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  • Not self sufficient - but getting old...

    OH and I bought our 'new' bungalow in July so are now fairly settled.

    Now, we are not going for anything too stunning by self sufficiency standards, but as we are getting older we would like to ensure our bills are as low as we can make them.

    We have installed 6.11kw of electricity solar panels (26 of the blighters!). We have a log burner coming this week (Parkray Derwent). There is no gas here, so we use oil for water and heating, but will use an electric one I think once we get a feel for it and change the showers from those that heat it up as you use it.

    We are cancelling SKY and OH is looking at alternatives for non subscription TV.

    I have now got my 6 chickens. And we have started clearing the plot to grow our own.

    Have I missed anything really obvious? Can those of you who are further along the track of minimising bills than I am let me know what you do that I may not have considered?
    Last edited by Corris; 07-11-2011, 07:22 AM.

  • #2
    I guess transport costs would be your next biggest bill: you *could* run your car on used cooking oil
    All gardeners know better than other gardeners." -- Chinese Proverb.

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    • #3
      Or use a village bus and not have a car? I want to get rid of our second car and start cycling. It's just not needed at the moment. How about making a compost unit for all that chicky manure?
      Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better...Albert Einstein

      Blog - @Twotheridge: For The Record - Sowing and Growing with a Virgin Veg Grower: Spring Has Now Sprung...Boing! http://vvgsowingandgrowing2012.blogs....html?spref=tw

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      • #4
        Join Freecycle.

        Get your Gardening Club card from Wyvale and watch this forum for their 50p seed sale next autumn.

        Join Gumtree and sell any surplus plants in the spring.

        Another thought; do you have a local Time Bank - Timebanking UK: creating an environment for time banks to flourish - near you? If not, perhaps you could set one up.
        Last edited by singleseeder; 07-11-2011, 09:01 AM.
        Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you are probably right.
        Edited: for typo, thakns VC

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        • #5
          non subscription tv, or streaming tv, so you don't have to pay the tv licence
          TVCatchup - Never Miss A Show Again
          use a torrent client to download tv progrmas, tv programs found here
          EZTV - TV Torrents Online
          as TS said about cars, if you have a diesel it can be run on oil, or you can look into having a hybrid or something like a smart car.

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          • #6
            I can't swap the car for a bike even for leisure at the moment. Some theivin toerag pinched it from outside my back door

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            • #7
              AP - insurance claim?
              Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better...Albert Einstein

              Blog - @Twotheridge: For The Record - Sowing and Growing with a Virgin Veg Grower: Spring Has Now Sprung...Boing! http://vvgsowingandgrowing2012.blogs....html?spref=tw

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              • #8
                I would check the size of the oil tank, anything less than 1500 litres needs to be upsized. We use roughly 1500 to 2000 litres a year, and also live in a bungalow (130sqm). You need a big enough tank so that you can buy oil when its at its cheapest during the summer, and have it take you through the winter. As buying oil around christmas is extremely expensive. Boiler juice is a good website for checking oil prices as they show the weekly average over a two year period, so you can see when it is going up or getting cheaper, and how that sits with historical prices.

                Boiler Juice
                Last edited by Mikey; 07-11-2011, 12:43 PM.
                I'm only here cos I got on the wrong bus.

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                • #9
                  we are part of a consortium in the village - 45 of us order oil at the same time and one person barters them all down to the lowest price. So we have good oil deals.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by VirginVegGrower View Post
                    AP - insurance claim?
                    It was sitting outside . Nice thought though.

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                    • #11
                      As you already have Sky there is a good probability the your existing Sky dish can be used to receive Freesat. You will either need a separate Freesat receiver or a modern tele with Freesat built in. Should the worst come to the worst Shops like Maplin or even Aldi ( on occasion ) sell complete sets of dish and receiver for "Free to Air" satellite progs, which can be plugged into your existing tele, at a reasonable price.

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Corris View Post
                        we are part of a consortium in the village - 45 of us order oil at the same time and one person barters them all down to the lowest price. So we have good oil deals.
                        Glad to here that, we aren't remote enough to do that here, the area is mostly gas. Its always worth following oil prices, last year saw a difference of 34p to 72p dependant on when you purchased.
                        I'm only here cos I got on the wrong bus.

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                        • #13
                          Do you have space left on your roof for a solar thermal panel to provide hot water? I've just done this and only one panel was required for a 2 person household. You'll need another hot water cylinder (thermal store) and could use some of your surplus electricity to run an immersion heater, as well as having it connected to your central heating system. You may even be able to connect in your wood burner. Grants of £300 are available from the Government under the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme and there are supposed to be payments, similar to the Feed in Tariff, coming onstream next year for each unit of "heat" that you make. Details are vague on this at present.

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                          • #14
                            What about geothermal heating?

                            Another water way would be the water pumped just under the surface of any land that you don't use for growing on. Someone I know does that (not sure of how deep) but their water is solely heated from a matrix of pipes just beneath the surface.

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                            • #15
                              Rainwater recycling to flush toilets and get a water meter fitted. Rainwater butts for gardening and car washing. I do this except washing the car. I believe in a protective coating of dirt!

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