Frugal Queen asked recently Are you a miser?
In short – No.
But (there’s always a but and
this is a BIG BUT) I don’t want to chuck my hard earned cash away so I am
careful how I spend and with whom I spend with.
My preference for grocery shopping is to spend with
the local butcher, baker and greengrocer; but in practical terms that’s not
always possible so Mr T or Mr S will get a visit, on occasion Mr A but he’s the
furthest away. My corner shop Mr CoOp
has some great yellow stickers; I always look for yellow stickers, whoopsie,
items marked down; most things can be frozen but only buy if you will use
it. I recently got some yellow sticker
chicken reduced from £4 to £2.05 and pork shops from £4.00 to £1.99 – they also
had some Clover spread and Pizzas reduced but as they aren’t things we eat
there’s no point in buying but because the lure of a nice brightly coloured
yellow sticker.
We reviewed our energy supplier at the end of
February. We aren’t the best at turning
lights off or unplugging equipment – do people really crawl behind the TV each
night to turn it off at the mains? The dishwasher is used once a day on
average, the washing machine is used on average twice a day, tumble dryer same
during the winter – although we have made a conscious effort to reduce this.
TVs in four rooms and satellites boxes; DVD player, two laptops, two monitors,
a printer, a shredder, phone chargers, clock radios, kettle, fridges, freezers,
oven, microwave, boiler, outside light, pond pump, charging drills and other
equipment SonnyHen needs for work; it all mounts up.
For a week every evening we turned off at the mains
or unplugged as many devices as we could (obviously it would be foolish to turn
off the freezer), took electric reading as we went to bed and then again first
thing in the morning – we had used 4 units whilst we slept. The next week we
just left everything as normal and we used 20 units – so YES it does make a
difference
Do you unplug and switch off at the wall each
night?
MummyHen
X
Your honesty is refreshing. I too cannot believe the proliferation of gadgets over the past twenty years that require electrical input of some sort. When we started out it was TV, iron, kettle, Hoover. Now we can't even brush our teeth without plugging into the Natonal Grid!
ReplyDeleteGosh no I don't but I might think about it after reading this. I think it would be impossible to unplug everything but I might try and make a few changes.
ReplyDeleteActually, yes we do switch off (not necessarily actually pull the plug out) every night but that's as much because I have a bee in my bonnet about safety and not leaving unnecessary appliances plugged in as it is about saving money. The only things that get left on are the freezer and the fridge. I know cable companies like Virgin say their box should be left on constantly, but we turn it off at the mains every night and have never had an issue.
ReplyDeleteI turn most things off - and leave just the freezer and fridge on each night - Oh and plus the alarm clock! xxx
ReplyDelete