To start a Prepping for Poor People thread?

[TooBigForMyBoots]

I'm poor (household income well below £20k). With the energy price rises, CoL crisis and possible power cuts ahead I'm wondering what tips other people in my position have to give to prepare us for the winter ahead.

As this is a thread for poor people, recommended purchases should be £7.50 or less. This is not the thread for recommending Agas, sheepskin boots, 70quid blankets or moving house.

Feel free to move this to Prepping or CoL @MNHQ if you think it's better there.

I'm taking in a lodger. It's tax free income (up to £7500 per year; realistically in my local area I can charge around £6600-7200 per year inc bills). Obviously some of the extra income will go on extra bills (and there's only so much I can expect a lodger to freeze) but it'll go a long way. I've spent most of today repainting that room (needed doing anyway) so I can list it on spareroom.co.uk.

There are businesses that essentially thrive on selling short date / past BB food (remember - best before is about quality, not safety). Heron Foods (sometimes branded as B&M Express), Company Shop and Approved Food www.facebook.com/ApprovedFood/ are all examples. I've had some cracking deals there.

Freezers are much more efficient when they're full. If you have gaps, fill plastic bottles 80% with water and stick them in; once they're frozen your freezer will have to work much less hard to stay cold.

Once you have all the obligatory layers on, if you're still cold, a 15 second blast of a hairdryer up your jumper really does make all the difference. Think of it as a turbo charged hot water bottle.

@Mamathulu pressure loaded spring rods that mount inside the window frame and better and with a small hook in the middle able to hold more weight.

Following for inspiration!
I agree with the 80's/90s dessert post, things like bananas and custard or tinned fruit salad with condensed milk, kids love stuff like that!
I always have and mine do too now 😁
If I'm watching telly in the living room I like to watch with the lights off, just a nice candle burning.
Saves electricity.
Also make sure you turn lights off in rooms you aren't using.

Of you search for adhesive curtain pole bracelets, I do one each side and one in the middle for support, holds up to 9kg but I find it better to switch the adhesive to a stronger adhesive tape.

if you search for adhesive curtain pole bracelets, I do two each side of the window and two in the middle for support, holds up to 9kg each apparently but I find it better to switch the adhesive to a stronger adhesive tape.

The doubling up helps in winter as i add a second pair of curtains to each window so extra weight. Cost wise I paid just over £10 for a pack of 10 brackets.

Work on the 80/20 rule.

There will be some things that you do that make a big impact on your spending. Concentrate on them first. I use about 30% of the street’s average household gas and electricity. Washing is once a week. Cooking 4 times only using the oven. The rest is heated up the next day. I only ever put the heating on for an hour at a time and have good, heavy curtains, keep doors closed in winter, heat only bedrooms before bed and one sitting room.

I keep thermometers in each room so the temp is optimal and never too warm or too cold. I don’t think I ever put the heating on for more than 4 hours even on the coldest day. But I get the heat to stay in. I do sit with a blanket - everyone has their own blanket if they need it for watching TV, but it’s really not freezing or having to wear a hat or anything. I don’t sit in the kitchen in the winter as it is freezing and heating it would be too much. There are always ‘cold’ rooms so best not used very much if possible.

Electricity is minimal really, I don’t think faffing about with lighting is worth it - we need lighted staircases etc for safety. I boil the kettle 4x a day and have a microwave and dishwasher, used every 3 days.

I don’t drive a car. I don’t have the heating on all day. I don’t buy a load of stuff. I make presents for people. I like eating pasta, my fridge isn’t full at all ever and I feed 4 people and a dog.

If you are able to, get up and move around or even better, go for a couple of daily walks. Really makes a difference as to how warm you feel compared with sitting still.

Make the money saving expert website your friend and look at the cost of living section for details on extra grants you might be able to apply for.

Don't get involved in buying Christmas presents for anyone except your own children and possibly your spouse and parents but if anyone insists kn buying you a gift, ask for thermal clothing, fingerless gloves, socks and slippers etc.

The dupe Oodies from Amazon are amazing, I've bought the zip up one, I wear it with M & S Heatgen plus base layers & will put a sweatshirt under as well when temperatures drop with a pair of fleecy socks inside Heatholders socks & Ugg boots, will keep me toasty for the winter.

This thread peaked at "quiche" 🤣🤣🤣. I grow a lot of our food. Sometimes this works out cheaper sometimes not. Cress, salad and microgreens are mega cheap to buy as seed and grow on your windowsill.

