Household Money Saving Tips

[Poodle]

Wtaf, that's not what i quoted...?! That's quoted from JJ, post #40, no idea how that happened.

[ally406]

I agree'd with most of your points (although you seem like a right tight a*se! ) but not this.... No heat in rooms just causes mould, I didn't have a heater in my room for the last few winters and was forever cleaning mould off the walls! (We have no central heating so have to rely on plug-ins). This year I have had a heater, but only on in the evenings when the temp is below 17c - not had quite such a problem with mould this year so I'd say it's worth keeping some heat on.

Same with the condenser dryer, yes it kept the kitchen warm but puts so much moisture into the air that was again condensing on the windows and causing puddles on the sills each morning and on the walls creating mould. Plus condenser dryers cost more to buy and more to run... We now a normal one.

On the subject of mould - cold washes on the washing machine are a false economy too, the rubbers end up all mouldy and the washing machine fills with bacteria and stinks lol.

Honestly mate, no problems here with damp or mould, I have asthma and that shit would not be on. If your condenser is causing condensation then there's something wrong with it, that's the whole point of the thing is that it doesn't output moisture This is evidenced by the amount of water it collects in its container (which incidentally is good for running a steam generator iron, it's essentially de-ionised so better for them). I got a broken one off ebay for £26, £5 on new thermostats and it's been running happily for the last 2 years. No condensation, no windows misting up, just lots of recycled heat

Even if you had to buy new, I'm sure you could work out how long throwing away 3kw of power would start to cost you.....and before anyone says dry your clothes on a clothes horse, that is putting lots of moisture into the atmosphere

...and on washing machines, always a good idea to do a wash at its highest temperature with some washing machine cleaner occasionally. Take a look at the back of a drum out of an old washer, it looks like something from Aliens and you'd probably vomit.

[Toms306]

Hmm, that's interesting, must be another variable I'm missing somewhere! My Nans house was exactly the same with mould when we turned off the heating after she moved - it only took a week for all the walls to be black!

Fair enough about the dryer, not sure if they all work the same but our dryer forced heat/air through the condenser plates (which should theoretically remove all moisture) and then blew that air straight out the front....well it couldn't condense quick enough so was basically blowing hot damp air out lol, despite filling the water bottle as well. So we had waste electricity on a dehumidifier as well, was a viscous circle lol.

It's also not throwing away a solid 3kW, that's the idea of a thermostat lol, but it is obviously still a large cost - we do make sure appliances are A rated though, so it's not as bad as it could be I guess.

[Dave]

When I was a student I cooked a giant hotpot with everything in, and bagged it up into meals to freeze, never let anything go off. Google how to make your own favourite food, a pizza is surprisingly simple and cheap cheap to make. Most people over eat, so eat slower and you will eat less and your food will go further. Give up your gym and excersise at home. Swap that dog for a goldfish get some clippers to shave with and cut your own hair, get a mate to tidy up the edges. Dare I say it, lengthen the cable on your throttle aswell haha. Consider buying used veg and if you do have the time to, filter it yourself lots to save here. Brew your own beer if you must drink. Remember your car is JUST a 306 (do you really need to put in that £86 oil when you change it every 4000 miles - though I feel I may get slapped for mentioning this haha). £10 tyres from the scrapyard which you can get almost new). Cold showers are also awesome in the morning and saves your bill. Charity shops are also good for alot of things, and possibly car boot sales if you want to spot some bargains and ebay them. If your in a built up city and have a driveway, rent it out. Sell things you have that you don't use, digital cameras, laptops, general hardware, downgrade. (I have an iphone 5 but want to go to a 3GS for the extra money I would get). Use less toilet paper, and shower gel/soap/washing up liquid). Get a water butt. Alcohol is stupidly expensive, your lungs and liver will thank you, quit drinking/smoking. It's surprising what you can get for free if you just ask, too.

My 2p from when I was a student. I am really a dog lover.

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Blablacar is also an app to share lifts with people to split the bill.

[Wor Jimmy]

Sell your car.. Buy a moped. SORTED! (130mpg / £17 tax )

Hate Incoming

[KevinTW]

Sack sky off TV is crap full stop
Freeview and online sreaming

Mobile phone contracts change to a restricted terrific that cuts you from racking up big bills

Electric turn off unplug vampire goods like phone chargers as they use electric even when not charging your phone

Big saving for me was installing a grey water system which uses rainwater to flush toilet and wash clothing in washing machine

Learn to walk short distances or cycle instead of taking car

I built a grey and rainwater water system and my water bill went from £80 a month to £20. I use a 1000 litre tank free from a local printer and a 12 volt on demand pump run by a battery. I charge it for 6 hours a day at 15 watts.THe whole system cost about £100.I have a wood burning stove which heats the lounge. All the wood comes from skips when I drive around for work. They are about 80% efficient compared to an open fire which is only about 20%. It cost £700 inc a flue liner and I fitted it myself.It has reduced my gas bill by 2/3.

