What do you do that nobody else does?

[Dorothy rouse]

To put the record straight, for you Dotty -
I wash out every can and plastic thingy and they are recycled
I do have a dishwasher
I rarely use it..............

You have to remember that its just me here and filling even a small dishwasher, takes a couple of days
Now what were you going to say.............

Mmmmmmm ok then, seriously tho, we can't recycle cans, only bottles, plastic, and paper. I do rinse out the bottles tho, cos if it leaks, get horrible smell of stale alcohol

[julesapple]

We have a dishwasher. It was vital when there were six of us here. Now the BH insists it uses too much electricity to run, so we have to wash everything by hand.

I'm not sure were saving energy, some days we wash up once, some days it can be three times. Sometimes one of the boys does it so badly I have to re-wash everything.

Oddly, the boys are keener to wash up than they were to rinse the dishes, stack the dishwasher and empty it again.

I don't think I do anything that no one else does.

Having a bbq on Christmas Day - but millions of Australians and Kiwis do that.

[Mikey]

But we are not in Australia Jules!!

Thats just barmy, you are a fully fledged member of the nutter club....

[Mikey]

Back to the dishwasher again but just this once though Jules, tell OH that if you just ran hot water into your washing up bowl it would be too hot to put your hands in, true or false? The energy used to get the hot water upto that temperature and to replace it is beyond the level the dishwasher would have on a cycle. i.e its cheaper to use the dishwasher on eco.

[Glutton4...]

I always figured it was cheaper to use the dishwasher - I could do three or four days' worth of cutlery, crockery and pans in one wash - it's obviously cheaper. Just wish I had room for the ruddy thing in our minuscule kitchen.

[julesapple]

The thing about the dishwasher is that it isn't like the detergent ads; you can't stick a baked on lasagne smeared dish into any dishwasher and expect to come up all gleaming à la Ainslie Harriott. In reality what you'll have is every item in the DW covered in dried on food particles at the end of the cycle. What uses the energy is all the water used to rinse the plates/pans - because cold water just doesn't do it (and I was the only person in our house that had the sense to scrape stuff into the chook dish using a silicone spatula (wait! that might be something I do that others don't!)

I use one bowl of very hot soapy water and wear rubber gloves. Dishes are washed glasses first, then cutlery & plates and lastly, pans and oven dishes.

[julesapple]

But we are not in Australia Jules!!

Thats just barmy, you are a fully fledged member of the nutter club....

Oh no, it's not barmy! Honestly.

We usually cook for anything up to twenty people. If'n I tried to do a turkey big enough it would take many oven hours and use the entire oven. Then you've got all the prep for the trimmings. A steak bbq is a doddle, and doesn't take over the entire oven for half a day. We serve ours with oven roasted veggies, chips, and a salad. The BH sits out there with a beer cooking. Everyone's steak is served at the same time exactly as they like them.

After we've eaten, the fire pit bbq is piled with logs and we sit outside under the shade sail with brandy, coffees, mince pies and sweets from our stockings, even if it's wet we're warm and cosy. The wind can be a spoiler, but we're usually quite sheltered.

Clearing and washing up is minimal too!

And anyway, I loathe turkey

[chris]

I do have 1 water extravagance and that's my kettle tap. It has boiling water ready at all times for me to use. To recover the cost of that I'd need to boil a Kettle about 10 times a day, and while I like tea and coffee I never use that much. It does save on water though.

Very nice. I've fancied one of those for a while, but can't justify the cost as it'd be used mainly on the weekends. I did manage to wrangle a built in coffee machine, as agreement for getting the kitchen from ikea.

Just thought of another thing as I've just done it. I disinfect/AB wipe my phone often - probably every couple of days... but that's mainly as I've chickens and sometimes use the flash on it for a torch when collecting eggs etc, so end up touching those/the hens then my phone - and my kids seem to steal it and use it when I've my back turned. Obviously, don't want to pass anything onto the chooks from the mucky kids !

[Mikey]

I use ours everyday, even if its just to fill a pan of water to boil/steam some veggies.

The best use I've found for it to date, is to put some frozen peas and sweetcorn in a sieve and run them under the hot tap. They are cooked and ready to eat in about 20 seconds.

[Mikey]

A much better tongue VC.

[veggiechicken]

Mikey - I have a tongue for every occasion

[Mikey]

Are you sure, I haven't seen a sharp one. You can borrow the OH's if you need one...

[veggiechicken]

My tongue has been Sharp since 1975

[Mikey]

My tongue has been Sharp since 1975

Well then that explains it, I've clearly been annoying you for years!!!

[veggiechicken]

You couldn't annoy me................

...............irritate me maybe