For those who can't afford to use central heating this year - How are you going to cope?

[mama2moo]

We have 2 dd's - 3yo and 20mo and already owe money to our suppliers. We are going to have to be careful with not using the heating too much but our house is feeling cold already!

We have bought thermal vests, fleece pjs, fleece tops and extra duvets.

What else can we do?

TBH Im dreading it. By the 3rd week of every month we are skint at the moment.

Switching a few radiators off in our house makes no difference to the heating system as a whole but then our house is only about 10 years old, so I have no idea on older houses or systems.

In my old house I fixed a regular curtain pole to the ceiling near the front door with the normal brackets (make sure you find a joist in the ceiling to screw them into) they supply and then hang it from there. They were really heavy, lined, old fashioned ones from the charity shop but they made such a difference in the hallway and stairs.

Flannelette sheets! I changed the bed yesterday and found an old set my Mum had given me and it was so nice and cosy to get in bed last night. I didn't have to warm the cotton up with my body heat first iykwim so it was warmer in there quicker. I'm so looking forward to having dh home at the weekend as he's like a radiator the heat he gives off, I'll be sweltering!

you need to check your own energy out put to see whether it is cheap to leave CH on all the time or turn on and off

I don't know if anyone has said it but regarding efficient use of energy e.g. hot water - you will use a lot less energy by keeping a tank of water hot than by letting it go cold and heating it from cold again as the main expenditure in energy is from taking the water from cold to hot. Do you get what I mean? So people who say they only heat a tank of water and then turn it off, it may not be the most efficient use of energy iyswim.

i use a washing line - hang clothes with pegs onto line and clothes dry off, when they are nearly dry I take them inside and iron nd hang on hangers to air off then put in wardrobe.

An airer in the bathroom then place in tumble dryer for ten minutes to dry off at the end and then fold and put away or iron to dry off

you wouldn't keep boiling a kettle all day for one cup of coffee

I am getting the most amazing hot flushes atm. I seem to chuck out the same heat as a gasfire! The dog has to stop lying all over me when we are watching TV because he threatens to spontaneously combust.

So I am willing to lend myself out to MNers to warm their houses. No charge but the occassional glass of merlot or cup of tea would be appreciated

Oh Ghastliness, of course you can have your heating on! It's about staying warm while keeping costs down, not freezing for the sake of it.

I'm sitting by a cosy radiator right now. It's the only one that's on and I'm also wrapped in woollies and longjohns. Air temp 16º and I'm pretty snug.

Thanks tianic and squishy ...but requires too much expertise .
Any simpler ideas ?
Ormirian

Ghastliness, sorry to hear you are all poorly. 12 degs is too low - specially if you haven't got one warm room. Just a thought, is your house damp? Cold & damp is soooooooooooooo much worse than cold & dry. If it is, might be worth spending a bit on a small de-humidifier?

gingeroots - this is what you need: SIZE. Not too expensive & very easy to fit.

Thanks Bugsy - have you got one ,do you just fit to door or does it have to go into a wall as well ? [ clueless emoticon ] .

Ive just realised that dh never has the radiator on in his study, a computer and a laptop in a small room are very adequate heat sources.

Mine is attached to the wall by the door. The arm will swing backwards & forwards, so that you can open the door when the curtain is pulled, without having to struggle through a pulled curtain. It also means that in the summer you can just push the curtain back against the wall & not really think about it. I think this kind of fitting will only work if your door opens up against a wall - if that makes sense.

There are loads of great tips here :)

I only have one to add. When I bought myself a fleece dressing gown a few years back (in the sales) they only had mens sizes left so i bought one of those. It is a much longer length and bigger size than my old one and so much warmer because there is more material. Looks a bit strange though!

ok ,thanks bugsy

Cook 2 days food at once instead of 1 when using the oven and save the rest for another day in the freezer. Reheating is cheaper than cooking from scratch and you save yourself work too. Crockpot cooking is great as it cooks cheap stuff well, costs little and doesn't steam the place up and any surplus heat will filter into the room. Apart from that, invest in warm jumpers from Oxfam?

