How are your COL hacks working out?

[MakingNBaking]

Now we've been swapping our ideas and hacks for a few months, I wondered if anyone wants to share how things are working out? Here's mine.
Sending for free water saving devices from SE Water - def saving water on the kitchen tap. The egg timers are being ignored by the teens when showering. However, the DD is up to £88 from £77 so I have yet to see actual £ savings.
Using heated airer - depends on keeping to the routine of using overnight (yes, I know, but I've taken whatever precautions I can), a big saving. Being careful about ventilation though. And have it on a timer so that I never forget to switch it off!
Changing Economy 7 immersion wiring so that we only heat the booster tank rather than the big tank. We didn't know if we'd run out of hot water by evening but we haven't so far.
Using dishwasher during night.

Getting a Hive - our central heating controls were very out of date and I got the DIY Hive from Amazon. Best idea ever. I have some heat on automatic for the morning, then go by 'how we feel' the rest of the time, and it is so easy to pop heating on for just half an hour whereas I used to put it on Manual and then forget to switch it back to Timed. Am currently hoping to get some Hive plugs for Xmas so that lamps, heated airer, etc can all be controlled from my phone.
Ringing Sky and playing 'poor old me, I shall have to cancel...' saved me £30 a month.
Using my electric fan oven less (and switching it off at the fuse board, who cares what time it says). More stove-top meals and using my ancient little airfryer. I can't justify £hundreds on a posh bigger air fryer. Using the slow cooker more, which also means I can use cheaper cuts of meat, like Mum used to say 'low and slow'.
My recommended DD for electricity/gas is £517 a month with Octopus, which is based on the last year's usage. And as we all know, it's our Usage that's important, not the price cap. My actual usage last month was £266 incl both. I'm paying £450 and the Govt top up makes it £516 so I'm really happy that I'm building up a surplus to get me through the real winter. And if/when things get really tough, I can drop it for a month.

Interested to hear how your ideas/schemes/hacks are going in case I can nick any.

Your usage still sounds high (and we're high users). Are you charging a car? Wondering why you have Economy 7 if you have central heating.

Check your tariff. Some companies are giving very high "day" rates on their economy 7

We got solar panels so electricity usage isn't comparable to last year. We have an EV tariff (and an EV) and now run the dishwasher overnight. Washing machine is too old to risk running overnight. Still running a tumble dryer but off the solar electric.

Main CoL hack is cancelling the milkman and doing the weekly shop at Lidl so no more online supermarket deliveries and instead a god awful early morning trip to the supermarket for me. Saving at least fifty quid a week from doing it though so it's worth it.

No Sky or Netflix we just watch free channels. It saves a lot.

I think ALL Economy 7 tariffs have high day rates - really only worthwhile if you have electric night storage heating or something else that uses a lot of electricity and can be run overnight - like charging the car. For most of us, it's white goods, and the standard variable rate is going to work out cheaper.

I've kept up with the milkman because it means I only need one shop every seven or eight days. I always spend more in store, so a weekly delivery works out cheaper for me. I do stock up on some things from Aldi/Lidl when I go there, but I don't buy a lot of branded goods or ready meals, so there isn't such a big difference for me.

I’m trying to find a way to reduce ironing but it’s not working. I increased spin to 1400 as I’m having trouble drying everything, but even in 1200 and line dried, almost everything is too creased to wear without ironing

Not having the heating on at all has got our bill below zero with the £66 gov top up. In October we used £55 for gas and electric. It's not sustainable as it's starting to hit 13 degrees inside. But it's making us really re think that 21 is not a desired optimal.winter temp. We can survive getting it up to 18 then turning it off. Best thing so far has been getting monzo and putting money into pots for the month. I think I'm finally going to be overdraft free in December

We've started putting the heating on for an hour in the evenings when there is washing indoors. Bit of juggling with heating and dehumidifier has meant no tumble drying. So, far, we're not really cold - more wool layers and throws this year. I'm going to avoid the tumble dryer as much as I can, but I am going to have the heating on for getting up in the morning and after dinner in the evening to warm the house and keep damp at bay once it gets colder.

I do iron, but it's not a big deal. Yes, it is a lot of kwh when it's on, but it's a steam generator and so quick - I get everything sorted and ready to iron before switching on, and then power through it. It helps with drying bed linen too. I am less likely to switch the iron on for a few things now - it gets put in a basket until the weekend when there's a big load to do.

@Cynderella I would have said the same as you re shopping as we don't buy ready meals either or many brands. However when I compared prices properly, the difference was stark. And that's not taking into account the heavily discounted Too Good to Go veg boxes.
I just get a week's worth of milk with the weekly shop. No top ups allowed 🙂

Switched current bank accounts to get a £200 switch.

Used Ocado a couple of times - £20 off the 1st shop and £15 off the 2nd. Both with free delivery. Only ordered essentials and items which were on offer.

Sold a lot of clothes, shoes and coats on Vinted - incredibly easy to do.

