Frugal Friday :: Planning Ahead

We are a hop, skip and a jump away from July. More than halfway through the year already. The school year is drawing to a close, summer is stretching out ahead and as we stand on its doorstep it seems that summer will last forever. I don’t want to be fooled by this illusion. I know that before we know it, we will be rushing around getting children ready for the new school year, we will slip into a new season as we hurtle towards the end of the year. 

 I’ve been watching my local farmer over the last few weeks. Do you know what he has been doing? He’s getting ready for winter. Seems ridiculous but he is. I’ve watched up cut, toss, dry and bale the silage, fodder for his animals this coming winter. It got me to thinking about the cold months that will come sooner than we think and how I could be better prepared.

Usually, I don’t give this much thought but this past winter changed that a little for me. We moved into an older, less heat-efficient house. Our heating system, like a lot of rural homes in England, runs off oil so I need to monitor the oil tank levels and make sure that I have enough to run the heating. It is rather surprising how quickly we can deplete our oil tank! I was rather horrified at our heating bills over winter and determined that I was going to put a plan in place for the next winter.

The second incident that has given me cause to pause and think was the unusual occurrence of snow in Devon. The snowfall caused a power outage in our area, thankfully it was only for about 10 hours but 10 hours can seem an eternity when you have no heating or way of cooking. We have a wood burning stove and if I had been more prepared I would have had ample wood on hand to ensure a warm home and a way of being able to at least make a cup of tea. As it turns out, I was NOT prepared and after a few uncomfortable cold hours knocked on my neighbour’s door who very kindly had a whole lot of wood pallets that they gave us. A true and rather embarrassing story!

And finally, I seemed to struggle with finding a good cost effective way of getting all my washing dry. I started off hanging everything on clothes horses and using a blow heater directed at the wet washing. This sent our electricity bills through the roof. Then I moved the clothes horses into the orangery and had to re-wash everything because the plants that reside in the orangery make wet clothing take on a rather yucky aroma.

My Winter Prep Plan

1.  Our boiler pretty much gave up the ghost after the power outage and is running on borrowed time. This is a bit of a blessing in disguise as we are having a new boiler installed in July – a more energy-efficient boiler. I’m hoping that will help keep winter fuel costs down.

2.  Purchase a full tank of Oil now and keep putting money away monthly to fill it up again mid-way through winter.

3.  Collect firewood & Build up Coal store – I saw a man down the road today advertising free firewood. I will pop in over the weekend to find out more about that and load up as much as I can. What I can’t forage I will have to buy in. I’ve found a good supplier to I will order a pallet of wood in August. I will also buy in coal in September. Spreading the cost of winter fuel throughout the year eases the financial burden over the long cold winter.

4.  I’ve already purchased a bigger clothes horse and I will be purchasing a few radiator hangers. I am trying to avoid buying a tumble dryer as these add to the energy consumption. Ensuring that the washing does not build up and making my heating sources work for me is what I will be concentrating on in this area this winter.

5. Winter curtains. In order to keep the heat in I will hang a curtain in front of exterior doors. These can be pulled aside in the day but will help keep out cold drafts.

Do you have any winter fuel saving tips? If so I would love to hear them.