Bulk out meals with mince with veg and pulses-this has made a huge difference to us.
Make your own bread/pasta-I don't do this for "normal" as its cheaper to buy the penne bags and a load from Asda, but for Garlic bread or tortellini, I make my own

I buy and freeze where I can, for example a bag of spinach gets frozen in smaller bags to keep it fresh

Use vinted for clothes and shoes where you can

Olio amd Too good to go

If you do use the oven, make sure you leave the door open afterwards-reuse the energy as a heat source (been doing this and it’s quite effective!)

I'm amused that 90s puddings are your limit for misery and suffering 😂 Meanwhile me and my kids think that the bread and butter pudding I made last night with the end of a jar of jam which had gone too sticky for toast and the old bread tastes absolutely amazing and we'll keep going thanks, quite happy with ourselves.

I mean it could cause issues for those with dairy allergies as most of my repertoire involves milk in some form but otherwise I'm not seeing the misery.

@Swg how do you make your quick rice pudding? I always mess up would love a foolproof recipe

I'd add the other thing I do that helps is I do a big Sunday cook. Usually a joint of some kind followed by making the leftovers into meals to clingfilm and fridge then and there. Sometimes that's a cottage pie or shepherds pie, this week it's two kinds of pasta (a cheesy creamy chicken pasta with nutmeg and rosemary which tastes like a hug in a bowl and using the leftover chicken and a copy of the new "meat feast" pasta morrisons are doing as a ready meal), a container of coronation chicken and a big thing of soup from the carcass. I tend to cook a whole bag of dried pasta and divide between two dishes and that feeds the three of us easily with plenty of lunch leftovers for me.

Sundays I'm usually knackered and the kitchen looks like a bomb hit it but I'm ill at the minute and by midweek I'll be miserably exhausted and sorry for myself. Having something ready to just heat up and go means I don't depend on ready meals or takeaways.

(What I absolutely do not do is package leftovers to make into meals "later". That's a recipe for either throwing it away after a week or eating it as a snack while fridge raiding. If I want to use it I hsve to suck it up and sort it on the day)

That’s really useful thank you

Learn to knit. Plenty of YouTube videos with instructions & decent wool at £1 a ball (pound shops & charity shops). Squares sewn together make really warm blankets & you only need to know the basics to make them. It's also really calming & you get a lot of satisfaction from your finished items so odds on you'll want to learn more & move on to socks, hats & gloves then jumpers, cardis & shawls.

This is where I admit my recipe is "shove in a pint of milk, two spoons of sugar and enough rice to feel right" 😂 Plus a load of nutmeg and drop of vanilla.

Google will give you ratios but two important tricks - it must get hot enough or the rice won't swell - move it to the top of the oven once your main meal is out just for a bit. Also stir it halfway through or the rice goes all clumpy. That really is it though - at this stage I can literally assemble in about a minute without measuring and the kids think it's amazing.

Other trick - put the bowl on top of an oven tray rather than straight in the oven. If you're as clumsy as me that will stop you splashing scalding milk on your hands whrn moving it which REALLY HURTS 😬

Boil the kettle ten minutes before you fancy a cup of tea or coffee. When you actually come to make the drink, your kettle will take less time to boil, thus saving energy.

If you leave the door closed the heat doesn't just magically disappear, it just seeps out into the room more slowly. It's a heat source either way.

I add a few Xmas treats to every shop ie birds trifle, selection box, so the Xmas food shop isn’t so costly.

Did you apply for the Household Support Fund? The next round of funding is due to be announced and I've heard that you can apply if you earn up to £30k.

www.derbyshire.gov.uk/social-health/adult-care-and-wellbeing/benefits-debt-and-legal-matters/managing-money-and-debt/household-support-fund/household-support-fund.aspx

Also, our local town has a Community Fridge, which you can help yourself to. It may be worth checking nearby. Although you still have to get to it, which could be a problem.

My cheapest dessert is a crumble, using blackberries picked from the hedge and apples I found on a footpath (fallen from a tree on the other side of the hedge). Stinging nettle soup is also surprisingly nice.

Eh? Surely you're using more electricity because you're boiling the kettle twice instead of once?

Yes I agree the heat will eventually be released, but ovens are often on in the early evening when everyone is home, and opening the door will result in a higher energy per unit of time. This will temporarily raise the equilibrium of the house whilst people may be downstairs to benefit rather than heating slower when they may have gone to bed

Troll-hunting is forbidden on MN, so I will just say… you are kidding, right?

I think it's a Viz top tip, i.e. a joke!