Your best food & heating saving tips

[welshbyrd]

Last few days, I have come across 2 threads about expensive food/gas/electric have become, a lot of Mnrs have replied to these thread, like me, are scared about winter food/bills shooting up

In my situation Im all ready stretched to the max, so really am dreading this winter in the UK, I have looked up a few weather predicting sites, they are all saying this winter is going to be worse, than the last four

From reading these threads I know Im not alone is being worried.Some very kind poster mailed me the £30 a week meal planner, I really am truly grateful
Has anyone else got any money saving idea/experience that can make mine and other Mnrs winter more bearable?

If I have to buy smokeless fuel does it make a multifuel burner less cost effective?

Thank you curlywurlycremeegg for your quick reply.

6 hours central heating this year is very good - we had quite a cold Jan/Feb so that's good going.

I'm thinking it may be something that is worth considering. With all the gas price rises it may pay for itself over a short period of time too. Our house is quite small (3 bed terrace) so should heat up quite quickly/ retain heat well too.

Getting insulation fitted before the winter too.

Thanks.

yes wood must dry out, some wood is already dry/seasoned but fallen wood is often wet ( this means unseasoned not soggy/damp) and needs to dry well

Regarding heating on all day is best see explantion by above, also if allow rooms to get too cold will have damp problems which will cost way more to sort than some heating, rather than turning bedroom radiators off set them at frost stat or 1, the older the house the more important avoiding damp becomes, often houses built just after WWII are hardest to heat as no thick walls like period houses no cavity walls to insulate and poor cheap building materials a very modern house with excellent insulation would probably be better with a few hours of heating
we have victorian house and previous owners had not heated 2/3 of the rooms, when moved in average temp inside was 9-10 degrees took 8 weeks of constant heating on high setting to dry it out enough and get average temperature up to 16 degrees not fun!!! still dealing with side effects of long term underheating and damp
we live in scotland on west side the rainy side and having experimented agree low constant heat is the way to go. I f house gets cold it takes 4-5 days to warm up so i would not switch heating off in winter even if going away for a week

the aga heats the kitchen and hot water and keeps kitchen really warm as we have no gas here the choice is oil or electric or wood,

if you have south or west facing windows make sure curtains open at sunrise so it acts like greenhouse absorbing heat even in winter in our house in full morning sun room temperature would rise by 8 degrees C as soon as sun moved off window about 2pm in winter drew curtains to seal in heat

MSE has some great ideas but would not go to extent of re using tea bags

Lands End have lovley flannel kids pj's at the mo in the clearance. Lovely and thick and soft. Bottoms for £5.50 - quote BOAT25 and get 25% off this too. Quite a few fleecy type things on there for adults and kids alike.

Someone mentioned Tesco has 2kg lentils for £1.99 I think, they are red lentils, I usually use green ones - I love pulses, they are cheap and nutritious, but only know a couple of recipies for them.

Will go now and google some more recipies for lentils and pulses!

I always get flanel pjs for the kids from Primark, last year they were £4.50. I buy them 2 sizes too big because they shrink in the wash and DS (6) has been wearing his for 2 winters but now they get a bit thin and are getting too small anyway.

My dads favourite trick is to remove the bath panel and add a layer of loft insulation and then replace. Keeps bath water warmer for longer!

Check your meters too - we didn't realise our new house ran on economy 7 for ages , now we run as much as possible in the cheaper periods.

I buy most veg frozen now, fresh stuff just goes off too fast for us to use.

Bogof offers are good but only buy if you know you will use it!

Find a local cash and carry type store, many will now let people use them and buy things there like loo roll, washing powder etc, lady week ours had branded bottles of wine too at 2.99, less than a third in a supermarket!

I love a good stew and often save and freeze any leftover sauce to reuse

If you go away during the Autumn/winter/Spring period for two weeks, what should you do about heating and water?

The other thing perhaps worth looking into is one of these clever programmable thermostats. Cost about forty quid but you can program different temps for different times of the day and days of the week rather than having one temp all the time.

For example goes up a few degrees when you get up but drops down automatically during times you know noone is in.