[lolsteve]

Dad bought an outside wood burning stove thing to dispose of some of the excess wood from his jobs, since filling skips with it was costing him money

Been spending 6-7 hours a day in the university which I started off buying meal deals at £3 a day ($$$) popped to asda and for £5 I got 6 bags of crisps, enough sweetcorn and chicken sandwich filling for 4-5 days worth and a 1.5L bottle of coke which I just poured back into the spare 500ml bottle I had lying about to stop me drinking it all in one day.

Also in regards to the grey water system, do you have any problems during the winter months when things get cold? Going to be writing up about eco housing soon and want to see if there's any drawbacks to the grey water systems

[THE_Liam]

If you like your beer, have a search on here for the homebrew thread. 40 pints for £15 and it's good stuff if you get a good kit and you do it properly

[cully]

Also in regards to the grey water system, do you have any problems during the winter months when things get cold? Going to be writing up about eco housing soon and want to see if there's any drawbacks to the grey water systems

when i say grey water, i mean rain water only not house waste water
if you use house waste water you have to deal with pathogens in the water

as my my main rain storage tank pump and filter is above ground, the only time i have problems is when it freezes, but i keep an eye on the weather and when the ground starts to freeze, i disconnect the pump and filter and remove it to indoors till the cold has passed, this only happens around 2-3 weeks in a year.
while its disconnected my system runs on mains water as i have a bypass system too

this could be got over if the storage tank and feed pipes were under ground
but that is not an option here

[KevinTW]

Dad bought an outside wood burning stove thing to dispose of some of the excess wood from his jobs, since filling skips with it was costing him money

Been spending 6-7 hours a day in the university which I started off buying meal deals at £3 a day ($$$) popped to asda and for £5 I got 6 bags of crisps, enough sweetcorn and chicken sandwich filling for 4-5 days worth and a 1.5L bottle of coke which I just poured back into the spare 500ml bottle I had lying about to stop me drinking it all in one day.

Also in regards to the grey water system, do you have any problems during the winter months when things get cold? Going to be writing up about eco housing soon and want to see if there's any drawbacks to the grey water systems

The grey water from the shower goes into a 200 litre water butt in a shed by gravity. No freezing probs there. It feeds the basement toilet by gravity. The problem is crap getting in the ball valve. I run it through a mesh filter but it needs a clean once a month. The pumped rainwater tank feeds the washing machine and other higher toilets. The tank is right up against the house and is lagged , as is the outlet hose.It can freeze when very cold but the real trick is to keep out the light to stop algae etc. In summer we add a little bit of lidl bleach and that sorts out any probs. We pay almost £4 a cubic metre here in West Kent

[cully]

the secret with the grey water is to get your water rates rebanded onto the lower price scale, I have done this with my system but i had to fight for it


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[dwanepipe]

Reading these tips and thinking me and the woman can do a lot of this . Thanks everyone

[lolsteve]

ah didnt see your grey water replies, cheers for the info

[THE_Liam]

I've picked up a couple more.

- Drink pints! I always do but my lass has always drunk vodka and coke, 3 an hour at £2.50 each. Got her on pints of cider, takes her 45 mins to drink 1 pint at £2.10

- Another tip to save money in the pub, don't play pool! Most places are a quid a game now and a game lasts what, 10 minutes if that? Alternatively, go play snooker, my snooker club is £5 for a years membership and charges £2.50 an hour to play pool or £3.50 an hour to play snooker. Plus, no annoying knobheads piling up a tenners worth of pound coins on the table and hogging it for hours! And it's £2 a pint in the club

- When you buy a car part, consider how long you'll keep the car. Yes, Meyle HD wishbone bushes will last years but if a car will get sold in 6 months (as mine often do!) eBay shite will last that long. I probably wouldn't extend that to brakes though...

- Used games. I got my Xbox 360 3 years after it came out, so I got a top-spec machine with all the reliability issues worked out for £120 rather than the £350 people queued to pay for them when they came out. Then, you can buy all the 3 year old games from Gamestation for like £3-£5 each with free delivery rather than paying £35 a game when they first come out. Don't forget games with gold either, just got Dead Island for nowt!

