'I tried Martin Lewis' MSE '4p a week trick' for keeping warm in the winter without the heating'
19.10.2023 - 11:29
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Last year, Martin Lewis' Money Saving Expert (MSE) team published a sad but essential guide called ‘heat the human not the home', in the hopes of helping the millions of struggling Brits facing unmanageable energy bills and unable to afford central heating in the cold weather. At the time, Martin Lewis shared on Twitter: "I felt sad asking my team to put this together, but my emailbag is full of folk so desperate they can't put the heat on, I wanted to try some help.”
Now temperatures have dropped again, and the country still facing the cost of living crisis, many of us are looking to Martin's guide for cheaper solutions to staying warm. USB heated gloves were one of the cheapest options on the list, with an initial investment of around £5, costing less than 1p an hour to run, and around 4p a week to use, based on being used for five hours a day.
With that in mind, last year, reporter Bethan Shufflebotham ordered some Rehomy USB heated mittens from Amazon, which cost slightly more than Martin’s £5 pair, but were one of the cheapest, but best-rated on the marketplace website. The pair Bethan tried are now out of stock, but Amazon's current top seller, the Flintronic USB Gloves, are similar, and cost £11.99 per set.
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Amazon's £12 Flintronic USB Gloves are simple to set up and come with two USB cables that plug into your laptop or a portable power bank to provide an almost-instant heat source, reaching to around 40°C. Inside the mittens are two built-in heat