Preparing for winter II

mardatha

Up here they use chains, they say the tyres are a pain unless like last year, the snow stays on the ground for weeks. You cant use snow tyres on tarmac, they chew it up and I think the police moan. Also they wont last as long that way. We saw an awful lot of 3 wheel drives in ditches and fields - OH says people buy them but dont know how to drive them or use the gearbox properly.

mardatha

Im feeling wary today like there is something big is about to happen to the UK and were not listening to the writing on the wall..
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God annie, me too . I just posted that somewhere else. And the Sally army is the only religious body that I have any respect for..they do a good job.

Red_Doe

You could be right, mardatha...certainly has a feel of `something coming`.
I kind of like the wartime mentality regarding OS and frugality. On the one hand it does bring folks together and forces us to find the best and most frugal ways of surviving.
On the other hand, it`s scary if it happens out of lack of choice, with no feeling of a safety blanket of any kind, if that makes sense.

fedupandskint

Just remembered my radiator foil panels that arrived this week when I saw them on the kitchen chair

fitted to 3 radiators and now need another set to finish off the last 2 rads

Hoping they make a difference to the living room and bedroom which are the coldest room. All ready now on this front - just need to shift the chair in front of the radiator when the heating goes on

Managed another week without it - can I last until the end of the month? We'll see

Primrose

Yes, I think the Age of Austerity is definitely about to arrive - I used a teabag for the third time this morning :rotfl: Yes, I know I could have had a fresh bag but I think it's the mindset about hoping your habits will stand you in good stead to cope with whatever's coming that is part of a positive attitude about getting through difficult times.

But I did reflect that for every teabag I don't use, that is one less sale for the tea manufacturing company. And as the shares of that company are probably held by the pension fund that pays the occupational pension on which I depend, fewer sales will mean lower dividends. And if my pension fund has difficulty in funding my pension I will definitely be buying fewer teabags. So it's a very complicated cycle, isn't it? I do know though, that if we didn't have some savings I would be feeling quite nervous about the future will pan out.

NualaBuala

I just thought of something that may or may not be useful:

I know lots of you are buying salt and sand for the bad weather. My Dad used to put out the cinders and some of the chunky ashes from our coal fire and it gave good grip. They were shared with the neighbours who didn't have fires. It does need to be swept up when the snow and ice is gone but it was never too dirty and messy.

As I get older, I find myself really appreciating my Mum and Dad and their frugal ways. They were children during WW2 and I think it just came naturally to them. I just wish I'd appreciated their thriftiness while they were still alive.

mags50_2

Nualabuala .... thats just brought back memories of my parents doing the same thing...and my grandparents... when the snow's gone, just sweep it onto the garden

thanks for that

NualaBuala

You're welcome Yes, I think we used to sweep it into the grass verges too!

Confuzzled

rosieben wrote: »

when I moved into this flat it was like heaven, in fact I cried when I first saw a clean and dry kitchen! Its stressful trying to cope with conditions like that but you will all be healthier when you're living somewhere decent, my contact at the council confirmed that mould can be harmful, especially if people have asthma-type issues; I suspect an eviction order will place you at the top of the list for allocations.

hope the new year sees you in a nice cosy home, good luck

i can't help but jump in here and emphasise the importance of getting your child out of that situation as fast as you can. when my wee one was about a year old we had to move into a different flat than the one we'd planned to very last minute (glasgow uni messed up with their student flat we'd planned on and had to get us the first thing available, big mess!)

anyway this place had two heaters one tiny one in the hall to deal with the two bedrooms the kitchen and the bathroom and one in the living room. unbeknownst to us there was mould growing all the way up both bedroom walls (hidden behind wardrobes and book cases) and even inside our kitchen cupboards but the bottom ones so we didn't see it. our bathroom had a bit too but that's not such a big deal as it's common in old buildings to have a little in there so we didn't think much of it

however i started to have serious health issues including suddenly (like within 6 weeks) putting on 2 stone in weight despite no change to my diet and an actual increase in activity. my daughter started having a lot of trouble breathing at night when in bed, so much so that we had to give her benedryl EVERY night! the doctors couldn't figure out what was going on with me and put the weight gain down to me pigging out i guess but when i became shriveled up and arthritic and coughing a lot (i have never smoked so it wasn't that) they started listening.

my daughter also started to show signs of hearing problems and when i mentioned that to my doctor she finally twigged. she urged me to go home and check the walls behind our furniture. and she was right there was mould growing up 5 feet high in both bedrooms!

we had a long fight with glasgow uni they tried to blame it on us for having our furniture there (they weren't touching the walls the skirting board prevented that and the bookcases were ikea open shelving so there was more ventilation behind those!) we just lived normally so we fought. eventually they had to find a new place and i too cried for the relief of it.

when we moved to the new place i could barely drag myself up the stairs, i also was so weak and pained by arthritic like fingers and hands that i couldn't even hold a newspaper. within 2 weeks of living in the new place i could walk upright and freely again, i could not only hold the newspaper but i could actually do crafts again AND i started losing all that weight i'd put on. in fact that weight was gone within a month!

unfortunately my daughter wasn't so fortunate. she had developed glue ear, quite severe glue ear and whilst she could hear better after we moved it seriously damaged her ability to talk because it was like hearing words through water. before the mould got bad she had been able to string two words together (at 14 months, i was so proud!) but she could barely manage one, well one that anyone could understand. she went through several years of docs appts and steroids etc etc. finally at age 4 they allowed her to have grommetts put in and have speech therapy.

she also had to get extra help at school because essentially she was several years behind socially because no one could understand her before and though she was improving she was still hard to make out a lot of the time. it wasn't until she was 6 that she had finally caught up with intensive help (now at 9 i can't get her to stop talking ) but it could have been very different.

i remember the worry every night, worrying the benedryl wouldn't be enough and she'd stop breathing. i know it's very nasty of the landlord to do what's she's doing but i think it really is a blessing in disguise as even if you're not as sensitive to black mould as i am your wee one is sure to be because of such an immature immune system.

i wish you the best of luck in finding a new place. my best advice is to make sure you keep the baby away from the rooms with the worst mould, hopefully you won't wind up with your wee one winding up like mine did *hugs*

midnightraven3

i posted previously about how last year we just put the heating on & left it, but this year have picked up so many hints & tips (thank you all again)

i just put the heating on, lovely new system last year
1st time this year its been on
i looked to see how much it costs
30p exactly per hour
:(thats kinda depressed me a little when you work it out over the winter months

does anyone else know how much theirs costs?