Am I wildly unrealistic to think I can avoid huge fuel bills this winter?

[Walnutwhipplease]

We have lots of fleece blankets, hot water bottles, electric blanket for bed in coldest room, sherpa lined hoodie blanket things, thermal socks. Only drafty part of the house is the front door and I'm going to hang a heavy curtain over it this autumn. My current gas usage is £25 a month which is morning showers.

Am I forgetting how cold it gets? We didn't have central heating as a child.

Our bills seem to be lower than most people's so, although I know a big increase is coming, I think we will survive it. I was born in the mid 50s so grew up in the 60s and was a young adult in the 70s - three day week, powercyts, bread shortage, toilet roll shortage. Potato shortage etc. I bought my first house in the late 80s when the interest rate was the highest ever. Because of that I know how to be frugal and most of the money saving tips I see are second nature to me. I am in my late 70s now and, while I don't intend to sit and shiver in a dark room, I could reduce my energy use even more.

People born since the 90s have different experiences and expectations (through no fault of their own obviously) but I think you seem to know what you are doing. Good luck.

There is a programme on Radio 4 which you can find on Sounds where people who struggled financially in the past talk to people experiencing hardship now. Its called Surviving the Cost of Living and is well worth a listen.

Typo - I'm in my late 60s not 70s.

I'll have a listen thanks.

I was born in the 70s. I remember home made snake draft excluders with buttons sewn on as eyes. Less fondly I remember using newspaper when toilet roll ran out!!

My parents worried relentlessly about money which must have been tough. My life seems much easier. I don't want to freeze my children but it feels doable.

I’m expecting mine to go up - but nowhere near the levels claimed are “average”. I live in the far north of Scotland and have only ever heated one room. I’m militant about airing out the house and wearing more clothes (better quality and wool). No damp problems or death by cold yet.

nowhere near the levels claimed are “average”.

I think this is what throws me - the £000s increases that are being quoted. My bills are so low.

I'm also wondering this.

We use a phenomenal amount of gas around 22000 a year and around 4000 electric.

We always try to not put the heating on until October half term but I think we may be pushing that further back this year. We have the kind of system where you have to heat up the hot water seperate before you use it and I'm trying to get it down we currently do half an hour in the morning and am hour in the evening

Our fuel bills are much less than others claim to be paying, and I wouldn't say we are particularly frugal, so I'm really starting to doubt that fuel bills are all about pure usage. I suspect you can keep your bills pretty low based on your plans.

Has anyone seen this? I'll be all over it if it happens.

Plans to cut energy bills if peak-time use avoided www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62626908

What are the Sherpa lined hoodie things. I work from home so will need to plan this winter carefully. I remember being very cold as a kid. No central heating. I used to go and sit on the night storage heater to get warm

Im amazed that you only spend £25 on gas. I thought I was frugal but this is inspirational!

Where I can afford it or not I think it’s incredibly wasteful to heat the entire house and sit in 1 room
when we’re all in heating on
if I’m in on my own I’d watch tele in bed or gsm d a quilt on sofa

Just checked and my gas was only £17 last month. I try to shower at the gym as much as possible. Only two adults in for 4 days out of 7. Have also turned temp down on showers since the weather has been hot.

I was brought up in the 70’s and it was pretty frugal

I live in a very draughty old house with single glazing. This winter I plan to be showering at the gym, working at the office, installing secondary glazing to the most draughty windows and probably limiting the heating to one room downstairs. I already use hot water bottles, pure wool clothes, slippers. Oh and keep my hat and scarf on indoors when I come in

@BruisedSkies they are branded as Oodies, oversize hoodies. They are great. My sons lived in them last winter. Just put them over clothes.

The old fashioned ways, hat and socks in bed, hot water bottles and hot drinks. A vest/cami under your top, a thin scarf in your neck etc.

I was just (wishful) thinking that the other day. But in reality, the mild weather is confusing us as to how cold and damp it'll get in a month or two.

My current gas usage is £25 a month which is morning showers.

that seems a lot for morning showers

my gas is around £3 per week and that’s 3 showers per day

The standing charge cripples lots of people, the electricity will be higher if all cooking is on the electric.

I'm not into this retrospective looking, we used to send children down the mines, have medical procedures without pain relief and antibiotics, where do we stop?

Plus, those that really can't afford heating cannot afford the outlay of sherpa hoodie etc.

I don't know how some people have it so low :(

But we do have 2 people that are disabled at home and an under 5.

I've bought a little trampoline. Every time I feel cold I'll go bounce on it until I warm up! The heating doesn't go on until everybody has tried that and is still cold.

I'm also wondering this but then wondering if we're naive. We currently pay £120 a month for gas and electric with bulb. They have suggested we could reduce our payments slightly but I have avoided doing so. The annual projection on our last bill isn't that scary and I'm wondering if they haven't used the new prices? We're in a new build so very lucky to have excellent insulation but central heating has made us soft. We didn't have it at home until I was 21 and my room was in the attic and I survived!

This is an amazing idea. We have a wee trampoline too, might stick it in front of the TV and bounce away in the dark!

People saying they have survived the 70s, but fails to factor in their age - the older we get, the more we are prone to hypothermia. Couple this with viral infections and comorbidities (diabetes, hypertension, MI, hypothyroidism and so on)

It's going to be a grim Winter to a lot of people.

We’re cutting down but I refuse to let the kids be cold so we will have the heating on, just at a lower temp

We currently pay £275 per month however I’ve been tracking actual usage ands it’s about £120 with £20 of that for gas. We have two log burners so planning on using those all winter - we get wood free. We’ve bought an extra clothes airer to dry clothes. Plenty of fleeces around the house. I’m aiming to have heating on in the morning for an hour and then do without. The only issue I have is when wfh as my office is freezing.

@HandbagsnGladrags yed i have but as we get in from work at 5.30 -6 this is the times we will need to be using the electric , unless we eat after 9pm and I don't do washing or anything when we get home