Useful money-saving tips for Winter 2022

effalump you should not keep cooked food in the fridge for any longer than 48 hours or you risk food poisoning.

Oh, I keep things for far longer than that. I'd be careful with prawns, or dairy-based food, but I'm a great believer in the sniff test, and I'm here to tell the tale?

I just went down to Iceland (as it's Tuesday). Bought a 3-for-2 that I usually buy, and got my 10% off, saving 23% on my £20.
There were a lot of other 3-for-2 offers, but they were meaty (and maybe fish?) and I'm veggie.

pandapatch

I have found 2 useful savings - the hoover costs 39p an hour so I shall be reducing my hoovering and likewise ironing!!!

wonderful

I had a couple of spare woollen throws so I turned them into a warm dressing gown, thigh length and can be used as a housecoat over anything

I also finished making knitted woollen socks, they are so cosy and I will use older ones as bedsocks, they make me sleep better. I have at least 8 pairs now

A word of warning as some will not have heating on at all this winter, please be aware that pipes can freeze and then they burst on thawing. I lived through that time as a child and parents used very basic paraffin heaters

Just to add to the posts re Christmas presents, last year we had a Secret Santa for my OH , myself, our four children and their partners. We spent £25 each and everyone put an enormous amount of thought and effort into just the one present, even my sons! ( sorry to sound sexist ). We were all delighted with our secret gifts and look forward to repeating it this year plus of course it saved everyone, and me in particular, a fortune. We decided not to just buy for the children as I felt it was teaching the children that only they were special enough to be lavished with gifts .

Chardy did you have to produce ID to show you were of pensionable age or was it a case of, without being rude, one look and in you go.

My freezer is packed but when it has more space that is an excellent idea. Even if you do not buy food, loo rolls would be cheaper. Did you have to spend a minimum amount?

Also bear in mind the need to keep the house dry.

I had an uncle who never seemed to have the heating on. When he went to a care home and I began to clear the house I opened one of the wardrobes in the bedroom and it was like something out of a horror film. The whole cupboard was full of strands of mould in shades of green and black, holding all the clothes together in a lump. I had to don overalls and mask and put everything in black sacks and take to the tip.

The first thing I did was put the heating on for an hour morning and evening, to keep the house dry and ensure that the mould did not spread elsewhere. I had to scrub walls and move cupboards and other furniture, as I found ordinary black mould on walls and damp corners, which needed to be all cleared away before we could sell the house.

A damp house will also have mould spores in the air that can cause respiratory illnesses, as can the damp.

Try if you possible can to have the heating on for an hour morning and evening to keep the house dry.

Unfortunately my boiler died on me last January and it cost me nearly 4500 to replace. To be honest I could manage without the central heating but six weeks of boiling kettles to wash was ridiculous. Live in a biggish largely open plan house where the central quarter is double height glass. Glorious but bitterly cold in winter. I only have the central heating on for three hours a day from Nov till early Match (and live in chilly rural Scotland), wear lots of layers, have a heated throw and hot water bottle. I collect wood for the wood burner which heats the two upstairs sitting rooms. Wash at 20 degrees and dry on a pulley and washing line on the garage. And going to dig out some curtains to hang in the two sets of French windows in the kitchen as it is always the coldest room. At the moment there are fairy light strung along the curtain poles but they will have to go. Always worth looking on freecycle as have had four lots of free wood from my local site. As long as the shower room is warm and my bed is toasty I am fine. Only worry is cold really affects my arthritis but simply cannot afford to heat my house.

Codyodo

Martin Lewis suggested a heated throw, bought one for my daughter who is thrilled with it. Managed to get 2 in the sale for my husband and I. Heat the person not the room. ?

thanks for this suggestion. I've just ordered one on Amazon

karmalady

I had a couple of spare woollen throws so I turned them into a warm dressing gown, thigh length and can be used as a housecoat over anything

I also finished making knitted woollen socks, they are so cosy and I will use older ones as bedsocks, they make me sleep better. I have at least 8 pairs now

A word of warning as some will not have heating on at all this winter, please be aware that pipes can freeze and then they burst on thawing. I lived through that time as a child and parents used very basic paraffin heaters

A good many years ago our house had a downstairs loo and wash basin, but there was no radiator in the little cloak room. One particularly cold winter the taps to the basin froze. I used a broad based candle, in a deep metal pan to slowly thaw out the taps. From then on I kept a candle burning in there. It really warmed up the room and the taps never froze again. It's perfectly safe, as long as you keep the candle away from anything flammable and it is in a metal container large enough for the job.