This is what we have installed last winter and never looked back, it does all our hot water and 13 radiators.
www.stovesareus.co.uk/catalog/esse-ironheart-multifuel-woodburning-boiler-cooker-p-3506.html
Fuel bill for last year £660, as opposed to thousands if we were using gas.

lol, I put insulation under the bath earlier this year. It definatly works.

There's a 4 ft drop under the living room floorboards so I plan to insulate under those later this year, then top with plywood, then when I've got the extortionate amount saved up for some really, really good underlay and carpet.

While insulating under the floor I also plan to use expanding foam around the edge by the walls because the gaps are quite large.

I'm hoping my living room is going to be really toasty as it's quite cold at the moment and you can feel a draft when sat on the floor coming from all 4 walls.

Strictlovingmum That looks great - I would love one if we could afford the initial investment - but how do you manage for cooking in the summer months?

cupawoman Worth asking them about finance, many companies do not advertise it, but they do have a finance option.
As part of the kitchen I have a ceramic inexpensive hob and electric oven, but this "beast' last year was fired daily for ten months and I was cooking next to it in t shirt.
Food cooked in it or on it, it's probably tastiest food I have ever made.
No annual maintenance unlike our gas boiler previously, and of course it a thing of getting use to it, but once mastered, you will end up with plenty of hot water, delicious food and very warm house.

Thanks Strictlovingmum - definitely the way to go for us when we come to replace our boiler in the future. How much wood do you get through (and is it expensive)?

We combine logs and coal, logs £80 to £120 for truck load, we still have logs from last year, and still have left over of smokeless coal from last year, all of it together will probably see us till end of November/beginning of December.
We use a lot more coal especially on very cold days, it has higher calorific value, hence more heat, and logs on warmer days, and cooking, roast is sublime when cooked on wood.

my wife recently told her elderly father who is always brewing up to pour what s left in the kettle into the washing up bowl to wash any dishes. Otherwise she said it will just go cold in the kettle and you have paid to heat that already iyswim whereas if you turn on the combi boiler supplied hot water tap then you are paying to heat that aswell while the water in the kettle goes cold. Also on an electric cooker we boil our veg then turn it off and go to the pub and the hot water continues to cook it for about an hour - then just return to boil.

Balloonslayer - buying your own chimney brush is far cheaper han using a chmney sweep. You can line your curtains with fleece, old blankets, etc, so you don't need to buy new curtains. Thermal curtain lingings from ebay are also not too expensive.

Ecoballs - mine arrived today.

Well I heard that they are not really that good on tough dirt, so I thought I'd give them a go on 2 towels, that 8 kids were using in the garden during a waterfight.

Mud, moss, grass, lipstick, mascara, paint (face paint that is), chalk and general grime and crap from the tarmac ground they laid the towels on and stood on...

Result...

Every single mark, stain, ground in dirt gone and it smells clean (not perfumed).

Very, very impressed so far.

do you mean thermostats like this?

That's a lovely thermostat

tv gone - £12 month saved
landline - gone save £17 per month line rental

that was last year and it helped the finances a lot, this year though I know the £29 per month saved has been eaten up by inflation and I need to find other ways of covering ground to pay for the heating.

My dishwasher broke and I haven't replaced it - so maybe that will help the electric bills, though not sure.

a word of warning about insultion companies that come and do your roof, an old lady friend had these type come as she was on a pension, they insulated her roof space and went away. Then the next time it rained she had water pouring into her bedroom and had to call the firebrigade who came and found the insulation had been put in wrong and caused the flooding - which cost her as the house insurance made her pay the first £200 of the flood bill. So make sure they are really up to the job before letting them in and ask if they knwo what they are doing

I kiked the fact it will work from your mobile.. whatever will they think of next!

i think the best thing to reduce bills last year was we kept having power cuts right in the middle of winter... when it was snowing :P it was out for 2 weeks roughly over the winter period, drove us mad kept having to go next door as they had a fire just to get some warmth, but yeah if you that skint... turn it all off for a bit (maybe not as long as we were left without power) but suprisingly candles work well ok we did have a gas oven, so we still used some power :D sorry not overly helpful.

i'm off to uni, terrified about spending too much spesh over winter :( be the first time i properly have to sort out my own stuff, lil scary, any tips for a uni student? :D

I wash up just before I go to ed when it is cold, and it makes me all warm and lovely before I go to bed.