So you don’t need to be an academic, economist, politician or rocket scientist to realise you need some simple ways to reduce power usage.

Your washing machine is one appliance that uses the most power so to save on your next bill find yourself an old fashioned washing board, stick it in a bucket of water or the sink and rub the clothes up and down with soap to get them clean.

Heaters are another power-eater so unplug them and find other ways to stay warm.

One is to forget it’s winter by making some tropical decorations, mixing a tropical rum punch and dressing like it’s summer in shorts and t-shirt.

You can even put Gold Coast beach posters over the windows, play some summer music like Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles and invite neighbours over to enjoy the fun.

Another way to stay warm is to be active. Line up empty drink bottles in the hallway and make your own bowling alley or set up a golf course in and out of the rooms in your house using small cups for holes.

A tot of rum will warm your insides or get you merry enough to forget you’re bloody freezing. Wear a beanie, find an old hot water bottle and splash lots of hot chilli sauce on your meals.

So there’s lots of ways to stick it in to the electricity retailers rather than perishing with the cold.

The State Government is spending $16 billion on the West Connex motorway and a Sydney metro train line, $170 million on 446 new and replacement buses and $10 million on new ferry services to Parramatta.

But we bush commuters get only $25 million in the Budget for State Rail just to shop around for a replacement for our clapped-out XPTs that are breaking down about every 200,000km.

The government admits the fleet of 19 locos and 60 carriages have recurring problems with brakes, wheels fatigue and corrosion of electric ducting in the diesel-electric engines.

The rail cars, some going into service in 1982, have travelled an average of 9.945 million kilometres, the equivalent of nearly 13 times to the moon and back.

They were designed to travel 7.5 million kilometres before being retired.

The government has promised some sort of replacement for years but we don’t seem to be any closer.

Even the new $2.3 billion inter-city fleet of electric trains won’t be able to run to Lithgow with connections to Orange because they’re too wide to go past Springwood station on the Blue Mountains and through the tunnels.

That’s top planning by the State Government.

The Better Homes and Gardens episode on Orange Show last Friday night was the fifth most watched program, attracting 626,000 viewers nationally.

Melbourne loved it the most with 233,000 viewers compared with 167,000 in Sydney, 124,000 in Brisbane and 102,000 in Perth. Adelaide missed out.

Seven and Nine news bulletins were the only programs to beat it.