute, 30 degree loads.
Basically she judges me like a Catholic hoot for bills that she doesn't like even though she will never look at her energy consumption or even consider changing some of her energy ways.
My mom is at home every day. Even though it could be a bright day outside, she will still have lights on during the day. She has the TV on every day. She will do laundry loads at 60 degrees and then air dry followed by tumble dryer. She boils the kettle over and over for her tea. She will often fill the kettle the whole way for one cup of tea. Then if she's not in the kitchen when the kettle is finished boiling, she will turn the switch again and reboil the kettle even though the water would still be boiled. She will reboil the kettle 2 or 3 times.
Basically we are living in uncertain times with energy rises in the news every day. I think changes have to be made going forward or we will probably suffer next winter. Not just at home but all all around. For home I think, if you out on one hot wash I think it would be best to off set it with the next load being low and maybe work some sort of a system like that. I don't know. I do know changes will have to be made.
I think there's something senile happening with my mom and I don't think she can comprehend the news and energy rises. I can't force my mom to make changes on lowering her energy consumption and so she will probably continue to blame me for rising bills.
Anyways she went out this morning and I was free from work for the morning so I decided to get a load on in the washing machine. Household bed linen wash. Usually before all of this energy risesl stuff, I probably would have put a load like this on at 60 but I am concise and afraid of what's ahead so I dropped the temperature to 40. I added a capful of bleach in the hope the stuff comes out clean. I also did this wash to hopefully offset a wash that my mom will probably do at some stage at 60. My mom will always press extra functions in the machine too like prewash and extra rinse so any time she puts on a wash it goes on forever at 60 degrees. The wash I put on this morning was 55 minutes at 40.
AIBU to get a wash on and out on the line to dry to hopefully off set some loads that my mom will probably do at a high temperature at some point in the future.
Later tonight when I finish work and I get home and my mom is home she will probably quiz me about the laundry and ask me about what cycle I put it at. Do I tell her the truth and say I washed at 40 or will I lie and say I washed at 60? I don't know if she's OCD. She was never really OCD when I was younger but I don't know what's happening now. I think there's something happening where she wants to maintain as much control as possible even over the most smallest of things. She will often order me about and give me instructions not to start the dishwasher until it's full as an example and that's ok. Only when she starts the dishwasher, I often find she's like a kid with an essay in school where the words are spaced out as much as possible to get the required number of pages for the essay. I often find there's only a handful of dishes in the machine and it's all spaced out and in her mind that's full. I would be anxious that she may bundle the load that I washed this morning up and wash them again but this time probably at 60.