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?

er, bed...

Using less is good, but we all still have bills. I recommend www.happysaving.co.uk we have saved loads. You always pay their 'best price', and save on utilities etc. But the best bit is everything I spend money on gives me an extra discount off my bill - supermarketing, petrol, clothes, holidays - honestly whoever said never pay full price for anything... I don't spend money unless I am getting a discount.

Bed. Good idea.

We are about to get wood burning stoves, and a friend gave us these tips: If you use properly seasoned wood, you use much less of it, but much of the "seasoned" wood you can buy isn't fully dry, so will benefit from being stored longer. Buy in summer, when it's cheapest, and store in a dry place to season.

Slow cooker
Microwave for baked potatoes
Lentils and beans in general
Soup
Home baked bread and cakes, biscuits
Seasonal veggies and fruits
Thick woolen socks or Uggs indoors
Layers of clothing -- buy second hand
Slankets
Draught excluders
Caulk in cracks -- check for little gaps in unsuspected places like under window sills and power outlets, places where undersink pipes meet walls inside cabinets
Blankets under sheets
Adequate winter coats, gloves, hats to prevent that chilled to the bone feeling
Heat on constantly at 14-16 daytime, maybe lower at night
Thick curtains or plastic window insulation (ugly but it works)
Curtain for doors to the outside
Take the lock off your bathroom door if you have teenagers

For those asking about stoves:

The last two winters DH and I lived on our barge on the Thames with no heat at all except for our Morso multifuel stove. We learned a lot. We got through the whole winter with 20 bags of homefire smokeless ovals, 10 bags of seasoned wood and 5 bags of kindling. If you build it right and get it hot enough to start with the warmth will keep going all night. It really worked best when it was on all day though so when school was closed with snow and DH was home all day those were by far the warmest days - I heartily endorse the "low constant heat" method. It was only cold because usually we were both out all day working and weren't around to stoke the fire.

I cooked almost entirely in the oven which warmed the place up for eating - loads of stews, slow cooked beans, bread, etc. We were using calor bottles and went through a 13kg one each month for oven + hot water which is not too bad. They were too heavy for me to lift so it was a good incentive not to use too much gas.

Before the winter arrived we sealed all our hatches and skylights with shrink-wrap film (like this: www.diynetwork.com/windows-walls-and-doors/insulation-tips-and-tricks/index.html

Our pipes did freeze though. We kept 20L of water in bottles for drinking and bought a microwave combi for days when the calor gas bottles were too cold to work. Luckily we were somewhat insulated by the river on all sides of the boat. We learned to fill up the kettle and a couple of pots of water before bed every night in case the pipes were frozen in the morning, to drain pipes before we left for more than a few days and to lag everything we could reach.

My parents sent us each a padded silk chinese ankle length robe which we slept in each night, plus flannel bedding and socks. We ate in front of the fire, and then straight to bed after dinner to read, watch DVDs etc. A hot water bottle each for feet.

We are now building a super king sized bunk/cupboard bed and hanging it with thick velvet or brocade (or even fleece) curtains - having experienced others like it, our body heat plus hot water bottles will keep it warm all night (something like this: tinyurl.com/3ksaeyn or tinyurl.com/3n7gsnv) without the need for the fire to go all night. I think a four poster bed with heavy curtains would do the same thing.

Now we have a flat as well, we will be using many of the same strategies we use on the boat - not quite so extreme, but at least we know it could be a lot worse and it should save us some money...

Would totally agree with those extolling the virtues of wood burners - we live in a very drafty old terrace with one downstairs room (living / dining / kitchen), wooden floor, thin windows etc. For three winters we were freezing despite having the heating on, we could not get the downstairs room to warm up and had to hide upstairs - not fun with a newborn / toddler / newborn + toddler!

Two springs ago we put in a woodburner and it totally revoluntionised our lives last winter. No need for heating except a quick blast for when we get up and the children have bath / go to bed, we put the woodburner on downstairs first thing in the morning and even during the snow our downstairs room was cosy and even too hot sometimes! I am actually looking forward to the cold snap this year so we can have the fire on all the time.

duvet sarnie, two duvets on each bed to sleep inbetween to keep toasty.

we go to bed early around 8pm with a cup of hot chocolate and a good film or book, this way the heating can go off at 8.30 pm and we stay warm in bed till the next morning

Only cook every 2-3 days and make sure the oven is full whenever you use it - heat up home made meals quickly in the microwave on the days you aren't doing a big cook. See www.austerityblog.wordpress.com for weekend cookfest recipe suggestions.

