If you’ve been following my blog you’ll know that when I had first moved out around 5 months ago nearly, I wasn’t the most competent at using my washing machine.

What was a big lump of potentially useless metal that I had just spent £160 buying, I wasn’t sure how to use. It took me a good 10-15 attempts and a few hours to get the machine to start spinning.

A few tears were shed, and I was at the point of giving up and leaving the laundry for my boyfriend to do.

The Growing Laundry Pile Is Now My Enemy

However, I’m now putting the washing on almost daily, sticking to a routine to keep the flow of washing moving.

This pile of laundry is now the enemy. It doesn’t seem to shrink! The more washing I do, the more washing there is to do. It doesn’t help either that I have to be constantly wearing clothes.

However, I think I have a good routine going and it’s not piling up too badly…

• Monday: Bedsheets, duvets, pillowcases.
• Tuesday: Darks.
• Wednesday: Lights.
• Thursday: Towels, rags, tea towels.
• Friday: Underwear, socks, grey items.
• Saturday: Darks.
• Sunday: Lights.

Similarly, I need to get into a good routine with the washing up and then I think I’ll be a fully successful adult.

Talking About Successful Adults…

I recently received an email with the subject line “We’ve made some changes to your energy bill”.

I fully expect all emails with similar subject lines to mean they’ve put our bills up. They did this with our water bill recently and that wasn’t a comfortable sight.

But somehow, my energy bill has dropped significantly and I think I have a few reasons why. Originally, we were charged £55 a month for our combined gas & electric. This has dropped down to a measly £17 a month. Which I’m more than happy with.

How did I make my energy bill go down?

• I’m never at home. This is a lie. I am at home sometimes. But, myself and my boyfriend either work alternate shifts or roughly similar hours. Either way, there’s a good chunk of the day that no one is at home. Meaning no gas is used, no heating is on.
• We rarely use the heating. As there’s usually hardly anyone at home, and when we are at home we’re usually in bed or it’s warm enough generally to live without heating, it’s normal to go a good few hours without the heating on. It’s also quite good in the fact it turns itself off when it’s warm enough too.
• Turn electrical items off when not in use. We’re always turning lights off round the house and unplugging electrical items. The only things constantly on is the fridge and my alarm clock.
• Pay on time. We’re now technically around £100 in credit, which is one of the reasons why our bill is so low. This means that by paying what was expected when it was expected, we’ve reduced our bill significantly.
• I’ve never sent a reading to our provider. This isn’t for want of trying. I know which electric meter is mine, as it’s directly next to my front door. But, there’s a row of 4 gas meters either side of my flat and none of them have addresses to identify them. Without one, I can’t submit readings of either. Which hasn’t done me any harm in the slightest, obviously.

This was a great email to receive when waking up on a Tuesday. I hope I receive more of these. To keep you updated too, I am making good headway with paying off my credit debt and I haven’t touched my credit cards or PayPal credit since January.

With paying these off, the lovely pay rise I’ll be receiving in April, and joining the profit share scheme at work (!), I’ll have a lot more “expendable” income which will then discourage me more from spending money I don’t have. Which is wonderful.