@deplorabelle That must be Lidl? Our Lidl is a 12 mile drive, so again, not doing that so often. Aldi much more convenient- a few mins away, but not so good on fruit and veg. I do stock up on olive oil, balsamic and other 'nicer' stuff in Aldi. Big bags of past and rice, halloumi, basic fruit and veg etc better or price matched from Tesco.

Great thread! I haven’t switched on my heating yet. Edf told me my annual projected electricity cost is 700.
Bought an oodie from Primark. It’s amazing for keeping me warm.
I checked Uswitch and Moneysaving for the best monthly sim and broadband deals. I’ve cut my mobile tariff from 25 to 8, and bband from 25 to 17.
I got shit customer service from HSBC on the app chat function. They apologized and offered me 20 quid. I asked for 50. They said ok :-)
A company asked me to pay 15 courier fee to swap DS’s clarinet. I asked if they’d cover the cost. They said ok!
Tesco Card is saving me 25% every week relative to their full prices.

Ah yes, my Oodie - I have worn it quite a bit in the evenings, but I have to take it off because it's too warm.

My heatholder socks are great though - I wear them over thick cotton socks and they make a huge difference.

For about five years now, we've made all our own bread. Before that, we went through phases of doing it, but now, we always have a sack of white bread flour and a sack of granary flour to mix. I suspect I could save more if I just sourced some cracked wheat and added some seeds, cracked wheat and malt extract, but we're keeping it simple.

The flour is measured in a plastic cup kept in the storage tub, and the water is measured in another cup, so it's just a case of four cups of flour, one of water, a teaspoon of salt and a splash of olive oil in the pan. Crumble in a small lump of yeast FREE from Tesco. Close lid and switch on. Four hours later, a loaf of bread.

Really interesting to hear how people's plans are panning out. I've been given some more food for thought by the points raised, hope others have too.
I have the Tesco Pay+ which costs £7.99 a month so as long as I save over £8 it's an improvement - average spend there a month would be about £500 as I buy most toiletries, birthday cards, bits&bobs there too. Also made some changes to what I'm buying eg brands etc. I'm quite regimented with shopping - never without a list and meal plan, I work night shifts and shop on a Tues and Fri at 7am.
But interested to hear about a Tesco card with 25% savings possible? @Shitfather

Depending on your income, if you are a home owner check out the Warmer Homes Scheme in your LA.

They assess on 'residual income', which is what is left after income tax/NI, mortgage and Council Tax. I earn about £35,000 before tax, but comfortably have less than the threshold of £20,000 of 'residual income' for London once those costs are taken out.

They offer up to £5,500 in a grant to make your house more energy saving.

It is possible to get a grant if you rent, but then the landlord has to contribute. Also leaseholds are quite complicated.

We've been accepted as meeting the criteria, and the next step is for a surveyor to visit and make recommendations. Any work will be managed by the company running the scheme, using their contractors.

We've already done all the cheaper suggestions on the EPC certificate (insulation) and some of the more expensive (new boiler and central heating) so it will be interesting to see what they recommend. Possibly solar panels, which the EPC estimate would save about £330 per year based on energy prices from 2 years ago. That would be very welcome!

@Cynderella free yeast from Tesco? Tell me more?!

This started in the 80s - at one time, every supermarket near us offered free yeast from the in store bakery, free 'rabbit greens' and free 'cat fish' - offcuts of fish for fish pie, cats etc - I used to use some for fish cakes and give the rest to the cats.

Now it's just Tesco and just yeast. They don't advertise it, but if you go to the bakery and ask, they'll put some fresh yeast in a bag for you. We take lidded glass dishes with us now to encourage them to give us more, and they usually do. Sometimes, they ask how much we want, and we'll say as much as you can! If we have more than will last a week or two in the fridge, I squeeze into small balls and freeze. It defrosts really quickly, so can be used from frozen. I was very happy to have bags of yeast in the freezer when lockdown happened.

I got a new job, which puts us a few hundred up each month, so that should counter act some of the price rises and also means that the house is empty and unheated more. DD also just qualified for 30 hours of nursery, which couldn't have come at a better time.

We've got an airfryer, which we're using lots, especially as the DC would live of fish fingers given the option, and it was such a waste putting the oven on for that.

We invested in a massive chest freezer, and now buy a lot frozen insted of fresh. Quality has overall been good, and not that noticable when cooked, and it's reduced the amount we need to call in the shop for one thing, and then spend £30. I also love just been able to take out just what we need, insted of basing recipe round pack size, and having leftovers, I need to remember to eat before it goes off.

We've replaced a really drafty front door & sewn fleece to the inside of curtains, which help the house hold heat. We put the heating on at the beginning of November, but for half the time and a °C lower then last year, and it's been fine so far.

We started consistently baking our own bread in lockdown but the problem with it is that it's so delicious the teens devour it at twice the rate of shop bought. Between that and the energy cost of running an oven for individual loaves, it's now coming out significantly more expensive to bake our own bread most of the time 😔

I've also experimented with making our own cereal bars, spare cakes etc while the oven is on for something else. In theory it should save money but in practice I'm just creating extra demand from the famished constituency that is teenage boys.