How To Save And Spend Money Wisely For Winter 2022

Making our money go as far as possible is important, as we enter the colder months across the UK. It’s a time when we all must balance ensuring we have the essentials covered, while also enjoying the Christmas period to lift our spirits.

It’s about looking for good value, avoiding false economies and making the right decisions about where to spend and where to cut back. Let’s take a look at how we can make smart budgeting decisions for the next few months into 2023.

How do we heat our homes and ourselves efficiently?

Energy has been affected by some of the steepest price rises in 2022. As we come to the times when we use more, how can we keep those costs to a minimum? Anything that generates heat uses a lot of energy, so this is the main area to focus on.

Firstly, by maintaining a tolerable temperature of around 19C. It’s often a false economy to switch the heating off completely for periods of time, it takes more energy to recover warmth than retain a low level. And it can cause additional problems such as letting homes become affected by dampness.

Secondly, don’t let heat escape. Three areas to look at for insulating your home:

Draught-proofing around windows and doors
Floor insulation, especially if you have rooms above unheated spaces like a garage.
Loft insulation, most importantly, it’s where the greatest amount of heat escapes

It’s worth understanding which appliances are the real energy hogs, not everything uses the same amount, or is as efficient. For example, it’s worth knowing a little about charging via wall sockets vs. USB.

TIP: Wall chargers waste some energy which escapes as heat. Plugging your phone into a computer via USB, while you’re working on it, is more efficient than charging it separately in a wall socket.

There is a lot of choice of clothing with built-in USB ports, such as a heated vest which is efficient and lets you keep moving about! And this is important, it’s not good for our physical or mental health to feel as though we must stay still and covered up to stay warm, moving about helps our bodies keep generating their own warmth! We often just need to look after our extremities to feel warm, so hats, gloves and shoes are important.

Eating well is so important to feeling well in winter

Eating at least one hot meal per day is vital to being well, and feeling well, over winter, so do make this a priority.

Perhaps you could combine putting a new energy-efficient appliance on your Christmas list to help with getting a regular warm food? Air fryers save energy over conventional ovens and come in a range of prices to suit different budgets.

1000W 2.2 Litre Manual Air Fryer - £49.99

It’s tempting to have minimal amounts of food in the house but keeping your fridge freezer fuller is an energy saver, as it has less air to cool so it doesn’t have to work as hard to maintain temperature. Glass containers in the fridge also help over plastic ones, they retain cold better.

Of course, keep yourself feeling toasty with regular cups of tea, but remember to be careful to fill the kettle with only the water you need, otherwise energy is going on heating water that will just cool down again.

Plan Christmas carefully

Getting the best possible Christmas requires a bit of discipline and some forward planning.

Make a budget and stick to it, don’t be tempted into sudden decisions you might later regret. Encourage the whole family into that mindset, so there are no issues around people feeling anything is unfair and no pressure to “keep up with others”.

This year Black Friday deals may be a great way to spread the cost of Christmas a little, rather than just pick up luxury treats so start your planning early to take advantage especially if you’re targeting electrical or tech purchases that often attract the biggest discounts.

You can still do something for others at no cost to you

Give as you Live Online is the perfect way to ensure you buy what you need AND benefit others, especially at Christmas time. It’s easy to browse our 6000+ partner stores and see who is offering the best donation deals for the charity of your choosing.

Spread the Christmas spirit and let people know the difference their gifts made with our digital gift tags, it’s a morale booster for us all to know that, even when we’re gift recipients, we don’t need to feel guilty. We can enjoy our Christmas and help others at the same time.

Create your Christmas donation gift tags >

From all of us at Give as you Live Online, take care of yourselves and have a wonderful Christmas.

Fundraising doesn’t need to be extraordinary. Just give as you live your ordinary life.

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