I live in a 1950s bungalow that was built on old moss land and so suffers from damp issues. In fact, when the little estate of bungalows was built, the builder was not allowed to build houses due to the land and all our bungalows have five foot of floor space underneath to take the flood water when the water table rises. This means that my house can feel cold and with my old boiler I had some damp patches in wardrobes and outside walls. I had a new boiler and a couple of extra radiators fitted last November and now my home is lovely and toasty and heats up really quickly. Like others I tend to leave the controls on all year and just adjust the thermostat as necessary.
The problem is though that I have a remote, wireless thermostat (not really by choice) which has a will of its own and I found then heating coming on at 4am in the middle of summer! Apparently if it loses the radio signal to the boiler control in the garage, it defaults to factory settings! Mine has a fault though and the installer is working with the manufacturer to fix it as he has to keep coming out to do a full reset!
Last year I retired and as I knew I would be at home more, moved my gas and electricity from Eon to Sainsburys and reduced my bills by half so I am not worried about the costs at the moment.