Sponge clothes clean whenever possible rather than washing them, to save water, time and fuel.

Keep one room cosy and spend your time in there.

Warm up in public buildings if necessary.

Awful people have to be thinking about all this.

Sorry, meant www.austerityhousekeeping.wordpress.com

I don't wait for the oven to warm up, it takes 10 minutes but a meal only takes 2 minutes or so longer to cook if it's not warmed up.

Cheap double duvet's from QD or Wilkinson, are great for using as mattress toppers, they are really warm and make all the difference in the winter time, they can be stripped of the beds in spring, and washed and tumbled, or line dried ready for next winter.

using jam jars or other glass jars as candle holders - do check that the glass jar is made of suitable glass first. Not all glass can take the heat from a tea light candle and the glass could shatter if it is not up to standard - leaving you with burns or worse a house fire. Please check the glass is ok for this type of use - contact the company that made the product to obtain information about the glass.

Putting candles in the top of a wine bottle is different as the candle is not inside the glass and the temperature doesn't get to be as hot

Another tip is to put a large saucepan full of cold water into the oven when you have finished cooking. By the time you get to do the washing up the water will have been heated up by the cooling oven and you can use that.

As a result, you will also find your oven is full of condensation and you can wipe quite a lot of grease off while getting rid of said condensation.

(I rarely remember to use this tip, however.)

diggingintheribs you can buy woodburning stoves approved by DEFRA for use in smokeless zones. We are in a smokeless one and I'd love to persuade DP to buy one!

this site lists them

One or two dinners a week composed entirely of all the week's leftovers from the fridge, even if everyone gets something different. Loaf of French bread if it seems a bit skimpy.

go and pick loads of blackberries for free and make jam to eat on bread/toast later in year, you can also freeze them easily as they cost about £2 for 250g and you could get 5 kg for free in a couple of hours
blackberries grow nearly everywhere
also harder to find but if you see fallen apples ask for them and stew them then freeze them, fallen apples dont keep well but if stewed will lat for ages

Crab apples make lovely jelly.

I once made a whole year's worth of apricot jam from a tree overhanging a carpark in the US. I was sitting in a traffic jam (fnar) wondering what on earth the orange things were that I could see out of the corner of my eye falling out of the tree, and when I realised it was fruit I couldn't believe my luck. Keep some plastic bags or cardboard boxes in your car (I always do because of Aldi anyway) so you can take advantage of nature's bounty. I also recall picking mushrooms in fields as a child. Dad would come to a screeching halt and out we would hop. Watch out for mushrooms though. Some of them are not for eating.

Not really a tip but was in primark recently and saw an awful lot of fleecy all in ones, adult sizes. Might be worth a look, especially if planning to nip in for fleeces etc. Skipped to page 72 or something of that MSE link, couldn't keep reading that x amount of people said thank you for this post... Keep the tips coming!

don't think it's been mentioned yet, but get solar panels fitted, or other renewable energy - microtechnologies.

You can get a grant to pay for the majority of it. look at energysavingstrust website.

It will (depending on the type) significantly reduce, if not halve, your electricity bills and give you a lump sum payout out annually for all the energy that is surplus and put back on the grid.

Average per year - £400-500 off your leccy bill and £400 cash back for selling on the energy.

I move my big sofa in front of my french doors in the sitting room to help block the cold falling off the window, and keep the room warm.

I agree with Primark's fleece pj's I get my Dc them every year and as they are quite cheap £6 each last year.

BornSicky Have things changed recently re: solar panels?

We looked into them last year and they were seriously, seriously expensive.

We aren't eligible for any grants at all, on those on the very lowest incomes were (it may have changed?) and whilst we would save on the electric it would only justify the overall cost if we stayed living in the house for at least the next 12 years when we worked it out. So we haven't bothered. Also, they said that our roof would have to be in great shape to be able to have the panels fitted and ours isn't so then we'd have to have our roof done.