Money saving ideas.

We looked at solar panels. Payback is around the 20-25 year mark. What should be happening is all new build fitted with SPs, and factored into selling price. This should have been happening for decades.

Tiny savings on my favourite hobby this year. I collected lots of seed from my own garden, and asked if I could take a seed head or two from gardens we visited in Autumn, then grew them on this year. Garden filled with memories and colour, and I now give plants and seeds away to family and friends. Helps if you have a greenhouse though👍

We have emptied and turned off one of our freezers, just to see how much we save over a few months but it’s the winter we need it really!  We do use our Remoska at home and away, ours isn’t the large one but fine for us two.  I do think at 400 watts, instead of 2000 for our ovens, it must be better although obviously some restrictions on what we can cook in there.  

I've just been checking our fuel usage for heating water so for the last week I have only used the immersion heater, the gas boiler is switched off. The immersion is timed to be on 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour early evening. In actual fact it is only operating for less than a quarter of this time as the water in the cylinder keeps very hot between times.

Interestingly, the cost has worked out almost the same as the previous week, whichever heating method I use for the water. During this last week the cost for gas for cooking on the hob, which was most days,  was a very modest £0.13.

This week the immersion is off and I'll check again what the comparison is. A 2 week trial isn't really sufficient to get an accurate picture.

Thanks for that heddlo. I don’t know a great deal about Remoska’s, and being veggies who don’t do long roasts in an oven, not sure if it would work for us. I shall read up a bit about slow cookers, we have one of those, used occasionally. 

Mrs WN cuts open plastic bottles of body lotion and the like and I'm always amazed at how much is left in them and thrown away by those that don't do this. As much as a quarter of the bottle on the last one.

We have someone coming to se us on Thursday to start the process of getting rid of Sky TV. May cost us a bit initially but not paying the monthly subscription will soon make up for it. It's not cost with that one but VFM.

In all honesty though we are not in the same place financially as quite a lot of folk around here and I have found that I am increasing my food bank shopping so will probably not be saving much if anything. And with a UK tour in the caravan on the cards for next month we have not yet reached the "nuclear option".

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Before you go down the route of solar panels ensure your roof is in tip condition some neighbours near us have had all sorts of problems and costs  when their with solar panels roof started to leak near the ridge tiles and pidgeons just love to roost under them or they do under the ones fitted to rented properties in our area

I think our kettle might be going onto stove top as well. 

Stick a fitted lid on it and it will boil in no time. Same for boiling water for Pasta or Potatoes etc.

Reading of people turning off freezers brings to mind warnings I’ve heard on the TV news concerning people getting food poisoning due to turning off their fridges. Keep your fridges and freezers on folks as long as you have food in them. There are safer ways to save a few coppers such as not using dish washers or tumble dryers.

You also live in the South West Water area Tinwheeler, with their huge water prices. We have found that using a large and always full dishwasher works out cheaper than washing up each evening. Our taps do need to run for a while to heat up the water though, so could be why. We just needed to acquire a few extra plates. Only use the tumble drier a couple of times a year, in ‘emergencies’ and also because our particular one is rather useless.