The cost of living... what can we do?

@shiney
Re: bread flour
I buy my flour from Amazon Prime ( free p&p)
Heygates Malted Crunch = 16 kg for £28
Opal strong white = 16 kg for £24
averages out at 42p for 400grams = a medium size loaf
During the bread cycle, the energy for proofing is negligable- light bulb energy
the final 45 minutes of baking is at full heat - a single element that runs around the interior of the breadmaker at the base......
I think I can make a quality loaf for 65p but that doesn't include the price of the Breadmaker now 6 years old,
Jenny namaste

 

The license fee is unfair anyway.

Take my usage. I listen to BBC radio in the car, I watch BBC TV at home, and I use the BBC news and weather sites.

Compare that to my mum. She watches a bit of BBC TV and that's about it. Yet as far as I know, we both pay the same.

 

I have just emailed our local MP Huw Merriman asking him to request the licence fee be cancelled for Pensioners wef 1st October
Jenny namaste

 

We have always been energy conscious more for environmental needs rather than money saving but obviously it will be centred on keeping the bills manageable this year.

We won't miss a bath as we prefer daily showers, in winter this usually goes down to every other day. Hair gets washed in the shower.
We have our showers one after the other so that water drawn down into the pipeline is not wasted. We have always been very aware of this due to the size of our house.

We never have heated unused rooms and have not had damp issues. This is because they do get ventilated and we run a large dehumidifier during both day and night on cheaper electricity during the set times of day. This big dehumidifier is situated on the landing in a central position.
This allows all the 5 unused bedrooms to remain unheated, dry and always ready for when our brood come down.

We use the main bathroom rather than our en suite one in the winter as it has the shower in there that we prefer to use and again keeps the hot water in the most needed pipework.

Vacuuming, washing machine and batch baking gets done during the ' cheap rate ' times.

We have a new ( ish) washing machine that is brilliant! Wash most things at 30C and have done so for a couple of years and the results are as good as, if not better, than when I used higher temps ( or down the more efficient machine ) also I don't use biological washing liquid either. I always use an Antibacterial final rince to all my washes. Even hubs garden/ outdoor overalls come out really clean ..and depending on their age..stain free.
It the winter I use the extra super final 10min spin cycle as I like to line dry and very rarely use the tumble dryer ( didn't at all last winter) ,I keep a close eye on the forecast, it's rarely an issue now it's just the two of us as even in a prolonged wet spell we have enough clothes, towels, bedding etc to keep us going.

Whenever we cook , we still cook in the quantities that we use to ( if not even a bit bigger) and divide up into 2 portion sizes and freeze. We haven't used our main oven since last Christmas and the smaller one is only used for grilling. We use the microwave and a small tabletop oven for cooking. Use the pressure cooker to make big quantities of soup in Winter. We don't eat as much meat now but when we do it gets mostly grilled. For hubs traditional recipes from his home country we use the pressure cooker mostly or occasionally the table top oven.

We have a smaller downstairs dehumidifier situated in our Kitchen, which is brilliant after a cooking session or after washing the kitchen floor during Winter.

We have never liked a warm bedroom and may only have our heating on in there once or twice during the winter ( not at all last year). We just have the landing heater on and find that is sufficient.

We are fortunate to have 2 lounges. The 'big' one is closed up in Winter unless the family come down. Hubs and I tend to always use the smaller one anyway nowadays.

A couple of years ago hubs put in another door in our hallway. We have a large hall with the main area being square with the dinning room and big lounge leading off from it. There is a short corridor running off it to the kitchen, smaller lounge and downstairs cloakroom this now has a door fitted to block off this area from the main hall. The door is kept open at the moment but once the heating is put on then it's remains closed so that we have a nice snug area to cosy down in during Winter days. It wasn't until hubs installed the door that we realised how much heat we had lost as it was sucked away through the main hall and up the stairs...big difference now.

We have always switched off lights when leaving a room and have always switched off appliances from the mains when not in use too. So no changes there to be made.

We stopped using our electric blanket a few years ago and now just change to a higher tog rated quilt and I also place two single fleece blankets on the end bed post as hubs and I can differ in our heat requirements at times.

We are prompt at closing curtains in all the rooms ( including those not in use) as this helps to retain heat, and just makes you feel warmer and more cosy too.

The house and loft is insulated too.

So all in all there is not much more we can do.

Except get out our thermals.

 

I am loving this thread. Thank you - all of you who are sharing best practices,
Jenny namaste

 

Oh gosh no @JWK ..don't ask me such difficult questions ! What I do know for sure is that we are all electric .



Ok just nabbed hubs....and he keeps weekly records..boy does he !!, going back years. 7000- 7000.5

 

Your baker has expensive overheads in running a business.
I don't Shiney..
blissfully retired....♡♡♡
Jenny namaste

 

Is everyone aware of the money saving expert website?

I find there's quite a lot of dross on there but there's also a few gems. I think it's worth a look.

 

I don't heat my bedroom but I have a mattress cover electric blanket. I heat my bed for 30 minutes or so before I get in - then switch it off. If I feel cold in the night I switch it on to a reduced heat setting to warm myself up . It lasts for 1 hour.
And yes, it is regarded safe to use the blanket in this way,
Jenny namaste

 

That's what we use to do too Jenny...not sure why we stopped using it really, mind you hubs goes up to bed a lot earlier than me so I never really benefited that much....I just stick my feet on him now!