Frugal Tips, Hints & Recipes

While it might seem like a huge splurge rather than a frugal tip - I can't recommend the (genuine) Oodie enough! My Australian sister brought me one in March, and in this perfect storm of rocketing energy prices and colder than normal weather, my Oodie is worth its weight in gold!
Similar looking garments are now available everywhere from Primark to expensive stores - but don't be fooled! I've been checking these "dupes" out, because I'd like to have a second one. None of them come anywhere close to the genuine Oodie!
The Oodie is two layers throughout - an outer layer of thick, heavy fleece and an inner layer of thick sherpa fleece. They're VERY heavy. But honestly, it's like wearing your bed! So warm and comfy!
They're very expensive- around €65 in their sale. But for warmth, they're well worth it. An Oodie and a pair of good, warm slippers (mine are about 13 years old, furry lined, thick soled ankle boot slippers by Totes. I can only wear them when it's very cold, as they're normally too warm!) and you'll be cosy as a cosy thing!

We had a friend who lived at Vadso, Norway, inside the Arctic Circle. One winter he told us it was very mild only -30C. Used to send us wonderful photos of the winter light, as they had 3 months of semi darkness.

bigyetiman said:

We had a friend who lived at Vadso, Norway, inside the Arctic Circle. One winter he told us it was very mild only -30C. Used to send us wonderful photos of the winter light, as they had 3 months of semi darkness.

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We acclimatise, I guess. My brother is visiting from Singapore at the moment, and although they're freezing, they're also revelling in the novelty, being used to the temperature rarely varying from around 32C. They're enjoying the novelty of seasons.

A friends daughter invited some Greek friends from her holiday rep days to stay, and it snowed. They had a wonderful time

LadyA said:

While it might seem like a huge splurge rather than a frugal tip - I can't recommend the (genuine) Oodie enough! My Australian sister brought me one in March, and in this perfect storm of rocketing energy prices and colder than normal weather, my Oodie is worth its weight in gold!
Similar looking garments are now available everywhere from Primark to expensive stores - but don't be fooled! I've been checking these "dupes" out, because I'd like to have a second one. None of them come anywhere close to the genuine Oodie!
The Oodie is two layers throughout - an outer layer of thick, heavy fleece and an inner layer of thick sherpa fleece. They're VERY heavy. But honestly, it's like wearing your bed! So warm and comfy!
They're very expensive- around €65 in their sale. But for warmth, they're well worth it. An Oodie and a pair of good, warm slippers (mine are about 13 years old, furry lined, thick soled ankle boot slippers by Totes. I can only wear them when it's very cold, as they're normally too warm!) and you'll be cosy as a cosy thing!

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Well I decided to splash out on an Oodie after reading Lady A's recommendation. Oodie promised that it would arrive in 48 hours (19th December) but it transpires that they use Evri for their deliveries. If I ever get it, I'll let you know what I think of it...

If only Evri had been given the job of delivering Liz Truss' mini budget ?

LadyA said:

The finished project!
Haven't lit it, because at 7pm, even having had the front door and all the windows open all morning, it's still over 20C in the house! I'm really pleased with it, and very glad I went for a stove rather than an open fireplace.

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How's the stove, Lady A?

Icemaiden said:

How's the stove, Lady A?

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It's been brilliant! I have had the boiler stove running for the last few weeks, so I haven't really used the new one that much - except in the cold snap we had just before Christmas, and on days when I'm out, and don't get the boiler stove going. It heats the living room very quickly and, with the doors open, the hall and bathroom get warmer too. All in all, definitely worth the investment!

Icemaiden said:

Well I decided to splash out on an Oodie after reading Lady A's recommendation. Oodie promised that it would arrive in 48 hours (19th December) but it transpires that they use Evri for their deliveries. If I ever get it, I'll let you know what I think of it...

If only Evri had been given the job of delivering Liz Truss' mini budget ?

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Oh dear - maybe you'll have it for next Winter!

@Icemaiden is there any sign of your Oodie turning up?

Hi Lady A. Yes, it did turn up in the end, thanks, just when the weather warmed up. I've worn it this week though.

