September savers/frugaleers continue into October

[574ejones]

All welcome!

anna, do they treat him back though or is it a one way street?. It could be another way to stop him. I don't mind saying I cant afford things out loud, other people have different spending priorities after all.

I didn't mind spending money on curtains last week but I wouldn't spend the same on a meal out.

Spinach will freeze fine, it will be a bit soggy but ok for soups etc.

My mum made lettuce soup once, it was delicious.

ok, well £129 in Aldi and £20 in Lidl for weeks shop...not too bad for 8 of us but could be better....

£23 for ds1 UCAS application....unavoidable!

other than that turns out being totally knackered form a night on call and sleeping most of the day sleeping helps to stop spending!!

That's the thing, they rarely return the favour. One friend in particular took complete advantage and dh was paying for her and her OH's food all the time, buying them takeaways, giving petrol and parking money if they drove anywhere and never getting any when he drove... After a lot of hinting about how skint we are in front of them I did end up having a go after they turned up to our house at dinner time shortly after I had dd, went on and on about how they hadn't had any dinner yet and either expected me to cook something or buy a takeaway for us all. Dh is too nice but a sleep deprived, cluster feeding, post partum me is another story

Electrolux I feel exactly the same. It's so nice going in and out to take washings in and put them out too, and getting to bask in the warm sun every time. Much better than a trip to the tumble dryer (though that may change when it gets cold outside.

My airing cupboard seems to have gone on strike. No matter what I do, it won't heat up. It must be trying to save energy in spite of me.

That's a good idea Electrolux. I hadn't thought of making it a challenge like that.

I'm a bit frustrated by it because it seems that every little cut that I make in energy usage or spending means more work for me (More cooking or more cleaning by hand, or hanging out washings or whatever.) I kind of wonder at what point it's better to just spend the money instead of wearing myself out. It's a tricky call. I wish I had a better idea of where the energy was being used, but I've looked into energy monitors, and ironically, it turns out that they are quite expensive. I suppose it's a one-step-at-a-time thing though isn't it?

That's good to know that it helped. I've just filled in the SSE form again to ask for one.

One of my dilemmas is that if I use the tumble dryer then I have to have a window open to stick the hose out and then I lose a whole lot of heat from the house in winter. But to avoid that I'd have to have a big round hole cut in the side of the house, which I'm not hugely keen on. Maybe I could get a bit piece of cardboard that fills the window opening and stick the hose through it or something?

£23 (sale price) for a new lock. Cheaper than a locksmith obviously but I could actually cry. Endless list of things going wrong

(yes PMT may be a factor! sorry )

electrolux, Is your house fully insulated in the loft and the wall cavities? apologies if I have asked before. Are you heating all the rooms or just what you need?. I'd like to see your gas bill come down too!.

I'm with sainsburys and they estimate I'm going to use about 400 units more of electric than I actually will and keep trying to raise my dd to match it eg I'll use 1400 or so but they are saying it will be 1800 .

anna, that would really get to me. Good for you standing up to them.

We have the heating on but thermostat driven, if DH says he is cold and thermostat hasn't triggered he gets a stern look and passed a hoodie! I get sore if I get cold though :-/
NSD today I made flapjack bars with apples off the tree & took them to our park play date so we all saved there. Should be a NSD tomorrow too.

Your energy reduction is brilliant already!. If you say you've checked and there's definitely a foot of lagging in the loft I will never mention it again EVER. I'm sure someone in our family had a £600 winter quarter one year, the mind boggles.

I used to use loo roll to block gaps in our last house.

Ipsos, the drill bit you need can be hired cheaply, then you'd need a plastic vent cover for the end of the hose. My ndn has hole in her wall for the dryer. It's a very neat way to do it.

Nice, my dh complains he's cold and all he's wearing is pants and socks. Anyone would be cold.

That has actually made me smile.

Yes pants and socks. In January.

Sorry to hear that fuzz. Sounds as though you're having a lot to deal with there.

That's a good idea about the silver stuff electrolux. I'll look into that.

Our loft insulation is not very thick but our loft is boarded and full of about a thousand boxes of things. I can't even begin to imagine how we would fix it. Ironically, we did actually have 25cm of insulation, but they took 10cm out to board the loft. I'll have to knit a giant hat to put on the roof.

LOL! Electrolux are you a good knitter then? I can't actually knit at all, so our house will have to wear spray foam.

I've just pushed the boat out and actually bought an electricity monitor, so today is now very much not a NSD anymore. Hopefully I can get good at using it and justify the cost.

Electrolux that knitting sounds great. :-) Could you also buy really naff jumpers that nobody wants from charity shops, strip them down and re-knit them into something much nicer? (I have no idea if that works, but it just occurred to me as a thought).

I have found some loft insulation boards online that are meant to be really strong so I wrote to the company to ask if we could stand on them if we put them in our loft.

Thanks for the encouragement on the energy monitor. I'm quite looking forward to it. I bought a loop one as I want to know about gas too. Almost everything I do I have to choose between using gas or electricity (gas hob v electric oven, gas powered airing cupboard v. electric tumble dryer.) Should be interesting.