Okay, I'm going to let you in to a little secret.....
We have no heating.
By this I don't mean out boiler is broken or we're waiting for an engineer, we just simply don't have central heating that works properly. When we moved into our new house it was the middle of summer and blistering hot, the thought of heating didn't even cross our minds, so when it started getting a bit chilly around the end of October we popped the heating on a few times, imagine our horror then our MONTHLY bill arrived and was £195! I did some research and it turns out that our storage heaters are not on E7 which means they don't run on a cheaper night rate, nor are they connected to a timer to make them come on at night, you have to turn them on manually, wait for them to heat up and then get your heating, extremely expensive if you forget to turn them off and they don't really kick out enough heat to get the room about 15C. Brrrr!
Since then we've been and bought an oil filled radiator for £25 and we have run two of these every day, sometimes all day and haven't had a bill higher than £90 and are getting less.
These last few months I've worked hard trying to keep the house nice and warm and prepare for when the temperature really drops in February and now have a little routine that is working well and keeping the house no lower than 18C with is quite comfortable.
One thing that I have found absolutely essential is when to open and close your curtains, if its still dark when you get up, don't open them! You will lose so much heat just from opening or closing them at the wrong time, as soon as the sun starts to go down you need to draw them, it really is that simple. Make sure all of your windows are covered, it's were most of your heat will escape, if you don't have curtains make them out of anything you can, we spent about a month with a shower curtain in our bedroom window, it might not look pretty but it will help keep you warm.
Another tip (which is a no brainer really) put on a jumper. You can't expect to be able to sit around in your underwear and be warm when you have no central heating, it just isn't going to happen I'm afraid, wrap up in your dressing gown, put on socks and just dress snugly.
I use lots of ways to heat up the house that I will cover in more depth in the near future but unfortunately I have housework to be getting on with *sigh* which, incidentally is another great way to keep warm!
Showing posts with label move more. Show all posts
Showing posts with label move more. Show all posts
Saturday, 25 January 2014
Wednesday, 1 January 2014
New Years Resolutions.
Happy New Year!
I've never really been one for new years resolutions, I kind of just go with the flow and don't give much thought ahead to the coming year, but now I'm a grown up with my own house and child, I don't think that would be the brightest idea to just wait and see.
#1. Plan ahead.
Especially meals, I started to meal plan at the end of last year when money was tight, I sat here, cupboards bare with £12 in my pocket, 3 mouths to feed and 2 weeks until pay day, I pulled everything out of the cupboard and listed everything I had, to my surprise I managed to make 16 separate dinners and was able to easily make my £12 stretch for lunches too, I won't lie we ate a lot of pasta that week, but we ate.
#2. Cut the crap.
Food wise, sometimes when you're skint it can be all to tempting to buy crap, over processed, packet mix, tinned everything, I cook mainly from scratch so we don't have many dinners that come out of a packet, but when it comes to chocolate, breads or refined carbs, we do eat a lot, which is something I'd like to get away from. So we'll be swapping regular pasta for wholewheat versions, baking our own breads, replacing regular treats with a small treat once in a while, cut down on refined sugars and try to completely cut out anything highly processed and eat much less meat.
#3. Move more.
I won't lie, I'm a lazy Badger, I'm a fan of staying in where it's snug and warm and like to save adventures for when it's nice and dry, so I'm going to buy myself a mac and some wellies and brave the storm whilst reducing my carbon footprint.
#4. Be a gentler person.
Sometimes in life I find myself being a little harsh or a little thoughtless, whether that be to others, the earth or even myself. I often catch myself after a using a harsh tone, throwing out something that could of been recycled, criticizing myself and think to myself "why did I do that?" It doesn't take much just to me that little but more mindful.
So these are mine, now what are yours?
I've never really been one for new years resolutions, I kind of just go with the flow and don't give much thought ahead to the coming year, but now I'm a grown up with my own house and child, I don't think that would be the brightest idea to just wait and see.
#1. Plan ahead.
Especially meals, I started to meal plan at the end of last year when money was tight, I sat here, cupboards bare with £12 in my pocket, 3 mouths to feed and 2 weeks until pay day, I pulled everything out of the cupboard and listed everything I had, to my surprise I managed to make 16 separate dinners and was able to easily make my £12 stretch for lunches too, I won't lie we ate a lot of pasta that week, but we ate.
#2. Cut the crap.
Food wise, sometimes when you're skint it can be all to tempting to buy crap, over processed, packet mix, tinned everything, I cook mainly from scratch so we don't have many dinners that come out of a packet, but when it comes to chocolate, breads or refined carbs, we do eat a lot, which is something I'd like to get away from. So we'll be swapping regular pasta for wholewheat versions, baking our own breads, replacing regular treats with a small treat once in a while, cut down on refined sugars and try to completely cut out anything highly processed and eat much less meat.
#3. Move more.
I won't lie, I'm a lazy Badger, I'm a fan of staying in where it's snug and warm and like to save adventures for when it's nice and dry, so I'm going to buy myself a mac and some wellies and brave the storm whilst reducing my carbon footprint.
#4. Be a gentler person.
Sometimes in life I find myself being a little harsh or a little thoughtless, whether that be to others, the earth or even myself. I often catch myself after a using a harsh tone, throwing out something that could of been recycled, criticizing myself and think to myself "why did I do that?" It doesn't take much just to me that little but more mindful.
So these are mine, now what are yours?
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