Preparing for winter II

aligerdie

rowsew wrote: »

Have you thought about looking for those old woolen blankets at charity shops? They're often very cheap (the last I bought was £2) because they aren't trendy any more, but amazingly versatile. If you can get a big one it's worth boiling it in the washing machine to full it, then it's really thick and warm. I've got several in my house and they are all used as additional lining/padding for various things.

No I hadn't

That's a brilliant idea, I'll keep my eye open when I'm in town.

Justamum: Separate duvets may be the way forward, especially when DH works away in the week and I'm on my own freezing!

Admittedly it's only in the last month or so I've started to read the old style board, and I already feel I'm a bit behind getting things sorted!

We have to be careful in the winter as DD2 has cerebral palsy, if she gets cold her legs go stiff and she can't walk. We spent so much money last year keeping the house warm (not that we begrudge a penny of it), but I was hoping to try and make changes to save some pennies.

I've spent hours reading this thread over the last few weeks, but it's been fabulous, thank you everyone x

happyin_devon

cool and windy here in devon,the perfect day for draught detecting!!!!
just used that furry draught strip stuff around my kitchen window,WOW the difference is amazing! its so much less gappy now i cant hear the river anymore,which just goes to show how draughty it was before,and my hair now longer moves in breeze when im washing up!!

spured on by that i checked all the internal doors,and stuck stuff around accordingly!!
i know houses,esp old ones like mine need some draughts,but i reckon im getting enough down the chimneys as its blowing the ash around in the grate!!

lambanana

aligerdie yep, stood for ages stroking! Fortunately was alone so no one to hurry me along They had some gorgeous blankets too, just lovely. We have got a winter duvet on at the moment (never bothered with the summer one this year!!) and DH just throws it off if he gets too warm, I have a stash of blankets for my side if I get too cold.

Kitchenbunny

I picked up one of the food flasks from Mr M today for £5 and feel quite happy with it. It is a sturdy thing in black plastic and claims to be 100% leak-proof so it should be ideal for me to carry to work. However, the tag says it should keep food warm for 4 hours - has anyone had experience of how long it actually keeps food hot for?

I'm really feeling the cold today - had to put the heating on to take the edge off the chill when I got home. There's a large cottage pie in the oven waiting for DH to get home. We'll have half, then put the other half in the freezer for another night. The freezer is getting nicely stocked with some homemade ready meals for those times when it feels necessary for something hot really quickly! So far there is:

1 x lasagne
2 x pastitsio (a kind of a mince-based pasta bake with a white sauce and topped with grated cheese)
6 x gammon & pea soup
and tonight:
2 x cottage pie

In addition there is quite a lot of meal components to make meals with (requiring a bit more planning), but I do need to stock up on bread and some other fresh fruit. I must have a look at the soup threads to find some tasty recipes for my new flask!

KB xx

diddly74

I made soup tonight. Sweet potato and butternut squash Nigella receipe. But it tasted vile when I did it.

I am not a big soup person, so I don't know why I even bother wasting the gas!

rowsew

Ha, soup for us too! I made a vegetable soup in the slow cooker, bulked up with a few tablespoons of barley, then I remembered I had saved a gammon bone in the freezer, so after it defrosted ....... took ages cause the kitchen was cold... I managed to salvage a really good bit of ham and chucked that in too. It was delicious! And we had a paratha to go with it (the recipe is on the recipe megathread somewhere, dead easy and very tasty). OH very happy and full now, and he had HM christmas pud for afters - the last one of last year's batch!

Of course, the kids weren't interested in that but they had baked pots, hotdogs and a carrot salad, and as I made brownies for the first time in ages, one of those and a bit of fruit for pudding. (They have their dinner first, cause they're only little, and then me and the old man have ours when they've been tossed into bed ).

rowsew

happyin_devon wrote: »

cool and windy here in devon,the perfect day for draught detecting!!!!
just used that furry draught strip stuff around my kitchen window,WOW the difference is amazing! its so much less gappy now i cant hear the river anymore,which just goes to show how draughty it was before,and my hair now longer moves in breeze when im washing up!!

spured on by that i checked all the internal doors,and stuck stuff around accordingly!!
i know houses,esp old ones like mine need some draughts,but i reckon im getting enough down the chimneys as its blowing the ash around in the grate!!

Well done!
I put that compression strip stuff round our front door on Sunday - there was a gap you could see daylight through - but not now! And no draught either, success for about £3, thank you Wilkinson! Next job is to line the thinner curtains in the north facing areas of the house. I've been putting it off for the last 4 years, but now I can see I have to bite the bullet and get on with it.

knithappens

Looking at getting myself a slanket, but lookingthrough amazon, they are £20 upward, but they have a snuggly there for £6 which look the same, does anyone have one, and if so are they ok/warm etc

boultdj

Kitchenbunny wrote: »

I picked up one of the food flasks from Mr M today for £5 and feel quite happy with it. It is a sturdy thing in black plastic and claims to be 100% leak-proof so it should be ideal for me to carry to work. However, the tag says it should keep food warm for 4 hours - has anyone had experience of how long it actually keeps food hot for?

I'm really feeling the cold today - had to put the heating on to take the edge off the chill when I got home. There's a large cottage pie in the oven waiting for DH to get home. We'll have half, then put the other half in the freezer for another night. The freezer is getting nicely stocked with some homemade ready meals for those times when it feels necessary for something hot really quickly! So far there is:

1 x lasagne
2 x pastitsio (a kind of a mince-based pasta bake with a white sauce and topped with grated cheese)
6 x gammon & pea soup
and tonight:
2 x cottage pie

In addition there is quite a lot of meal components to make meals with (requiring a bit more planning), but I do need to stock up on bread and some other fresh fruit. I must have a look at the soup threads to find some tasty recipes for my new flask!

KB xx

My flask keep's food warm for about 3 hour's,also got it from Mr.M's but I have got an asbestose mouth and like thing's realy hot [it also say's food hot/warm for 4 hour's] hth

Emm-in-a-pickle

I don`t have a log-burner, just an open hearth in the middle of the house. A shovelful of coal to start it off, get a good heat base, and a couple of good logs per evening, haven`t used the central heating except for 3 evenings when we didn`t get in from work till after 9pm. Even then, it wouldv`e been better to make a quick fire as it warms the house and lingers...If you do have a real fire, remember you have a real chimney though. It`s false economy to forget about having the chimney swept!