As a cold snap hits the country I have been looking at how heat efficient my house is. The heating has been on for longer over the past few days but is the heat escaping or am I winning my battle to keep it in my house? I am told that if I turn my heating down I can save 8% on my heating bill, however I want to know how much I can save if my boiler is not working to heat the house. Well I had a day off and spent part of the day looking at this. Downstairs I already have a thick curtain in between my conservatory and my dining room but I am missing one by the front door and am toying with the idea of putting one across the bay window which currently I only have blinds for. This would make the room feel

An increase in car insurance premiums puts further pressure on household budgets. In 2011 car insurance rose on average 15% according to a recent AA survey, the biggest losers being the young with many companies now no longer offering to insure drivers under the age of 21. The blame, as we always need to blame someone, is being laid at the door of two parties. The first is the European Court of Justice, as they outlawed differing insurance quotes between men and women from December 2012. I think we all lived in hope that the price of insurance for men would come down to meet the level of those for women, who are seen as safer drivers. I think we all knew in our heart of hearts that the insurance companies would see it the other way round. The second is the increase in payouts for whiplash. Apparently details of

Of course any cut in our bills must be seen as good news. All of the big six energy suppliers have now announced that they are cutting some of their prices over the coming months. However, these small cuts follow the massive rises in the autumn that all the companies did just in time for the winter, which fortunately for us (and my baby pea plants and garlic on my allotment) has been very mild. I think that if we had seen a winter similar to the one we had last year then more and more household would be in fuel poverty deciding whether to eat or heat. Just to give an example, in August 2011 British Gas increased its gas prices by 18% and its electricity by 16%. January 2012 they are reducing their electricity prices by 5% but not changing their gas prices. They are not alone in