How is your attempt to use less gas/electric/water going ?

[KangarooKenny]

I read all 3 meters again yesterday and the app shows I’ve used quite a lot less 🎉
My waterbutt is practically empty, but I am making the effort to put any clean water - such as out of the dog’s bowl or the kids water bottles - on the plants. And I’ve cut down on showers at night, doing pits n bits instead when I’ve not been to the gym.
The heating is off and staying off until October now.
The majority of washing is going on the line, but I’ve had complaints about rough towels so have to fluff them up for 10 minutes in the dryer.
Unfortunately I still seem to have mountains of washing, need to see how I can reduce it.

No water meter here but electricity savings are going well. Moved house and switched to a new tariff in October (lucky to get a good fixed rate) and was shocked when our electric bills for November and December were £132 each (elec only - have heating oil).

Immediately stopped using the tumble dryer, brought an air fryer and became very energy conscious. It worked

January bill was £110 and each bill since has been under £100.

Yes, I think I’m going to have to buy an air fryer as sometimes I put the whole oven on for quite a small thing. I could do without another kitchen utensil though !

occasionally dh uses the slow cooker
i dont use a tumble dryer, ever
turn off tv at the mains
no heating now

Airfryer is a good idea, we use our oven much less since we bought the airfryer. I was wondering if we would actually use it, we have a lot of kitchen gadgets 😂 but we use the airfryer regularly often for lunch and dinner. Buy one with a large capacity ours is 5.5ltr.

@KangarooKenny we brought the Ninja duel. It was expensive at £200 but I worked out it would pay for itself within 14 months.

It will actually pay for itself much quicker than that as we use it so much. The oven only goes on for 25 minutes once a week when we cook pizza!

(Recommend the duel basket one if you can though - vege burgers and fish fingers in one, chips in the other. Cooking only takes about 12 minutes.)

Oh, forgot to add - lunches are great in the air fryer too. Cheese on toast or boiled eggs (6 minutes for a delicious runny dippy egg!)

I am making small conscious decisions like you OP- using left over water from kids drinks to water plants etc. I go swimming 5 times a week so never really have to shower at home anymore. Heating is off (though I hate it on colder days). I’ve reduced the amount of times I use the oven - ie plan for one “longer oven meal” a week. I don’t drive but making an effort with other family members in checking whether they could also ride their bikes or walk places. I say it’s for the exercise but I’m mainly thinking petrol prices and the damage to environment to be honest! Re reading the above makes me feel a bit sad inside, but we all have to do what we can to pay the bills.

Gas is going really well, we have gone from 16,400 to 13,500 kwh annual usage since October. Electricity has been trickier - we only managed to reduce our daily average from 20.1 to 17.9kwh in that time. We have brought forward plans to install solar and battery storage to this summer. It's a busy house, all electric kitchen, electric car, kids have an electric shower but I'm expecting the solar to do some heavy lifting.

It helps that it is getting warmer. I have not allowed myself to be this cold in a decade but I now recall that I was brought up in a much colder house. It would be a harder decision to make at the baby stage but older children are more resilient than the average adult.
I don't know how my Ninja consumption compares to the gas cooker. In any case, I wish the Foodi Grill had a larger capacity so that I could cook the whole meal in one machine. I have the large (Max) size but I dread to think what could be fitted into the regular one. I may need to buy a cheaper airfryer as back up..

Horrible. We’d already cut our usage in half BEFORE the price rises so it’s hitting us hard. I don’t think there is anything more we can realistically do. I’m cutting back on food instead.

@allgoneaway am considering investing in an air fryer. Are they easy to clean? I get put off with gadgets that are a pain to keep clean eg: George Foreman grills. What types of food do you make in them? We are a family of five who often eat separately so am trying to reduce oven use too. Thanks

Heating has been off (except for a few odd hours) since March. Got a free water saving shower head from the water company. Installed water butts but not much rain yet.

Using 18kwh electricity per week and 60kwh gas

On TikTok I saw someone using sort of ‘bowls’ made out of baking paper, like large cake cases.

I’m not on a smart meter but bulb statement says I use on average a day in last month so March to April

e 14
g 58

previous feb to March

e 14
g 73

jan to feb

e 14
g 94

so £3 ish a day electricity. Not sure how tbh

look forward to what April to may ks

assume as lighter E will go down as lights on less

g will be lower as heating isn’t on

Looking at my app, my gas usage has almost halved, but my electric is about the same. Heating is off now, so hopefully I’ll bank up some credit before the price rises again in October.

Same as before, I'm at work for most of the time so everything is off during the day. I cursed the previous owner for putting in a gas shower, it seemed mad at the time but it saves me a fortune.
Cooking is never any more thatn a one pot meal with everything thrown in and chopped up small so that doesn't take 5 minutes and like everyone else round here I watch tv in the dark.
My bills are still cheap.

My DS and DiL didn't have the heating on at all in winter, they just wore hoodies and fleece pyjamas and had duvets on the sofa. Winter was mild this year so they didn't really feel the cold. We don't really have harsh winters in the west country.
I live in their granny annexe so less to heat and it doesn't really get cold with the double glazing and insulation.

I need to get an air fryer but i cant work out how they are cheaper when they only do small amounts, surely your oven goes on anyway?

They cook quicker, and it doesn’t need as much electricity as it does to heat a whole oven.

There are different capacities, so you need a big one to cook a whole chicken, and some have 2 baskets to cook two different foods. It all seems to come down to capacity and how much you want to pay.

my E seems to be the same past few months but seems high compared to others who say they use 4 a day

account is now in credit as just paid a month of £275. - ouch !!!

almost object to being in credit all over summer and company getting interest on my few hundred

but means hopefully when winter bills come in and estimates £350 a month 🙀🥲 that I will be covered

When the prices went up on 1 April it cost us £7 for one day of gas. We had the heating set to 20 all day.

I object to paying that and I haven't had the heating on since. I use gas for cooking and hot water and it's costing me around 0.70p a day so far.

I now wear a dressing gown over my clothes and thick socks. The weather is warming up so it's not so bad.

I’m making sure curtains/blinds are open early on the east facing side of the house, to catch the heat from the sun.

@KangarooKenny , i do a whole chicken in my slow cooker but it takes like 8 hours, i haven't thought how much electricity that uses, i dont really know where to find out?
Im trying to get a smart meter but edf are majorly mucking me about.

I have a combo microwave. I use that on the combi function instead of the oven most of the time. Would I save much more with an air fryer?