What a lovely mild day we have again today. Long may it continue then we can all save on the heating bills. I had a bit of a shock yesterday when the electricity bill dropped onto the mat. Where we live we have a meter but pay our bill bi-annually in March and September to a third party. I have realised that our annual bill this year is over £560. As this is just for cooking, the computer and one electric fire in the lounge ( our heating runs on LPG) it seems a bit excessive. I use the microwave a lot rather than the oven, have a battery powered radio, switch off lights and we watch TV for no more than 2 hours in the evening; usually the 9pm dramas and then the news. So how can I save? We can't change supplier, we have no control over that and we are charged 11p per unit used, so how? I think the answer lies in switching things off as soon as possible. For example, switching the clock off on the microwave, turning off the computer hub, and the printer (often on standby) then see how we go. If I can save just one unit per day that will give us an annual saving of £40.15 I have taken a reading of the meter and will check our usage on a monthly basis. Any tips please folks?
Bacon butties
When we were on holiday last week DH developed a craving for a bacon buttie. Well, I refuse to let him cook bacon in the motorhome because a) it smells for days after and b) he makes such a mess and never cleans it up! His Dad had given us an electric frying pan so we put it outside on the grass then in went the contents of a packet of bacon. The result was acceptable (more practise required, I think, ;-))
Anyhow, DH then wanted brown sauce on his buttie so tootled off to the campsite shop and came back with this....
I carefully peeled off the label to reveal....spot the difference?....
YOU HAVE BEEN DONE MATE!
On laziness
We have a communal car park here with recycling bins for paper, glass, plastic and tins with 2 wheelie bins for anything else. This morning I found a wheelie bin full to bursting and on top was a plastic bag full of glass bottles, plastic milk cartons and beer cans. As the recycling bins are in exactly the same location, literally an arms length away, I felt quite cross that someone just couldn't be ar*ed to pop the things through the holes.....ggrrrr...I did it myself in 10 seconds flat and the wheelie bin lid closed easily. Honestly some people are so lazy and uncaring. They are probably the ones who will complain when we get rats.
Ok rant over, thanks for popping in x
I am with you on the smell of bacon cooking, it seems to linger all day I hope you enjoyed your stay on the Gower, I often go there in the mid afternoon the traffic is lighter and I can park up easily and Ben can have a good walk. The last time we walked halfway up a mountain, my calf muscles were burning after the slippery slide down.
ReplyDeleteThanks Pam, the Gower was wonderful. It's so beautiful in parts. I only wish we could have seen more but it's difficult to park a motorhome in lots of places and I can't walk more than a mile or two without my back giving me gyp. We would definitely go back again though.
DeleteDo you have a slow cooker, I use ours a lot in the winter, also when I put the oven on I try to make more use of it, sometimes I will bake a shelf of Jacket potatoes and freeze them, we also switch off all the switches at night, I have got my money saving head well screwed on at the minute and am looking to save all ways, we pay £54 a month electric, but have an oil tank for the heating.
ReplyDeleteNo, HH, I don't have a slow cooker at the moment. I've been weighing it up as to whether it's worth buying a small one but I don't eat meat so I need to find uses for it other than meat stews. Do you have to fry everything first to seal it? Re the electricity, it looks as though we spend roughly the same per annum but I really do need to get mine down a bit. Thanks for all the tips.
ReplyDeleteyou can make soups, puddings anything really, if I am not following a recipe I just bung it all in.x
DeleteI use my slow cooker a lot in the winter, as a veggie mine is used to make big batches of veggie stews, curries, chilli, red cabbage etc which I then divide up and freeze. They are popped in the microwave when needed. Slow cooker rice pudding is also a family favourite.
DeleteWow thanks, Chickpea, I hadn't thought about rice pudding ;-) Buying one might be worthwhile after all x
DeleteI have loads of electric saving tips, I must get round to posting about them.
ReplyDeleteWe don't use anything unless it's essential and all light fittings are simple with one energy saving bulb, none of that fancy light bulb malarky for us.
Every room can be shut down by one switch in the room leaving only the essentials running like the freezers and cameras etc. Internet goes off at 11pm on a timer.....just incase we forget and the kids think it's party time.
Golly, I only wish we had had an internet timer when the kids were at home. They were on it at all hours. Light bulbs are definitely something we need to look at, I think. We have 14 x 40w bulbs (potentially) in the living room alone and the minimum on one fitting is 3 ...eek...I have put an energy saving bulb into the table lamp and intend using that more unless we are reading, obviously, when it would be too dim. I look forward to your post re tips, Julee, many thanks
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