New Year 1974 was very cold. I'd spent Christmas at home in Menorca, but had to be back at RAFC earlier than ideal due to New Years Day being a bank holiday for the first time in England, with no flights available. This was also the era of the '3 day week' which had come into effect on New Years Eve...and so I arrived back to find the whole place freezing cold as 'they' had decided to turn off the heating for the Christmas/New Year period. There was no catering in College Hall mess, so a chum who had also returned early (Wildpig) and I went into Sleaford to find something to eat. Next day, after a night buried in as many clothes as I could find, I drove around just to keep warm - but then the heating was restored later that afternoon.
Whereupon the condensation which had frozen in various parts of College Hall thawed and caused enormous damage to some very expensive décor as the walls streamed with damp. It was several days before the cold-soaked building was back to normal and the eventual cost of repairs was way more than keeping the heating ticking over would have cost......
Penny wise, pound foolish!