Really stressful explaining to my three year old that we can't afford to put the TV on

[Shelovespawpatrol]

I've got a job interview next week but if I don't get the job, don't know what we are going to do over winter. I checked my daily usage and it costs £3 a day to have the TV on in the background for a couple of hours, have a quick shower each and cook a meal. I've only been paying £34 a month electric until my fixed tariff ended recently and won't be able to afford £90 a month on £550 a month Universal Credit.
I can't afford to take my DD out on the bus to keep her out of the house and she only goes to nursery 15 hours a week. It was okay in the holidays because they gave us a free bus pass so we made it to the beach and trips into town to different parks.
I know it is only a year and she will be at school all week and they have after school clubs, and my job options will open up, but I'm so frustrated and stressed at keeping having to tell her no. She likes watching YouTube which is a lot cheaper than the TV to run, but that stops her playing at the same time and I don't want her absorbed in that. We haven't really got any friends in our new area yet, for her to do play dates with (despite trying!). I know everyone is in the same boat, so I'm not looking for pity, just wanting to vent to those who get it. Really bugged me earlier seeing someone complaining about having no money left after paying for car and children's activities. I can't even give my daughter that right now, despite saving what I could and always looking for job opportunities which fit nursery hours.

Its not the scrimping which bugs me, because I can be quite happy on little and find my own inner happiness, but it's having to deal with the tantrums and my daughter not understanding why things are being taken from her all of a sudden. I don't know what to choose to keep and pay for.

You should really find out how much the TV costs to run. It may just be a few pennies an hour, although even that might be too much if money is really tight.

Does the £3 include the daily standing charge? Because you'll be paying that regardless of how much electricity you use.

People have been posting cost-per-appliance info on the Cost of Living board (in the Money section). I'll see if I can find anything about TVs.

This sounds so hard and it's disgraceful that families are having to make these kind of decisions.

I'd say that the words 'in the background m' jumped out at me so can you just put Tv on for a specific show which she sits and watches and then turn off the rest of the time?

Cooking in the oven is a inefficient so you can look at ways to keep that to a minimum and cook different kinds of food that maybe use the hob or microwave more?

Modern TVs are pretty low energy use so a couple of hours will be pennies. If you have an electric shower and oven those will be the main culprits.

That said, TV on in background is probably unnecessary at that age? We only have it on if being actively watched as it drives me bonkers otherwise!

A chart posted on www.mumsnet.com/talk/cost_of_living/4627655-visualising-cost-of-appliances suggests it costs 16p to run a TV for 3 hours.

This is the general thread on how to calculate how much appliances cost to run.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/cost_of_living/4618028-the-how-much-does-this-cost-to-run-thread

Some things are surprisingly cheap (eg LED lightbulbs) so there's only a tiny saving in using them less.

When I was young I was told I could not afford to have things I wanted sometimes
It is a good lesson for you child to learn at an early age
It would be far better for him to read or create his own amusement than just watching TV

Also - they kick off big style at change at first but small kids adapt very quickly so I'd decide what the new rules are and have a short sharp shock switchover rather than keep giving in for one last day / one last time as that will just prolong the tantrums.

Know it will be horrible for the first few days as she won't understand but then soon it will be normal as long as you don't back down!

I live off grid virtually so although I don't pay for electric (I have solar panels, batteries and a generator) we are very aware of what's expensive in terms of managing our batteries and the tv is the thing in our home that uses the least energy. Microwave is a killer and the toaster and the washing machine but tv is very very low use. Cheers

This might be the least helpful thing I have ever read on MN, and that's saying something.

The £3 includes the standing charge yes which is about 40p. I went away for a few days and it costs me 60p a day to not be there and run the fridge. The day we left, we had the TV on whilst my daughter played and I cooked some potatoes in the oven, and I had a shower. The cost was £3 for the day and we left the house around 2pm. My TV is 125w so it should be 5p an hour but also with the sky box on it would be more although the box doesn't say the watts. I don't have the internet on any more, I just use my phone. Its about 40p per kWh so it could only be the TV and the oven making it so expensive. I don't have a device to track cost because when I moved in it was broken and British gas refuse to replace it for me.