- The gym. Now granted, anyone who's met me in recent years won't think I'll know anything about this, but I used to go regularly when I played rugby seriously before I destroyed my knee, I can only really do swimming now because of the damage to my knee, which I do for £1.50 at the council pool. It was like £60 a month to run on a treadmill (which you can do for nothing in the park) or lift weights (which you can do in your spare room with a £100 weights bench, even less off eBay), with the smell of sweat hanging in the air. The only upside was the hot women in lycra

- I think the best saving, one we ALL make on here, is buying used cars. I paid £400 for my 306, and in over a year, besides tax, MOT, insurance, mods and wear and tear, it's cost me nothing and is still worth what I paid for it, if not more. A new Focus would be £12000, which including finance is more than £18000 over 5 years at the typical APR, yet buy the time that £18000 has been paid, it's worth what, £5000? That's £13000 in depreciation and interest, essentially nothing!!! And you still have to pay for fuel, insurance (usually), wear and tear and tax, fair enough your covered for major mechanical failure but if that happens to me even without breaking the car I can scrap it for £100 and only lose £300, sell my cyclones, Bosch pump, straight through exhaust and stereo and I'm even. Yet people I work with say stuff like "Well I'm glad I bought a new Focus, I only pay £60 a year for tax". Well done genius, that £825 you'll save over 5 years cancels out the £13000 in finance and depreciation...

[Toms306]

Don't go the pub at all, will save plenty of money then lol...


Out of interest, as theres a few superscrimpers on here, how much do you roughly spend on bills/food etc over a month? I'm not talking about 'fun' if that's your thing (alcohol, clubbing etc) but just normal living costs?

[Uberderv]

If your car runs on Veg it will run on WVO, massive savings straight away. I built a filter system for mine which paid for itself in the first batch.

[THE_Liam]

If your car runs on Veg it will run on WVO, massive savings straight away. I built a filter system for mine which paid for itself in the first batch.

I'd love to see some pics of that if you have any mate?

[Dum-Dum]

Don't go the pub at all, will save plenty of money then lol...


Out of interest, as theres a few superscrimpers on here, how much do you roughly spend on bills/food etc over a month? I'm not talking about 'fun' if that's your thing (alcohol, clubbing etc) but just normal living costs?

I probably spend £200-250 a month at the supermarket but that includes a few beers, cleaning stuff, occasional clothing DVDs etc. I dont really scrimp too much on that as I am happy spending money on it. Could probably spend half that if I tried.

Electric is £50 a month on eco7, £16 a month on water (and I use about a third of what they consider economical for a single person), 20 odd quid home insurance, no gas, just shy of 90 council tax.

[Uberderv]

Still perfecting it but the basics are there, oil can either be poured in or sucked in, heated, filtered internally, settled, drained then filtered through the 2 10" to 5 micron when cooled. Eventually will be PLC controlled lol

[THE_Liam]

That's pretty bloody impressive! I was thinking of building a cold upflow setup, but apparently that's not that good...

[Uberderv]

That's pretty bloody impressive! I was thinking of building a cold upflow setup, but apparently that's not that good...

Cheers, because I'm such a womble the only new part was the pump, filters and copper pipe.

Upflow is OK if you have plenty of time, which I don't. ^^That system seems to be perfect for minimal spare time. Although I buy WVO which is already 1/2 decent quality its still only 55ppl.
I could use it to make BIO but it just adds cost

[THE_Liam]

Thing is I can actually get more than I can use for free, my lasses stepdad is a school caretaker and they throw away 200 litres a month from the kitchens, no one collects it. Its just having the space.

[Uberderv]

Thing is I can actually get more than I can use for free, my lasses stepdad is a school caretaker and they throw away 200 litres a month from the kitchens, no one collects it. Its just having the space.

Gutted, I could easily mop up 200l a month. If you can store it then rough filter it you could make some good wonga. Shame your in Leeds I would take the lot every month

[lolsteve]

Mmm trying to convince ladysteve to get a dt when her mini sells

[Dum-Dum]

Liam I'd be getting that and filtering it before selling it on on ebay or here.

[THE_Liam]

As soon as I've got space I will be mate

[RetroPug]

Go to the supermarket late at night, buy the cheap food which is reduced to clear and freeze it all.
Chicken breasts are what, like 3-4 quid for a couple?

If you go late at night you can get several for 1-2 pounds, not to mention veg etc. which drops to pennies.

If you do this you can eat well for little outlay.

[Sian]

I wAs going through £7-8 a day on electric a day damn storage heaters so i
Dont use them anymore and use plug in oil heaters and turn literally every plug off except the frodge freezer now using £15 a week! winner!

[Dave]

Im living in Australia now, Brisbane city centre. I pay less than 85 quid (equivalent) a week, for all my bills, rent, and food.
Im now living by this thread

[RetroPug]

Im living in Australia now, Brisbane city centre. I pay less than 85 quid (equivalent) a week, for all my bills, rent, and food.
Im now living by this thread

Aren't living costs there typically higher as well?
If so, you're doing well!