I just saw this on Sky News, may be useful:

MoneySavingExpert has collated data based on standard appliances and worked out the cost using the upcoming 1 October 2022 price cap charges for electricity (51.89p/kWh).
Here's a list of some common household items and how much they cost to use per hour:
Oven (2000W) - £1.04
Kettle (1,800W) - 93p
Electric hob (1,700W) - 88p
Hoover (1,400W) - 73p
Microwave (1,200W) - 62p
Iron (1,100W) - 57p
Slow cooker (225W) - 12p
Washing machine (700W) - 36p
PlayStation 5 (201W) - 10p
Sky Q box (45W) - 2.34p
TV (30W) - 1.55p
Fridge (28W) - 1.45p
Phone charger (5W) - 0.26p
Unfortunately this list doesn’t include heating appliances, if anybody has seen a list of costs for those could you post it please?

Casdon, it would depend on the heater kWh, so (assuming the heater emits the vast majority, e.g. a fan heater) a 2kWh would be about £1.04, the same as an oven. Still, many heaters (and ovens) switch on and off, according to their set temperature or thermostat. My little luxuries, an electric blanket and underfloor heating in the shower room, are just 60 watts and 300 watts, so fairly cheap to run.

During the heatwave, I blocked the bathroom and shower room windows with polystyrene slabs (saved furniture packing). I've kept them to put back up when it's cold. I run a dehumidifier for a few hours a day in the winter (to keep the house nice and dry) rather than use the heating.

Charleygirl5

Chardy did you have to produce ID to show you were of pensionable age or was it a case of, without being rude, one look and in you go.

My freezer is packed but when it has more space that is an excellent idea. Even if you do not buy food, loo rolls would be cheaper. Did you have to spend a minimum amount?

This week I offered to show my bus pass, the assistant said 'That's fine'.

On one previous occasion, the woman at the till was asking most older folk 'Do you have a bus pass?' I went to get it out while she said 'It's so I can give you a discount'.

If you have access to The Food Warehouse shops the Tuesday 10% discount is available there as it’s part of Iceland. They tend to be large shops and in addition to frozen foods they have cheese, cooked meats, fruit and veg, bread, breakfast cereals, cleaning materials, loo rolls etc

I use my bus pass for ID but they barely look at it. A glance at my wrinkled worn out face seems to be sufficient ?

At this time of the year I go out with fungi specialists who instantly in the field differentiate between much desired, often expensive to buy, specimens and their virtually identical highly toxic ‘twins’.
On occasion people who want to forage (Joe Public and restaurant owners ?) deliberately tag along and ask the inevitable, and irritating, question. The answer is yes, any fungus can be eaten once but possibly not again. A pregnant pause always follows.
For many years people picked brown roll-rim, Paxillus involutus, believing if it were properly cooked it was fine. In fact it contains deadly toxins which stimulate an autoimmune reaction. This causes the body to attack its own red blood cells often resulting in death. My info is from the Woodland Trust.
Paxillus involutus forms ectomycorrhizal relationships with a broad range of tree species. It reduces a tree’s intake of heavy metals and increases its resistance to pathogens. It’s not just P. i. which is doing a brilliant job. Other fungi work in partnership with trees, provide significant benefits. We value trees as they absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. An average tree emits the oxygen required by 2 people.
Here’s another consideration. Without fungi we’d be knee-deep in debris. They are nature’s recyclers.
I’ll get off my soap box now, take a couple of coins to the supermarket and buy a box of ‘shrooms for me brekkie.

Most heating appliances have a plate on the back of them somewhere giving basic technical information, including their output in kilowatt hours (KWh). Electricity is charged in kilowatt hours, so if you know your unit price you can work out a heater's cost.

For example, according to the various figures the current (before 1st October) average price per kilowatt hour is around 25p.

If you have a fan heater with a dial labelled '1' and '2', it is likely that the 1 setting says that the heater is using 1 kilowatt and 2 means 2 kilowatt, so the cost per hour for having it on setting 1 is 25p and setting 2 is 50p. Having a heater like this on for 12 hours at 2 will cost £6.00

Oil filled radiators usually consume less than 1 unit an hour.

However the plate on the back of the heater should tell you how much power the heater uses and then multiply by 25p, but remember on October 1, the rate is going up a lot.

I've just made my first poached egg in the microwave, in 45 seconds! Feeling pleased I've got a new snack option.

Does anyone know if it’s cheaper to cook vegetables in an electric steamer or on a gas hob?
Obviously, it depends on tariffs, but in a general way?

Also, I have just boiled potatoes and carrots together in the same saucepan, using one burner instead of two. Does anyone else do this? Could save some money over time.

How do you poach an egg in the microwave?

I always poach in water, but actually takes time and costs to heat the water on the hob.

I have just cooked all my veg and pasta on one pan, I add the greens later than the pasta, green beans and carrots. It is really nice, ten minutes in total. I have been doing this since I was widowed 5 years ago

Sorry to hear that you were widowed 5 years ago.

I wish I had thought of cooking stuff together earlier!

I will do that more from now on.

I often combine vegetables in one pan. Start cooking the potatoes and then add the cabbage at the last moment. Easy to fish the potatoes out and then strain the vegtables to serve.

Suzique, it's here on the website.

www.egginfo.co.uk/recipes/microwave-poached-eggs