electric Archives - Journeys Are My Diary

Despite being born in the city of Bristol, I am very much a country girl. We moved, shortly after I was born, to Wakefield and then three years later after my brother was born, to a small village called North Somercotes in Lincolnshire. As a family, we lived and ran a small village newsagents for ten years and I attended both a village primary school and village secondary school. Back then, there was no mobile phones and internet, so I’ve no idea what signal or coverage would have been like. Phoneboxes were incredibly common and I remember that my full telephone number (landline) was only seven digits long, including the area code. Gas came in tanks, either tall reds ones or large landscape white ones – those are both very strong childhood memories.

I’m in my thirties now – almost my fourties and I have watched life change a lot. In my teens the internet came about and so did mobile phones. The internet was pay per month and per minute for dial-up, while mobiles were chunky and only offered text and call time minutes. We moved from a small village like North Somercotes, to a town called Louth and eventually from Louth, we moved to the city of Lincoln (or at least a village near by). Since leaving home at 19, I’ve lived in a variety of towns and villages and even Lincoln city itself once, but I’m most at home in the countryside – with windy roads, poor signal phone signal and a good distance to travel to decent shops. That said, I’ve definitely been on holiday to places that felt even more remote and I often think we take for granted what we have on a day to day basis.

I was challenged by Flogas, to discuss what I would miss if I had to live in a really remote area – completely out in the sticks. As I child I would joke that North Somercotes was out in the sticks, and compared to many places I’m sure it would feel that way to many people. However it really wasn’t and probably if I went back now, it would just seem like any other quiet village. I’m sad to say though, that the first thing I would miss (or would have an issue if it was lacking) would be my mobile phone signal. I check social media sites and my browser, more times than I can possibly count in a day. When I got on holiday, especially abroad, and signal/internet/data is lacking, I’m always a bit lost without the use of my phone. After that and related to that, would be my internet. Our family often jokes that we could forgo running water and heating, even a roof over our heads, so long as we could connect to someone’s wifi.

My partner Chris is pretty handy but I have to admit we’d all probably be a bit lost if it came to changing a gas canister. I once lived in a house that had oil to run its heating and that needed a lorry to come and top it up every time it was low – I ran out twice in the time I lived there – once over a very cold Christmas and I can’t say I’d be in a hurry to repeat that. The girls and I also love our baths and if running water wasn’t available, that would be an issue for us too. Admittedly we don’t bathe every day, but there is four of us who would need to bath at least 2-3 times a week.

While I definitely don’t think I would be lost, living out in the sticks (as I said, I’ve lived quite rurally), my kids and even my partner (he’s from Luton) would probably struggle. Also I think I’ve got a little too used to luxuries that are now classed as necessities, to want to give all that up.

What would you miss the most if you were stuck out in the sticks?

Save

I was recently asked by Best Electric Radiators to share my energy saving tips. As a stay-at-home mum of two children, we’re always looking to cut corners and save money. These are some of the changes I have made over the last few years which have helped us to save money and energy.

– Take a shower instead of a bath.
I used to love a long bath – a soak in the tub for over an hour. However I don’t really have the time to spare these days and obviously baths take up far more water than a shower. Instead I hope in the shower and I’m out 10 minutes later. Maybe not as luxurious but it suits my lifestyle better and saves water!

– Fill the kettle only as much as you need it.
I moan at everyone in the house about this, along with everyone who visits. Why is it that we naturally “fill” the kettle, even when we’re only making two cups. The latest kettle I’ve bought has far clearer markings as to where you need to fill to, to get the right amount. Filling the kettle with only what you need saves not only on water, but on the electric it takes to boil the water.

– Turning off lights.
This is a really obvious one and something I tell the kids off for all the time. If you leave a room, turn off the light. During summer with longer hours of daylight, we don’t even need to be turning them on too early. Don’t get into bad habits and turn on lights when you don’t need them – last as long as you can and then when you do turn them on, remember to turn them off when not needed!

– Use the Timer Set and Controls on the heating
It’s not been that warm this year as a whole and I hate to admit I was still popping my heating on for the odd day in May and June. However we reset our heating controls as soon as the weather got milder. Making sure your timer settings and temperature control are right will save on the heating. It’s one thing to pop it on for an hour here and there but another to have it coming on automatically every morning and night when you don’t really need it.

– Air dry your clothes instead of tumble dry.
When our washing machine and tumble dry combo broke last year, we bought a new washing machine that didn’t have a tumble function. My partner was always far too quick to throw something into the tumble dryer when he could have just hung it out to try. Now he can’t and that saves us loads of energy! Not only that, but hung out to dry, the clothes are a lot less likely to need ironing and this saves us too. As well as that, use a lower temperature wash and that will save you as well.

There are loads of other tips too, but I sadly can’t say I’m very good at following those. Switching off appliances fully instead of to standby, making sure the fridge and freezer are full as it takes less work to keep them chilled, using the right size hob on your gas cooker, avoid using pre-rinse on the dishwasher and so on. There are ,many great ways to save energy and money – along with plenty of websites out there with tips. These are just a few of mine and the ones I’ve found easiest to adapt to.

What are your tips?