It's the oven that costs a lot to run, not the telly

"This sounds so hard and it's disgraceful that families are having to make these kind of decisions."
It is not disgraceful
The world has changed
The west had it easy for many years
Not the hard times are here and no going away
We all have to change what we do

Exactly this. TV on in the background is doing your child no favours. It’s just normalising a lot of screen time. Only put it on to watch a handful of specific programmes and then turn it off.

Assuming it's an electric oven it'll likely be that. They use a lot of power sadly. A Sky Box is about 30 watts so negligible.

I've written down my units now from the meter and when DD gets back from nursery I'm going to put the TV on at some point and see what it jumps up by. Then I'll turn it off and cook something. I'm going to start doing just hob meals. I had been cooking decent meals lately because I had a free gousto box and it got me out of boredom but I'll have to find something else to do.

I'm going to ignore the comment about my daughter amusing herself instead. She loves playing but also loves paw patrol and dancing and singing along whilst she plays and the TV has been amazing for her vocabulary. I was deprived a lot as a kid compared to my peers and my self esteem really suffered. She's already missed out on so much because of lockdown.

I'm just wracking my brain thinking of way to save the electric - do you use the kettle much? Again this uses a lot of electric i drink a lot of coffee but I switched to to the big coffee travel mugs and make 2 in the morning that last all day so use the kettle only once. It also means I'm only washing up the two mugs at the end of the day so less hot water. I don't iron stuff I hang stuff in the shower room so the creases fall out. I charge power banks when I'm in the car or someone else's car and charge up my phone.

Honestly it's the oven that's costing you.

I've read on here that electric ovens cost £1 per hour to run so it's cost effective to swap to microwave/slow cooker/air fryer cooking if possible (I realise that lots of people don't own these kind of gadgets)

So assuming TV and Sky Box on for 5 hours a day, which is quite a lot I think so maybe more than you would have, that's about 770 watts a day which is less than 28p a day at today's rates. So over a month, maybe £6 or so?

If you just use it two hours a day it's £2.50 a month.

Things that cost energy are things that generate heat or cool, so tumble dryer, electric shower, electric oven, air con, etc.

Thanks lovely. I don't drink hot drinks so only have the kettle on once a day sometimes to heat up porridge or a packet of cous cous.
I go to bed early so haven't had the lights on much either, but I will try to find some led bulbs before winter. I try and only use the washing machine once a week and mostly shower every other day or every few days.
Might just have to have big coats and do lots of walks and take salad with us!
Silly comment about the west having had it easy because I've lived in the east and every regular low income person was cooking and had their tellies on and had a social life!

It depends on the TV and the watts it uses per hour. The above sounds a bit high and may be based on a very high spec, large or inefficient TV.

My 32" TV in the kitchen uses 32w per hour, so costs 1.664p per hour. That means I can run it for 31 hours and 15 minutes for 1kWh of electricity.

My 47" TV in the lounge uses 54wph, so costs 2.808p per hour. Therefore I can run that for just over 18.5 hours for 1kWh.

As a rule of thumb, the bigger the screen, the more it will use. Do not watch on high definition, this will ramp up the energy usage.

So basically OP, don't leave it running in the background if no one's watching, but it's not very expensive to run.

I agree, your showers are particularly your oven are the culprits. Look on the cost of living thread for ideas to cut those costs. 😊

Sorry, just realised my calculations above are based on the present assumption of 52p a kWh from October 1st ( may well change for the better), so it's currently even cheaper OP.

It looks like the tv is lower use than you feared which is great, but just in case it eats more than it should we started listening to CBeebies radio on bbc sound for ‘in the background’ stuff at home, and there are also loads of paw patrol stories on Spotify/Apple Music. My little boy also likes the ‘stories from Theo and Matt’ podcast which is for preschoolers and has given us ideas for new books to look for at the library as well. Worth a look/listen!

Ffs what are we coming to? A young mum worrying about putting the telly on and scared of having a shower. When my 4 were young we were hard up but this is ridiculous.

*bbc sounds not sound - it’s their radio app and great for all sorts