Icemaiden said:

Hi Lady A. Yes, it did turn up in the end, thanks, just when the weather warmed up. I've worn it this week though.

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Aren't they fab?

We are lucky with our Evri deliveries, we have a very reliable courier, and depot it seems. if only the same could be said for our Royal mail area. We got 4 Christmas cards three turned up before Christmas, one posted on 4 Dec turned up this last Wednesday, and a letter posted in October arrived this week.
The 3 that arrived before Christmas came from Shropshire, Luton and Suffolk, nothing more local, it is truly appalling

bigyetiman said:

We are lucky with our Evri deliveries, we have a very reliable courier, and depot it seems. if only the same could be said for our Royal mail area. We got 4 Christmas cards three turned up before Christmas, one posted on 4 Dec turned up this last Wednesday, and a letter posted in October arrived this week.
The 3 that arrived before Christmas came from Shropshire, Luton and Suffolk, nothing more local, it is truly appalling

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I had problems with Evri for a week but then it got sorted. Royal Mail deliveries are generally OK because I'm less than a mile from the Delivery office - provided of course that the mail has reached there. The car club monthly Newsletter which I edit is posted from Malmesbury; the edition posted on 9th Dec took aweek to get to me in Shropshire but a month to get to Suffolk. The next issue, posted on 11th Jan reached me, and lots of other members on 12th - 2nd Class!

My biggest problem is posting overseas at the moment.

Surprisingly no complaints here. Of greater concern is that our resident cybernaut moved away about a month ago. I’ve got all the technological knowledge you’d expect from, for example, a 73 year old animal breeder. Come to think of it ………!

So I might as well try here. I can receive emails on my iPad, no problem. But I can’t send them. What’s occurring?

Hen-Gen said:

Surprisingly no complaints here. Of greater concern is that our resident cybernaut moved away about a month ago. I’ve got all the technological knowledge you’d expect from, for example, a 73 year old animal breeder. Come to think of it ………!

So I might as well try here. I can receive emails on my iPad, no problem. But I can’t send them. What’s occurring?

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No help from me, I'm afraid!

This is where you need Rick...

No help from me either I am afraid

I’ve been having a similar problem, apparently it’s common if you use BTinternet. I found that my sent emails were just piling up in the Outbox, (along with my letter of complaint to a firm that hadn’t solved my delivery problem!)
I solved it by opening a Webmail account from the app shop, which works OK although I’m not entirely happy with it. I then copied and pasted the text of my unsent emails on to a new email form and sent them from my new account.You need to delete your old account, or you’ll find you’re using the old version sometimes and then you have to start again.
I have a feeling that it may be something to do with not being properly logged in to more than one server, so another one can take over when one of them gives up for some reason. But I haven’t yet found a suitable teenager to explain it to me!

Our smart meter electricity account tells us that we have reduced our usage by 15%. Will it save us any money? No, the price went up 15% from today!

But there was a report on French TV which said that, excluding space heating, the average household uses 20% of their electricity for fridges and freezers. Based on observations over Summer one chest freezer (Whirlpool) in the garage was running constantly, so the consumption on the label of 0.5KWh per day was actually 1.5KWh. We found that running a small (25W) fan blowing air across the back element actually saved electricity because the freezer pump (60W) cooled down and switched off for long periods. The root problem we have is that freezer isn't up to the job and shouldn't be used in an unheated garage anyway- the Liebherr is fine. We've replaced it with the only one we could find, a Beko, because Liebherr have switched production to uprights. The energy rating system has changed here, so an A+++ is now D rated, but that energy rating isn't the whole story because the key figure is what they call 'Autonomie' here, which is the time it takes the freezer to begin to warm when the power is switched off. The longer the time the better the insulation. So we have gone from 20 hours up to 45 hours. Won't save that much money on electricity but we will get peace of mind in a power cut and won't be messing about with a fan (one burned out-€40).

If anyone has an old chest freezer it may be worth replacing it. The freezer we had before was costing us a fortune and is now being used to store inflammables (petrol paraffin, gas etc) in an out building.