My penny-pinching, turn-down-the-heating ways have paid off!

[2cats2many]

Just got the gas and electricity bills. I've spent the last 6 weeks in a constant battle with DH - turning down the heating, making him wear a jumper, making sure it didn't come on too early/ go off too late, etc, etc.

Bearing in mind that our gas bill for this quarter last year was £300+, I feel vindicated with the £201 bill that just came through the door.

AND we didn't freeze. I just kept reminding him that it wasn't reasonable to expect him to wear a t-shirt round the house in blummin' winter.

Well done!

Can you come and train my DH to turn the frigging lights off after him? you seem to have a way with them more than I do.

Well done! Yes, I've managed it with the heating too.

Now I need to tackle the lights - every time I go out, the whole house is lit when I get home. There will only be three of them in at the most.

Also the tumble dryer. DH is responsible for laundry and very good at keeping on top of it he is too, but really does the tumble dryer need to be used everyday, even in summer?

I'm hoping our bill will on the low side too. If we are home all day the heating stays on at 15/16 degrees so generally clicks off most of the time . If it's really cold in the evening we put it up to 17/18. I think keeping it so low stops us feeling the cold. Last year I'd have it at 24 degrees and then when it clicked off and the top dropped it would feel freezing.

I also keep all the internal doors shut to keep rooms warm. Next year I would like to zone the house so I can control which rooms are heated and when

Our dryer broke last summer and I haven't replaced it. That's two winters I;ve managed without it and it really shows in the bill.

Mind you, I am lucky enough to have a spare bedroom to air all the washing in. It might be a different story if I had to live amongst the drying washing all the time.

Well done!
Mine walks around in his boxers and a t-shirt then complains he's cold so puts the fire on and turns the heating up full. Never shuts a door behind him so the heat rushes out!

And don't get me started on the lights!

You're right about getting acclimatised Cats - I have to wear summer clothes all winter for work and going to friend's houses. I only put a jumper on when I come home.

If you use a tumble dryer try a spin dryer too, they dont take as much washing in one go (I think 4kg max for most of them) so you would need to do it in 2 batches but they spin at 2800rpm so the tumble dryer doesnt have as much work to do.

The gravity ones with a spout at the bottom look the best to me as there is less to go wrong.

I'm desperate to buy one but no money so I'm going to wait for a really good catalogue code in the new year so I can get money off or get one off ebay if a decent one comes up for a good price.

We dont have a tumble dryer but it's taking me 3 days to get some of the washing dry and I am fed up with it.

You can just run an extra spin cycle on most washing machines to get things drier.

It doesnt work as well as a spin dryer though, a washing machine spin is 12-1600 spin but a spin dryer is 2800rpm.

If you look at the reviews on sites like appliances online people are very happy with them.

Gas and leccy bills for the Jan-March quarter just came in. £400 for the gas and £125 for the electricity. The gas is double what we paid last quarter, but its still less than I was expecting (was fully prepared for a £600 bill).

Now, if it would only stop bloody snowing, I might be able to get it under £100 for the April-June quarter.

Have you turned the water stat down to 60c? Mines at 55c, it was 70 when we moved in.

Fluffy
You should never have your water thermostat set at less than 60C. This is to avoid Legionella.

My mother has always owned one of those spin dry machines. She would hand wash items then give them a spin and hang them to dry.

I don't hand wash anything - unless the water supply to the garage where the washer lives freezes over.

go you, well done x