Any Budgetary Tips?

If you put the code - SQHPFD1 - into your order on Supequinn.ie you can get free delivery on your order tomorrow or Saturday.

This will save you money on several fronts. First, it will mean that you don't have to drive to the shops. Second, it is easier to find bargains online - you can sort products by price. Finally, it will do the traffic and the environment some good!

If you compare water from a standard shower to aerated water, the water more or less bounces off the skin with standard and adheres to the skin when it is aerated, so the result is the same, except that 70% less water is used. I timed a standard shower and then fitted the aerator. It took nearly 2 1/2 times as long to fill.
There is a company called Gem Utilities that supply them, but only in commercial quantities at present.

clareman51 wrote:

If you compare water from a standard shower to aerated water, the water more or less bounces off the skin with standard and adheres to the skin when it is aerated, so the result is the same, except that 70% less water is used. I timed a standard shower and then fitted the aerator. It took nearly 2 1/2 times as long to fill.
There is a company called Gem Utilities that supply them, but only in commercial quantities at present.

That sounds like a very very good yoke indeed but it's not available for domestic use yet? Does it use some energy to pump the bubbles in? Even just getting a shower head that's more of a spray than a leak might be something. We'd need a water standard in the world first for anyone to appreciate it. I.e. water rates.

So what's your view of joe behan's move? see other thread.

Thanks clareman.

There are two things we should be doing now. Firstly, taking responsibility for ourselves and secondly finding ways to help those who aren't able to help themselves. What we have to stop doing is looking to others to fix our problems because it ain't going to happen. Independence and interdependence as opposed to the traditional dependence we've practiced in this country.

The cuts in education and agriculture are savage and inexplicable - it makes no sense to debilitate the system that enables future generations to compete and succeed, nor does it make any sense to disable the means by which we successfully exploit our natural agricultural resources. 23% cuts in agriculture is grotesque.

Buy Irish.

Kate P - I haven't had a chance to read up the agriculture cuts - does it need a thread of its own or could it go in the budget thread. We are in the household savings thread here. Plus I'm getting cold standing under that shower.

Kate P- I have spent over 10K so far this year at work on reducing demand for electricity, water, and heat. Talking to the electrician last week, he said that I was close to finished in what is available to be done with standard technology. I hope that the savings produced over the winter will provide some of the capital needed to start investing in renewables. The heating engineer, electrician, and I have pinpointed one area at work that may benefit from solar water heating, and I will be looking into it further in late spring.
I also have someone calling next week to increase the insulation at home.
So as you said, it's time to take responsibility, and I'm trying to do the best I can. And in the long term, it does save money.
Putting on my political hat, I'm trying to get my fellow members to run an eco program in one area of town. If it is successful, I hope to convince the newly elected politicos to extend it to the rest of town over the life of the council.

We've filled our attics with sheeps wool and got solar hot water this year. But the best value for money by far was draught proofing the doors and a couple of windows. The last thing will be to put a closed wood stove into the fireplace.

The eco programme sounds interesting: I'm trying to do something a bit like that but in a rural area - we are going to take one house and bring it up to a good level of energy efficiency on a budget - the idea is that once people in the area can see it working they will follow suit.

A stove itself can be draughty - isn't there some kind of stove or chimney flue fitting which allows the stove to draw air in from outside without sucking the draught through your house?

Don't you have double-glazed PVC cactus? I don't think super-duper windows (tripled glazed) are worth it. Are they?

cactus flower wrote:

We've filled our attics with sheeps wool and got solar hot water this year. But the best value for money by far was draught proofing the doors and a couple of windows. The last thing will be to put a closed wood stove into the fireplace.

The eco programme sounds interesting: I'm trying to do something a bit like that but in a rural area - we are going to take one house and bring it up to a good level of energy efficiency on a budget - the idea is that once people in the area can see it working they will follow suit.

Mind if I ask which company you got solar panels from? The quotes I've got have a fairly wide range (a few thousand between highest and lowest quotes).

TheBear wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

We've filled our attics with sheeps wool and got solar hot water this year. But the best value for money by far was draught proofing the doors and a couple of windows. The last thing will be to put a closed wood stove into the fireplace.

The eco programme sounds interesting: I'm trying to do something a bit like that but in a rural area - we are going to take one house and bring it up to a good level of energy efficiency on a budget - the idea is that once people in the area can see it working they will follow suit.

Mind if I ask which company you got solar panels from? The quotes I've got have a fairly wide range (a few thousand between highest and lowest quotes).

We had one done by Slow and Expensive and another by Cheap, Quick and Leaky. I can give you both their numbers on Monday. The best things about the jobs were the very good factory-insulated hot water tank, as large as you have room for (if there is a budget for it) and the photovoltaic panel that runs the pump. That means that if the electricity is down, you still have hot water so long as there is some sun.

Where is Cookiemonster - Duke Special is on the Late Late Show.

It's not called the Late Late Show anymore. Did anyone else do a double take just before the unmissable Nine o'clock News when he called it the 'Pat Show'?

Well done, clareman. What you've done sounds very proactive.

I didn't realise you were a councillor - did I pick that up correctly?

Has anyone else emptied the piggy bank? We had about 150quid in various containers around the house - about 45 of that was coppers.

cactus flower wrote:

Where is Cookiemonster - Duke Special is on the Late Late Show.

Did you hear Pat introducing those nuns? - "Imagine life without a mobile phone, time with friends or family, a trip to the shop, without a tipple on the way home from work - without a love life .. " I'd say that's most of us here

Auditor #9 wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Where is Cookiemonster - Duke Special is on the Late Late Show.

Did you hear Pat introducing those nuns? - "Imagine life without a mobile phone, time with friends or family, a trip to the shop, without a tipple on the way home from work - without a love life .. " I'd say that's most of us here

Get out down the pub, get your mitt around a Clausthaler and grab yourself a woman.

You know, I keep asking for that hug emoticon, Audi and you keep not providing it...

He's a Patronising so-and-so on tv but, hey, it's his show...The nuns wouldn't be there if they weren't advertising you know.

I'd say your description could describe half the country before long Audi - "when poverty comes in the door, love flies up the chimney" they say.

Duke Special was on? Dammit, I missed it!

TheBear wrote:

Duke Special was on? Dammit, I missed it!

It'll be here soon
http://www.rte.ie/tv/latelate/

TheBear wrote:

Duke Special was on? Dammit, I missed it!

He's playing live tomorrow morning at HMV I think.

Duke is cool.