The last week or so I’ve been out with my scout troop at summer camp.

The allotment has continued to suffer.

Our main problem is our social standing during the summer months, just a few busy weekends and suddenly we’ve not been down the allotment for a month.

In preperation for this weekend I’ve charged the strimmers battery ready for an all out assault on the overgrown grass and weeds.

Today I’ve made what I consider a good find in Wilkinsons – an energy monitor which fixes to the mains cable.  It then wirelessly reports to a little handheld wireless box which we can use to see how much electricity is being used in the whole house.

Before now, I’ve used an appliance one which allowed me to see how much electricty was used through various appliances we have.  The biggest user was the one socket we power the fridge, freezer and washer/drier on.  Whilst they’re A rated, around £20 a month is used through these appliances (though the drier is only used for towels and underwear).

We can’t air dry our clothes because the communal drying area outside is open to an alleyway and is a main walkway for the local kids.  The indoor one is better, but we use about 50% of it, god knows how everyone else does, I’m sure their houses must be full of drying washing.

It does confuse me though, because I do try to keep the amount of washing down.  Whilst I advocate the changing of underwear on a daily basis, work shirts get changed every other day, trousers once a week and I generally try to only wear one pair of social clothes over the weekend and one pair during the evenings after work.  I have a scout and st john uniform, the scout one being used once or twice a week and washed perhaps once a month.  The st john uniform due to my lack of commitment is probably only worn once a month and therefore is only washed one month in two.

Having a super kingsize bed is necessary for my wife and I – we’re both over 6ft 5ins and when I’ve had a normal double my feet have been substantially over the end.  Even now my feet stick about 4″ off the end due to the headboard.  The amount of washing it creates however, is somewhat obscene.