Preparing for winter II

candie_gill

I really need to read through all these posts, some fab ideas! I stumbled across this forum and subscribed straight away, i love preparing for winter and all these new ideas are great for me.

So far i have:

*Purchased new xmas decorations, all my giftwrap, tags, bows and cards in last years sales at a fraction of the price.

* Found three old shoe boxes one for each member of our family and placed inside all our winter hats, gloves and scarfs ready for the cold weather. Usually i have a mad search october time looking for them and end up buying more only to discover my old ones at a later date tut!

* Stocked up on some nice festive winter candles and stored them away in a chocolate tin.

* Put money on a christmas savings card with asda, hoping by December i have saved £200 to cover our xmas food shop

* Have lined curtains up in my living room at both windows

* Handwashed hot water bottle covers, managed to dig out three and a heat cushion all are getting stored away till the cold months.



Will look through for more ideas

Cheapskate

candie_gill wrote: »

* Found three old shoe boxes one for each member of our family and placed inside all our winter hats, gloves and scarfs ready for the cold weather. Usually i have a mad search october time looking for them and end up buying more only to discover my old ones at a later date tut!

Love this idea - very ingenious and I'm stealing it! :rotfl:

Thanks to everyone who replied with ideas etc re my freezing bathroom and leaky door. The weatherboard on that door has probably had it - can see daylight underneath. The door is the original Thirties one, (as are 90% of the other doors and windows) so.... Cue more expense some time soon!

Feels weird to be on this thread when it's warm & sunny outside, but oddly comforting to start winter (& Chr*****s, ginnyknit!) preparations so far in advance - at least I'm in good company with you lot!

As we de-clutter over the next few weeks I'll make a list of what winter stock we have and what needs replacing/making/buying in terms of woollies, hot water bottles, emergency boxes for house & car, non-perishables etc., and start buying after our silver wedding party. (We may receive money gifts from family members, so will spend a bit on a treat for us and the rest on winter prep - even if just a few quid it will help).

A xo

lushlifesaver

candie_gill wrote: »

* Found three old shoe boxes one for each member of our family and placed inside all our winter hats, gloves and scarfs ready for the cold weather. Usually i have a mad search october time looking for them and end up buying more only to discover my old ones at a later date tut!

Definitely going to try and borrow this idea! Our hallway is small and has an internal window (which looks into the dining room) so there is no space for the coat hooks and drawers/baskets which I would love to have in there but shoe boxes would stack nicely in the corner where my, now knackered, wellies live!

Have started to re-read this thread and make two lists - one of things to do in my parents house as they both work full-time and rarely come home excited at the thought of doing bits to the house (ideally we'd move but that's currently not an option). The second is a list of things for me to think about doing once I finally move out, whenever that may be :money:

freudianslip

I am currently crocheting my DD's nursery uniform hat. I got a ball of red chunky wool for £1.44 so pleased with that. Might fleece line it too, depends if I can pick some up for cheapy cheap cheap. Other DD want's a beret type hat for school with her purple chunky bargainous yarn.

Has there been any mention on whether it's predicted to be a rough winter or not yet? Probably way too early.

Kimitatsu

Well according to Metcheck 10 month forecast, not as bitterly cold but there is a lot of rain forecast over the winter! Only needs a shift in pressure to sit over the North Sea and that will all be snow :eek:

Mind you having said that it cant be that accurate since the met office changes their forecast daily!

bramble1

I'm keeping an eye on ebay now for a cheaper pair of decent uggs. I have reynaulds and they help my toes so much, i live in them all winter, but the imitation ones you can pick up for £5/£10 in town aren't great quality, so will try and get a pair online for a little more.

Sunnyday

freudianslip wrote: »

Has there been any mention on whether it's predicted to be a rough winter or not yet? Probably way too early.

Dad visited yesterday and when looking around in the garden he was absolutely gobsmacked by the amount of berries on my holly bush, there must be a couple of thousand at least and its not a huge bush!

He tells me that as they`re meant to feed the birds we should be in for a bad winter :D:rotfl:

Think i`d best start getting me bits and bobs together early this year :cool:

SD

Uniscots97

freudianslip wrote: »

I am currently crocheting my DD's nursery uniform hat. I got a ball of red chunky wool for £1.44 so pleased with that. Might fleece line it too, depends if I can pick some up for cheapy cheap cheap. Other DD want's a beret type hat for school with her purple chunky bargainous yarn.

Has there been any mention on whether it's predicted to be a rough winter or not yet? Probably way too early.

I bought fleece scarfs from Poundland for this very job. Some are reduced to 50p at the moment. There should be enough for 2. Not a great range of colours though:- Black, Grey and Blue and sometimes burgundy.

Kitchenbunny

Thanks for that, Unixgirluk. I'm thinking of sewing 2 together to hopefully trap a layer of air to warm for additional insulation. Might work!

Few more points for me to research:

- can you freeze cartons of orange juice so there's some vitamin C on hand? (main aim - not having to go out in bad weather)
- best foldaway type shovel to keep in the car (has to be lightweight so it doesn't affect my MPG too much)
- what's the best place to get nice socks from?

I don't have a dehydrator, so I shall buy a few packets of dried mushrooms, peppers, onions, peas, etc. They'll be good in emergencies.

Beyond those, I'm working away at my sewing projects. Draught excluder no.1 for this year is begun! I did notice that Wilkos near where I work was selling off the beige balls of wool at half price. Hopefully those'll come down again soon as they didn't look to be shifting last time. Might be worth having a look in the RTC section...

HTH

KB xx

annie123

Kitchenbunny wrote: »

Few more points for me to research:

- can you freeze cartons of orange juice so there's some vitamin C on hand? (main aim - not having to go out in bad weather)

Yes you can freeze them, but I also do it in the summer months.

I have one marked with a big do not drink sign on it, I freeze it then put it in the fridge on really hot days, stops it from working so hard and pop it back in the freezer at night ready for the next day.
My fridge is old and doesn't like working in the hot weather and this keeps it sooo much cooler.