If you have been 'comfortably off' and have a 'good-sized' house (whatever those things might mean to different people!) then it is inevitable that in times of economic GLOOM coupled with rising fuel prices, you are going to suffer quite a bit - you have a big space to heat, have not had to think too much about fuel economy in the past, have a lot of appliances, then suddenly whoops! redundancy, reduced hours, plus fuel price hike [shocked] you are in trouble. It's quite similar to a big rise in interest rates hitting hardest those who were already stretched to the limit with mortgage payments.

Sorry I meant to say this is sort of the situation I am in at the moment, not directly linked to economic climate, (marriage break-up) but lots of people are in a similar crisis.

We are in a simular position, oil ran out in May, have just afforded 500ltr, but that will have to last til next year. I have got door curtains, fleece lined window curtains, turned off radiators in kitchen and bedooms, now about to use the film double glazing in all rooms.
Our biggest heat loser was the kitchen, as we had a dog door that led into garden, we have now put a makeshift "porch" on the back door, with a door out to the side, not directly in front of back door, to try and stop draughts etc going out there. We also have a portable calor gas heater at the top of our stairs, which we put on for 1/2hr or so if it gets really cold upstairs, and this helps.Also have fleece blankets/throws to wrap up in.

mama2moo and others, I am gutted because the heater I linked to on Amazon came today and it is completely different to the first one! It's not a halogen, just a standard quartz, and takes ages to warm up, plus it started smoking when I turned it on. A really nasty cheap copy of the first - it looks the same but it isn't - someone is pulling a trick.

So I've emailed and asked them for a refund. But I feel bad now because I recommended it.

I wonder if different people are selling it under the same description. But if you've ordered a halogen heater like it, make sure it's halogen when it comes and not just quartz which won't have the light and will be more expensive and less efficient.

Bubby 500 litres will last month here crap boiler and insulation and that's running at 17.c

But moot point as we have none or hotwater for 3 weeks till LL gets back

But I'm going with wrap up I'm wearing thermals then lined jeans tshire jumper and have blanket over knees if not doing a lot

This thread has actually made me stop and think about how much I turn the heating on. Just because I can, doesn't mean I need to. I think I'll be using more blankets and jumpers, why waste the money?

With respect to drying clothes, I use a heated clothes aired from Lakeland. It was £75 but it costs 3p an hour to run, and dries jeans totally in about 6 hours. I love mine and since I only used the drier last year and ended up with a £300 for the quarter, I'm looking forward to seeing how much this will save me.

I've got a slanket that a friend bought me 2 Christmases ago that's just been sat in a cupboard since. I'm going to unearth it now!

It's interesting to hear what people think are normal/acceptable fuel bills. We pay £80 a month direct debit year-round for gas and electric, 4 bed detached house with large extended ground floor. I once had to check someone's ID for getting a CRB done at work and saw that her quarterly bill was £800 . I think she had a huge house though, poss with outbuildings, swimming-pool, jacuzzi etc...

We replaced a lot of our lighting a year ago as there were far too many lightbulbs, mostly on dimmer switches. We now only have power-guzzling halogen lights in the kitchen and bathrooms. I try to be very frugal with heating and use an airer and airing cupboard to dry washing. Don't own a tumble drier. My friend who has a key meter found her bills dropped from £100 a month to £50 when she stopped using her drier.

Rather odd-sounding tip, but one thing that has saved us money is keeping an ongoing Christmas/birthday wish list for us and the kids. Previously, my family and ILs would always ask for ideas at the last minute, and I could never think of much, so I always ended up getting things that were very nice, but that I didn't need (eg lovely bowls that I had no room for). Now I stick anything I think of on my list throughout the year, so I've always got ready ideas whenever someone asks. The reason this saves money is that I often put quite practical things on there - for example, on the back of this thread I shall be putting a nice snuggly kids' eiderdown on DS's list, and a nice sofa blanket on ours. The family like it as well, because I've always got ideas, and they always know they're getting us things we really want .