I’m a money-saving Dad – how I save £40 a month in summer with £2 kitchen staple and you can too
A MONEY-SAVING Dad has revealed how he's slashed his bills by £40 a week using a cheap kitchen staple.
Andy Coley, 47, from Lewisham, south-east London, keep his home cool in the summer with an easy hack, costing just a few pounds.
Better still, it requires something you probably already have in your kitchen.
And with the UK set for yet more blistering temperatures you may be willing to try any trick to stave off the worst effects of a heatwave.
Andy, a leadership development trainer, lives with his wife, Sophie, a hypnobirthing teacher, stepson Freddie, 14, and his two daughters Megan, five, and Beatrice, three.
He told The Sun: “I stick aluminium foil to all the windows in my home and it works a treat.
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"This means I can save money on energy bills, as I don’t have to rely on a fan or air con to help keep us cool.”
The savvy dad first tried this hack in the hot weather last summer, and plans to repeat it again this year.
“My wife discovered it on TikTok and we decided to give it a go,” he said.
“I paid around £10 to buy enough foil to cover all the windows of our three-bed rental home.
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"I just used ordinary kitchen foil, purchased as part of the family’s weekly shop from Aldi.”
Cheap foil is widely available from supermarkets.
At Asda, you can get 10m for £2.25, at Tesco, you can pick up 10m of own-brand foil from £1.55.
Like many families, Andy is battling energy bill hikes, and doing all he can to make savings as the cost of living-crisis shows little sign of easing up.
Even though energy costs dropped at the start of the month following a major change to the price cap, soaring food bills and high inflation continue to push more families to the edge financially.
As summer gets into full swing, many people will be keen to find ways to stop their homes from feeling like an oven without having to resort to fans or air con, which can significantly bump up electricity bills.
Andy says his home-made solution comes highly recommended.
“Even though it was still scorching outside, the house was much cooler,” he said.
“This was thanks to the foil. It stopped the place heating up so much.”
This meant the family had to rely far less on electric fans.
“Normally, we’d run fans in multiple rooms to create an airflow,” said Andy. “But doing this for an extended period gets expensive.”
Figures from Uswitch show it costs just over 25p to run a 70W fan for 12 hours overnight.
Andy said: “I reckon we made some decent savings by using cheap-to-buy foil rather than costly fans.”
Further findings from Uswitch reveal that if you resorted to running a built-in air con system for eight hour a day, this would set you back more than £6 at current prices.
By eliminating the need for air con you could save yourself more than £40 a week over the summer.
Ben Gallizzi, energy expert at Uswitch, said: “Letting sunlight stream in through your windows can quickly send the temperature of your home through the roof. Everything the sunlight hits will heat up, meaning a sun-filled room can quickly become unpleasantly warm.”
Keeping curtains or blinds closed is one simple way to keep the heat out, he explains.
“Even the curtains will heat up in the sun, so light-coloured material will reflect the heat better than dark alternatives,” he added.
“Putting aluminium foil on your windows works on the same principle. It can block heat and light coming from the sun. This is why many roller blinds have a reflective back to bounce heat away from your home. This can be a great way to keep energy costs down.”
How to recreate the window foil hack
As Andy rents his house, his options for modifying the building and adding other cooling systems were limited.
He said: “For us, the temporary fix of applying foil to the inside of the windows was the best bet.”
“You simply wet the window with a cloth before sticking the foil onto it,” said the energy-saving Dad.
“It stays put easily, and you can overlap the foil, as opposed to having to cut it to the right width.”
Andy recommends getting the family involved.
He said: “Initially, Sophie and I put the foil up. But then the kids thought it was a great idea and wanted to help out.”
Andy kept the foil in place on all his home’s windows for around 10 days during the heatwave last year, and only removed it when the weather cooled.
“It did get a bit dark inside the house, but there was a bit of light coming in around the edges of some of the windows,” he said.
“As an added bonus, the darker rooms helped the kids get to bed earlier.”
Andy warns that taking the foil off again was harder than putting it on.
He said: “Some of it was firmly stuck in place. That said, there was nothing a scraper and some elbow grease couldn’t sort.”
If the foil leaves marks on your windows, a home-made solution including vinegar could help. Take care not to damage windows when removing any covering.
Applying foil to the windows is not the only trick Andy uses to bring down his energy bills in the summer.
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The money-saving whizz added: “When the house is super-hot, we put frozen bottles of water in front of the fan to blow cooler air around.
"We also switch off any electrical items, such as PCs, laptops and TVs when not in use, as all these devices can heat up rooms if they are left switched on.”