Welcome to my new follower never too old.
Well,
we have just come back from doing what I hope is our last top up for
2012 (and hopefully, most of January). Taking away what was not
normal groceries, it came to £15.36. That doesn't leave much change
out of my planned £20 total spend for January, so might have to up
it a little bit.
Anyway,
my plan is to use up what is in our 2 upright freezers, plus the
fridge and store cupboards. That way, I can begin batch cooking items
such as soups, stews, curries, faggots, cauliflower cheese etc.
The
wind has been gradually building up here throughout the night and
morning although the temperature is quite mild at 11C. Might even be
able to get away with not lighting our fire at all or until the
evening.
We
have been searching on line for a better electricity deal due to our
provider (Eon), introducing standing charges from January. We don't
have gas in our area so get a £20 annual discount from them for
that. We also get a 6% annual discount off our bills for online
management. Although there were one or two better deals as far as
standing charges go, we need Economy 7 and not all providers offer
that.
Our
usage splits into 1/6th day time units and 5/6th night time ones. Due
to using very little during the day, we never qualify for the cheaper
day time units. We have our 40 minutes of morning hot water and
central heating before the cheap rate switches off. Plus when we
tumble dry, we do so overnight on the cheap rate. Everything else is
dried on the clothes horse in front of the log burner or on the line.
Anyway,
in the end, we decided to stay with Eon for now but changed tariff to
the Age UK one which will save us £50 in this coming year. After
that, we'll think again.
Other
heating expenses are oil (central heating/hot water). It is hard to
quantify costs as we need to top it up every now and then and it is
difficult to estimate how much gets used in a year. We had 900 litres
delivered late Autumn at 50p a litre (it is now around 78p per
litre). Our tank holds 1000 litres and is currently 3/4 full.
The
other heating expense is the wood burner. We paid £140 for just over
2 cubic metres of dry hardwood logs. They should last us most if not
all of the Winter and Spring as we had some left over from last year.
I suppose that means on average, we should need to buy another 2-3
cubic metres in Summer ready for next year. We use pallets, old wood
from fence panels and twigs for kindling, so most of it is usually
free.
Got
to keep your eye on the ball haven't you?