Frugal Laundry

[DebugMe]

For various reasons we have been making a real effort to have a more frugal lifestyle recently. But I'm getting a bit stuck on the laundry.

I use an eco-ball thing and home-made fabric conditioner so cut down loads on those costs. Plus PIL bought us an efficient machine, which is great.

However I'm struggling to cut down on the volume of laundry to be done. I've been experimenting with how long I can leave it before washing towels, bed sheets, clothes, etc but am starting to feel a bit of a minger to be honest. Sheets are now down once a month (ugh!), unless the DCs have any accidents, but I'd rather do them more often than that. Towels are once a fortnight, likewise would rather do them more often. Clothes are every day for undies and tshirts, every 2 days for trousers and jumpers unless food is spilt. (DCs are 3 and 2 - so quite a lot of stains still).

But - we've put the heating down, and are all wearing more clothes. And have extra blankets on bed at night. And the cat is hiding indoors from the rain and leaving mud and hair everywhere.

And we're not tumbling anymore, but drying on a rack by a dehumidifier - its just too wet outside. Even with the dehumidifier, we're still having problems with damp and mould in the house, and its taking days to dry stuff. DH doesn't like me airing the house too often as we've spent so long trying to draught proof it and conserve heat!

How do you keep laundry costs down without smelling nasty? How do you balance having a cold house vs having loads of laundry? How do you conserve heat without getting damp and mould?

Sorry for the length - but really grateful for any tips.

Seriously that's how much it costs £5 a week. Sometimes I put £7 if the heating has been on and we've been home more (eg school Xmas holidays) but then usually have over £1 credit on it still.

I questioned it not long after I moved in as had previously been paying £60 a month dd in a smaller house. They came out and checked and it didn't go up. Gas on the other hand is currently running at £20-30 a week as heating on a fair bit lots of baths/showers after dc sports etc. so looking forward to warm weather when it goes down to £10-15 a week.

I'm with southern electric.

No one to top it up. I'm divorced and xh never comes here.

Perhaps you've got some solar panels that you haven't noticed yet - or a windmill? I might get a key meter myself now, could be saving £800 a year.

Or maybe not - these are the charges - extortionate

www.southern-electric.co.uk/uploadedFiles/CoreMarketingSites/Assets/Documents/PC001%20Standing%20Charge%20Pre%20Payment%20-%20%20Price%20Table%20v3[1].pdf

Definitely no solar panels. Like I say can't quite believe it myself and got southern electric out to check it. Wonder what next doors electric bill is. Maybe a dodgy electrician hooked the house up????

Vicki I want your electrician!

You've made me question it again and I've called them to come out again. They have said meter readings are inline with what they'd expect from the size of house.
It is about half of what I used to pay in a previous house.

My washing machine is on twice a day at least and costs very little to run. I wash most clothes on a 20 minute cold wash.
I dry outside all year long. UV light, wind and cold effectively destroy germs that are not killed in a cold wash. Even this week I have dried blankets, jeans and coats outside. It doesn't need to be warm, as long as it isn't raining. Even getting stuff 50% dry outside cuts down on dring time inside considerably I wash sheets every week/10 days, towels after one or two uses, again drying outside after use ( but not washing) freshens them and kills germs.

as an aside a good way to make bedding go longer is to shower or bath in the evening, and go to bed clean!

I do very similar to atthestroke. I do use capsules, I know they are a rip of but really like them. I also never let my washing get screwed or keft in the machine wet up so never ever iron.

I just use about a tablespoon of basic lidl powder. No fabric conditioner. The box costs about 5 and lasts about a year.

Do you have a tumble drier? If so then it will be cheaper to use that to dry your sheets than go to a laundrette. And as long as its not raining my washing goes outside during the day. Completely free, a breeze takes a lot of the water away so it dries quickly once indoors, it smells nicer and its out of the way. This week things have been coming in practically dry.

If you dry outside whenever you can then maybe you could afford to tumble during wet Weeks?