Preparing for winter II

Eenymeeny

Frugal wrote: »

eughhhhhhhhhh back to thinking about winter preps again! Madness as its 25c here today... But the summer hols will fly by, and soon after that the chills will set in :eek:

I was reasonably prepared last year thanks to this thread - didn't have to go out for food/supplies etc so that was good, but what I didn't bargain for was my frozen washing machine and pipes outside... remember anyone?!!! So, I am thinking about investing in the heat tape for pipes - looks like it will cost me about £60 (unless anyone can point me somewhere cheaper) but it will be well worth it - 5 days with no WM and young kids was NOT funny!!!

I have another pipe outside, only about 10 inches exposed, which needs something doing too but I haven't decided what yet - last year it got wrapped in tinfoil and fleeces with a few bricks over the top - didn't work well so need ideas on that pretty please

Got my wind up lantern from MrT last year - kids broke/lost their wind up torches :mad: so will need to replace those.

I had plenty of DW salt in last year too My path was one of the only ones in my road to be snow/ice free:T

It really makes such a difference being prepared even if friends and family take the mick - I never want a repeat of the year before :eek:

Hi Frugal,
Here we are again
I was thinking of you when someone mentioned the foil survival blankets earlier in this thread, available from poundland. Would they be any good for covering your washing machine between washes during the really cold weather? If you are quick, you might even trap some heat in from the previous wash!:)
Sorry if it's been posted already, haven't got time to read it all at the moment. (It sure goes on a lick when we gain momentum eh? )

Eenymeeny

Oops! forgot what I came on for originally... 2kg dishwasher salt available at Lidl for 79p yesterday. Remember when stocks sold out last December?

Confuzzled

Eenymeeny wrote: »

Oops! forgot what I came on for originally... 2kg dishwasher salt available at Lidl for 79p yesterday. Remember when stocks sold out last December?

after the tip on here that's where i bought my salt last year for my path, works a treat, thanks for the heads up

slm6002

yes me too. i currently have enough for 1 lot of path clearing. need a few more boxes plus some for the actual dishwasher!

grumswifie

Hi there

All this prepairing for winter got me ordering some coal today. Was just wondering what kind of prices you al paid. For the grade a coal a 50kg bag for me is £15.75 and a 20kg bag £6.75. Needless to say I am going for 5 of the 50 kg bags and having them delivered. I have a council grit bucket out the back, procured legit, and am not sure about how much it will hold but thought that I would go for 5 bags and anything else will have to go in the shed.

chirpychick

Hi everyone,
I was wondering what temperature would you say is the lowest "safest" you could have the house at?
Hubby thinks it should be kept at 18 in the winter and i say 16.
We dont have any extra fires/heaters. Just central heating.
We are pretty good and have blankets, extra layers etc etc but the year before last we were next door to a couple with a baby so we didnt need the heating on at all in the winter but now we have a lone male next door and he is always out so we dont get any heat from him LOL!
Id not have the heating on at all if i could get away with it but hubby is worried about sickness. Any advice?

Rainy-Days

chirpychick wrote: »

Hi everyone,
I was wondering what temperature would you say is the lowest "safest" you could have the house at?
Hubby thinks it should be kept at 18 in the winter and i say 16.
We dont have any extra fires/heaters. Just central heating.
We are pretty good and have blankets, extra layers etc etc but the year before last we were next door to a couple with a baby so we didnt need the heating on at all in the winter but now we have a lone male next door and he is always out so we dont get any heat from him LOL!
Id not have the heating on at all if i could get away with it but hubby is worried about sickness. Any advice?

You can get away with 15 degrees actually anything lower than that and you are feeling it. It will however keep your home safe and prevent freeze up's! Last year the amount of people who had big breakdowsn on their central heating was mind boggling. I kind of felt smug because we have our boiler serviced every year (although we had a complete nerw heating system newly installed in the first week of October last year which was just as well as it turned out). I just don't understand why people wait for their boiler to breakdown and then do something about it - it's madness! Our last boiler lasted 32 years!

Rainy-Days

alice-mary wrote: »

My Snow Shovel arrived yesterday afternoon:j
I'm glad that the postman thought that it was a paddle for a canoe or similar as he would have thought I was mad if he knew the truth (it WAS 28 degrees and there was a heat-haze everywhere)!

Alice
xx

How I howled with laughter over this, it made my afternoon! :rotfl:

chirpychick

Rainy-Days wrote: »

You can get away with 15 degrees actually anything lower than that and you are feeling it. It will however keep your home safe and prevent freeze up's! Last year the amount of people who had big breakdowsn on their central heating was mind boggling. I kind of felt smug because we have our boiler serviced every year (although we had a complete nerw heating system newly installed in the first week of October last year which was just as well as it turned out). I just don't understand why people wait for their boiler to breakdown and then do something about it - it's madness! Our last boiler lasted 32 years!

We have ours done every year too (just had it done last week) our boiler is now 26?! years old. *crossed fingers* lol.

candie_gill

Few minor preparations today- went to B&M and picked up some small candle Jars in christmas scents for 29p - 50p each reduced from £1. Need a large xmas Jar from Yankee candle (my yearly treat) then im done. Also picked up the last of my sons xmas pressies, his stocking fillers and the contents of his xmas eve hamper too so feeling very smug

Going to clean my car by the end of the week, check tyres for inflation and oil levels etc. We had torrential rain here so its spured me on to get the car in check