Frugal but happy in winter?

wannalot

It feels very autumnal where I am. The first leaves are off the trees and the colours are becoming rather muted. It has been a pretty soggy week too.

I'm hoping for a few more weeks of decent weather, but the short summer nights are coming to an end. It was dark here by around 9pm this evening.

I've decided to prepare for winter this year by having a big clear-out of all the junk that I'm sick of seeing or keeping just because it isn't completely clapped-out. My thinking is that I'll feel much happier nesting in a tidy nest rather than one with way too many dvds and far too much paper hanging around. I took 60-odd items to the charity shop yesterday, and dumped a big box of shredded paperwork too, so that feels like a good start.

I tend to be a bit of a hermit in the winter, which is lovely at first, but ends up making me a bit depressed by the time Christmas has passed, so this year I have decided to try to get to the cinema one evening per week, and to generally try to get together with friends more often. I'm also going to exercise more - swimming before work a couple of mornings per week.

berries

LadyhavershamLost wrote: »

The annual calls of "muuuuuummmmmmm - there's a spider in my room" have started to be heard at bedtime!

I am on the hunt for a spider deterrent - no conkers yet!

My dog helps me out on that one!! She loves playing with them then kills it if it doesn't get away.

RebeccaAnn

I put on a pair of pj bottoms last night and felt something move inside the leg. I pulled them down to my ankles and found a false widow. It was huge. I am surprised I didn't fall and crack my head open with the drama that came after.

southantrim3

Noticed a definite nip in the air this morning... Autumn is on the way.
Might soon be time to light up the stove !

jaybee

RebeccaAnn wrote: »

I put on a pair of pj bottoms last night and felt something move inside the leg. I pulled them down to my ankles and found a false widow. It was huge. I am surprised I didn't fall and crack my head open with the drama that came after.

I understand!! The other evening (after I had done some gardening) I was up the steps in the kitchen putting something away when I felt a sort of softish smallish body shape inside the leg of my jeans. Cue major panics creaming and falling off the steps thinking it was a mouse - I am paranoid about mice!!!! After hopping around and tearing my jeans off shrieking "get out" etc. What dropped out was . . . . . . . . .
a tissue that I had tucked in the waistband!!!!
It seems funny now but at the time . . .

GreenQueen

This thread makes me think about a book I bought about "hygge" - Scandinavian comfort in the winter months, lots of candles/references to nature/enjoying time with family, etc. Scandinavians have much harder/colder winters than us, so if it helps them to get through to spring, it's got to be good!

Like any of these things, it's worth reading/googling for ideas and taking the bits that you like.

GQ

Pennydropped

We have loads of candles as I love autumn and winter evenings with candles glowing, but I've also got some battery powered candles for the children's rooms. Not sure how frugal they are, but we are using rechargeable batteries in them, so maybe that helps?


We may be moving (fingers crossed), so until we know for sure, everything has kind of come to a standstill in the "planning for winter" thing. I think my best option is to start going through clothing to get rid of what doesn't fit and figure out what needs to be passed down (if anything), and start downsizing a bit prior to the move - donating things that haven't been used in a long time.

I'm in denial about the spiders.

pollypenny

Already sussed out the conker source for this year.

Our house is do well-insulated that it's cold in the summer. I was hoping the heating would kick in this morning, but no such luck. Moving myself for a shower and getting dressed would help, of course.

I hate being cold!

blannweil

We can always find frugal ways to enjoy a vacation at any time of the year. It is important to search for ways on how to make things more exciting but with lesser expenses.

Primrose

The posts about spiders intrigues me. I've often heard the story about conkers deterring spiders and wondering whether it was an old wives tale. They do seem to migrate indoors as the weather gets colder although we have an almost permanent large resident one in our bathroom. He seems to sleep down the plug hole but appears every morning just as we,re ready to take a bath or shower. We have to lift him carefully out to avoid drowning him! He's treated very reverently in this household! Goodness knows what he eats and drinks but he seems to live there quite happily so we do our best to co-exist

I'm quite happy to leave the cobwebs mostly alone except for the one around the sensor on our burglar alarm. His web has to be demolished as he has the antisocial habit of crawling out across the surface of the device at occasional intervals and setting the alarm off !