Like many people, I wash the sheets on my bed once a week. But during one of those random conversations you have in the pub, I discovered some of my friends wash theirs every two weeks.
The only bachelor at the table admitted only changing his sheets 'every month or so' and was promptly called disgusting.
However, several people suggested that a weekly wash was fanatical and I was accused of wasting money. After all, the reasoning went, over a year all those extra washes probably add a fair amount to my electricity bill.
So how much could I save by leaving my sheets on for at least two weeks at a time? I decided to investigate.
What lies beneath…
Before I decide whether or not I'm willing to pinch pennies this way, I want to know exactly how disgusting it is.
According to Environment, Health and Safety Online, the average human sheds 10 grams of dead skin a week. Given the amount of time I like to spend in bed, it's a fair assumption that a lot of that is lost under the sheets, feeding the dust mites that live in every bed.
Not only that, a study by the North West Lung Centre at Wythenshawe Hospital tested a range of pillows, all more than one and a half years old, and found more than a million spores of fungus in each.
One of the researchers, Professor Ashley Woodcock, said: "We know that pillows are inhabited by the house dust mite which eats fungi, and one theory is that the fungi are in turn using the house dust mites' faeces as a major source of nitrogen and nutrition (along with human skin scales). There could therefore be a 'miniature ecosystem' at work inside our pillows."
Does anyone else get itchy when they read that? Still, I don't have any allergies, so what's the financial argument?
How much could I save?
By washing my sheets weekly instead of every two weeks, I am doing 26 more washes a year. According to Appliances Online, an A-rated washing machine like mine costs around 15p to run a wash.
If you're using a less efficient machine, it can cost as much as 24p per wash. So, by changing bed sheets every two weeks, you could save between £3.90 and £6.24 a year.
Of course, we need to factor in detergent too. You can get 30 washes out of a bottle of Persil Small & Mighty — costing 16p each — while Tesco Bio washing powder can reduce this to 10p a wash. So that's a saving of between £4.16 and £2.60 more a year from washing the sheets every other week.
That's not a huge amount of cash. However, the environmental argument is more compelling — if it's unnecessary to wash them that often then I'm just wasting electricity.
And it's not only bed sheets. I'll sometimes wear a top or pair of jeans just once between washes. If I got more use out them, I'd run fewer washes and use less electricity. Not only that, I'd spend less time washing and ironing — which would definitely be a plus!
Turning to 30 degrees
You can save money and be more environmentally gentle by turning the majority of your washing loads down to 30 degrees C.
The Energy Saving Trust says that washing clothes at 30 degrees instead of higher temperatures can save you around £10 a year. Admittedly, that's not going to make a huge difference to most people.
Importantly, though, it uses around 40% less electricity. If more people turned down to 30 degrees, you can see how this would make a big difference to the amount of power used within the country's homes.
Because a cooler wash is less tough on clothes and sheets than a really hot one, they will last longer too, which is definitely a penny pinching strategy.
I'm also planning to ditch the tumble dryer. The trust estimates that by drying clothes outside during the summer, the average family can save £15 on their electricity bill.
Boil and be damned
Be realistic, though, a 30 degree C wash isn't suitable for everything. When my baby's nappy, shall we say, loses containment, I like to ensure his clothes have had a rigorous wash and a lower temperature just won't cut it for me.
Allergy UK warns that a 30 degree wash doesn't kill all the dust mites found in bedding but a 60 degree wash massacres them (that may not be the actual word they use). So if you suffer from allergy attacks it's probably not worth trying to pinch pennies this way.
When running a cooler wash, most people will use biological detergents as the enzymes can clean laundry at a much lower temperature.
But some people believe these detergents can irritate sensitive skin and so aren't suitable for everyone. If you need to use a non-bio detergent then it's usually necessary to run a hotter wash, although there are a few non-bio products that work at a lower temperature.
My single friend
On a final note, by changing his sheets once a month instead of once a week, my bachelor friend is saving a little over £15 a year at the most.
While it is difficult to quantify how off-putting or not that might be to potential girlfriends, I can't help but think there are other ways to save money that don't have quite such a yuck factor. What do you think?
- Felicity is Yahoo! Finance's new money-saving columnist. If you have a money-saving scheme you'd like to see tried out then let us know in the comment box below.
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