Preparing for winter II

Rainy-Days

slm6002 wrote: »

Thanks for the great tips. My dad has lots of blackberries at the top of the field as long as wicked step mother hasnt told him to cut them back again - i am sure she only does it so i cant go round and pick them. If they have gone i know a few place that me and kids can try. I have a lot of stuff in our quite small house and now i think is the time to make use of it all. We all have scalves and gloves that i bought in sales last year. Plenty of hand me downs to from other mums i know. We have too many (if possible) fleece blankets for beds and sofa.

Things i would really like to do are:

curtain pole and curtains at double doors in kitchen
Curtain on kitchen window
Winter coat for me - Have been living in waterproof for last few years and need something warmer - i do have one but its 2 sizes too small - perhaps loose weight should be on this list
get kitchen stocks back up

If you have a Dunelm near you they do really good and reasonably priced poles, there might be some coming up in the sale so keep your eyes out. You can also find them at car boots sometimes as well. Curtains - have a good look through the weekly free ads section in the local rag. Also Ebay sell curtains as well and they do some really nice designer ones at good prices!

The time to buy your winter coat is actually in the post Christmas sales believe it or not. I bought a beautiful tulip shaped coat from M&S online at it was reduced to £30.00 down from £75.00. I had kept my eye out for ages and ages on it and finally got it. Keep on looking in the charity shops for coats, September will see the start of the coats coming into the shops. Peacocks do some really nice things now at really reasonable prices. Not sure if you have any jumble sales coming up round by you - sometimes they spring up the same time as the school fetes and you might be able to pick something up again there. Also, and you might have to swallow your pride here - ask your friends if they are thinking about getting rid of any of their coats. One good friend of mine asked me a few years back and as it happened I was no longer using this coat so I was happy to let her have it. Ebay is also another place you could look for a coat as well. There is a white one on there in a size 14 (not sure what size you are but thats me) and it's got a starting price of 99p - just have to watch your postage but you might be able to pick one up for around a fiver

Butterfly_Brain

It might be worth looking out to see if asda are doing the £15 coats again this year

slm6002

Thanks for all of the great thrifty winter preperation ideas

popsycat_2

Thank you all, I'm so glad i stumbled across this as I was feeling somewhat silly about making my list of things to do before winter 2 months ago.
So far I have managed to draughtproof the cellar door and seal all the holes around the windows and doors. I need to find a economical secondary glazing solution for a fan light, does anyone have any ideas? I cant use the plastic you heat with a hairdryer as nowhere for tape to go.
Last winter some of the builders merchants had cheap hats, gloves and socks maybe worth a look this year.

Rainy-Days

I'm kind of thinking Popsy that you mean those beautiful half moon lights over the tops of doors!

Now actually you might just be able to do something because I was watching Sarah Beeny on 'Help My House Is Falling Down' and she used a fire sealant that basically when it gets hot it expands and seals the area. So, if you put sealant around the edge of the fan light and then put some plastic over it and heat it up, you should, in theory cause a complete sealed action to take place! Now this expansion should work for all sealants so you won't have the tape and the ugliness of it especially coming away! Any excess over and carefully, with a stanley knife trim back the excess. That should sort it!

Eenymeeny

DebtFree2012 wrote: »

Do we happen to have a preparing for winter checklist anywhere? I plan on going through the threads over the next week making a shortlist of things to do but wondered if there was anything out there already?

It feels like winter today here in the North East!

Hi, it was me who suggested the notepad! There was a list somewhere, and a 'car survival kit list' Sorry, I can't find it but maybe one of the mods will find it for you. They are magic at finding things, I think that they are brilliant!:T
Fortunately it warmed up in my bit of the NE yesteday, hope it did for you too Debtfree

Eliza_2

These look good, has anyone got one? Probably not that thick but much neater than the scruffy fleeces that are strewn across my sofas ready for the dog to roll all over! Have ordered a couple to see what they're like (7% back through Quidco and you can often find codes for additional money off/free delivery)

http://www.jmldirect.com/Quishion-Twin-Pack-PQ1001/

Eliza

florriesdragon

I've seen on other threads that it may help to line my curtains and put foil behind my radiators.

First, what do I need to put foil behind my radiators? Dumb question, but how does it stay there?

And second, I was wondering if the cheapest way to line my curtains might be to buy some value sheets and do it with them? Thought that may be cheaper than buying material...?

Could you help?
thanks!!

sandraroffey

i have a bay window, quite a large one and the curtains go across the bay. im at the moment hunting down some thick curtains in charity shops to put up around the bay over winter. and may still put an extra liner in it.

if your curtains are against the window, line them with something thick. cheap fleeces or old blankets. look in charity shops - you may pick up some very cheap curtain the right size, and you can line them with them. i got a flannelette sheet last week in my local charity shop, double bed size, for a pound. something like that could be useful, especially if you use it double.

Marco_Panettone

With the radiators I covered some newspaper the the foil to give it s more controllable shape then blue-tacced the newspaper to the wall.