How I Save On My Electric Bill

It really annoys me how much energy bills are. I work hard to earn money and then have to give it away to the energy firms just because I want to have the light on or cook a family meal. 

Since the beginning of my frugal living journey I have done my best to cut our electricity consumption. This time last year we lived in a small 2 bedroom flat and had a prepayment meter which are more expensive than other tariffs. Our average monthly usage was around £90 (we had no gas supply). This month we have only used £26 which is a huge difference considering we now live in a big 3 bedroom house.

1. Always check for the cheapest tariff that you can get. There are comparison websites that do this for you.

2. Once you have found the cheapest tariff, check cashback sites to see if they have that provider listed. They often offer money for people switching between providers.

3. Now you have got the best deal, you can work on reducing your energy consumption. Everything you have with a plug is costing you money! 


It might seem like common sense but I didn't realise what a difference it would make to my monthly bills just turning things off at the wall. Leaving TV's on standby, cookers switched on at the wall, phone chargers plugged in, these are all draining electric.

We don't turn lights on and off as we go to each room. If we are going to be upstairs we put the landing light on and this is sufficient to light each room up there. Same with downstairs when we try and stay in the living room all evening with a small lamp on.

Check that your bulbs are energy efficient ones. They take a little while to come bright but they cost a fraction of a normal bulb to use.

Wait until you have a full load of washing to do, rather than doing a half wash. This saves on both electric and water. If your clothes aren't stained and just a bit smelly, see if your machine has a 'quick wash' setting which should freshen them up in half the time.

Batch cook to save on using your cooker so much. If I make a lasagne for example, I cook enough to do 8 portions and freeze what I don't need. That way I can get away with not using the cooker for so long on another night.

Have a quick shower. I usually allow myself 4 minutes in the shower and I find this more than sufficient to get myself clean. Bath times are a once a month treat.

If you have a work mobile phone then always charge it at work. Even if you have a personal mobile see if you can charge that at work too.

Most importantly, I'd advise keeping a check on how much electricity you are using by checking your meter and giving regular meter readings to your supplier. They often guestimate what your consumption is and can drastically overcharge you this way. When I moved in to this house they told me my direct debit for electric would be set at £108!!! I had to wait 3 months until they would re-evaluate it and because of that I am now massively in credit with them.

What suggestions can you give me to help further save on my bills? Any help is always appreciated! Lets not give any more of our hard earned money than we have to to those big companies!

Thanks for reading 
xx

The Little Things Add Up.

I have been thinking more and more about what I can do to save money each day. 

My friend struck up a conversation while we were at a playdate yesterday asking why I had a packed lunch with me and didn't I get bored of eating home made food. It seems so common to spend £3-£4 per day on a sandwich from Greggs along with a morning coffee and lunchtime coffee at £2 per go. I can't imagine wasting £8 per day/£40 per week/£160 per month on these things. £40 per week is my entire food budget for my family! This is when I realised that there are a lot of little things I do each day without realising that add up to a big saving.

Let me give you an idea of my money saving little bits for today...

• Shared a shower with my daughters (they are 5 months and 3 years old). Saved money on water/electric.
• Put a load of washing on a 'quick wash'. Takes half the time, half the energy.
• Hung the above washing out on the washing line as it is a beautiful drying day. Saved money on energy of using tumble drier.
• Went out for a brisk walk. Saves money on having the TV on at home and going to the gym for exercise.
• Rang up an appliance company to complain about my recent cooker purchase. It had arrived with a small dent in it. They immediately gave me £32 back as compensation.
• Baked a batch lot of muffins. I make 3 times as many as I need for the week and freeze the surplus. Saves energy on oven and also my time. Plus is a fun activity for my eldest daughter.
• Re-potted my tomato plants. I have grown these from seeds and will hopefully have proper tomato plants in a couple of months. Saves money on having to shop-buy tomatoes.

And it is only 12pm!

By making little changes to your way of thinking you can save money without realising it. Do you really need a shop bought lunch each day? Do you need to have the TV on as background noise? Do you need to give more of your hard earned money to energy companies and big supermarkets?

Thanks for reading!

xx

Easy Pasta Recipe

I'm sure every family has a 'fall back' meal option for when they know they are rushing around and need something quick and filling to keep them going but are bored of sandwiches. This is mine.

200g Pasta (12p)

50g Soft cheese (12p)

400g tin of vegetable soup (24p)

Sprinkle of salt and pepper

Optional sausages x3 (20p)

Once I've boiled and drained the pasta I put it back in to the same pan (saves on washing up). 

Throw the can of soup in and scoop out a spoon of soft cheese and add that on top then mix it all together while the pasta is still hot. 

Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper and plate it up. If you want to add sausages for a meaty meal then chop them up pop them on top. (I use the sausages if we have had them for tea the night before and have cooked a few extra) Easy peasy pasta.

These amounts here serve me once for my lunch, my 1 year old once for her lunch, and I also box a portion to take for my pack up the next day if I am working.

2 and a half vegetarian portions for 48p, or meaty portions for 68p, not bad for a super quick frugal lunch. 

Thanks for reading

xx

Hello

Welcome to my blog!

I have been contemplating making a blog for quite some time. I enjoy reading other blogs and enjoy writing so it seems the right thing for me to do now I have some spare time in the day.

A bit of background about me and my family...

Myself and my husband bought our first home in August 2013. We had saved up for quite some time and had a good deposit to put down. We didn't want to rush in to buying a house and it took us a few months to find one we were both happy with and thought could be our 'forever' home.

We bought a 3 bedroom semi detached house in Derbyshire near our places of work. It had been quite neglected inside by the previous owners who were both retired. We didn't view this as a problem - in fact it was better for us as we could negotiate a better price due to the state of the property.

In money terms, the property was for sale for £134,995 and we paid £122,500 for it. (It always pays to negotiate!) Our first offer of £120,000 was declined which we expected would be the case but we wanted a number to work up from. With our £32000 deposit this meant we had a mortgage of £90500. We took the mortgage out over 27 years so I will be 52 and my partner will be 57 by the time it ends.

Ideally, we would both like to retire at 60 and 65. To do this, we need to get the mortgage paid off as quickly as possible so we can start organising our retirement!

The journey begins....