Preparing for winter II 8 September 2010 at 1:50PM edited 18 September 2011 at 7:29AM in Old Style MoneySaving 8.1K replies 884K views

carriebradshaw

thankfully we don't need to do that much this year, we've already bought warm clothes in the tesco sales so have them ready & last years boot slippers will hold up another winter quite easily :j We bought the big rugs back down from the loft yesterday and put them down in the living room,makes a huge difference to the warmth in the Winter and saves wear and tear on the carpet underneath too.
Towards the end of last Winter our kingsize dual control leccy blanket died on one side, a new one that size was far too expensive for us so we took a chance and bought 2 singles, OH tied them together and they sit perfectly flat on the mattress,so now we have dual control for a fraction of the price as they were just £12 each,wouldn't work on a double bed though as they'd overlap or ruckle up and then it would be dangerous. We have to have the dual controls as OH has his side on a lot for pain relief,but I get too hot and rarely have my side on. Oddly enough it was my side of the blanket that died!

We save the sacks from the dry dog food we buy and fill them up with cones and sticks for the fire that I've started gathering when walking the the dog.I have managed to fill 3 sacks already and haven't been collecting very long as I haven't been able to bend until my wounds were healed properly and OH just won't pick them up at all.

Last week when the weather was sunny we sawed some of the thicker branches off some of the trees in the garden to lift the canopy & let the light in a bit more and this has given use some small logs and more kindle sticks too,so they're chopped up,stacked on the stoop to dry out now and will burn them later on in the Winter :T Just got to fill the coal bunker now and it's half full already from last year so not too shabby at the moment.Another 5 bags should fill it and if we can buy them in one go this month we'll get 2 free bags of kindling too as the coalman has an offer on, so going to try and miss out the big food shop and do that instead :cool: I've also got a sack of loo rolls stuffed with shredded paper hoping they'll work as fire lighters,never tried it before usually put them on the compo heap,so here's hoping...

I need to stock up medicine box on next shopping trip as there's no chemist in the village and cold remedies,asprins etc are much more expensive from the local shops and I can't get things like night nurse which I like to have in,will use my boots points for that I think :T

All that's left now is to rebuild my grocery stockpile now and I've got that started already,so I'm feeling much more positive than I was a couple of months ago. :cool:

Eenymeeny

valk_scot wrote: »

So far for this year I have...



Started making narrower fabric sausages to fit the sash windows...I put my hand up there the other night to close the lock between the lower and upper sash and there was an amazing draught there. So I'm going to fill the sausages with a mix of beans or rice and polyester beads, so they mould into the corners and stop the draughts.

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What a good idea! Having just moved from a high-ceilinged, sash windowed home I wish that I'd thought of that. (I used to stuff towels along when I was closing the curtains) Just moved into a smaller, double glazed home so waiting to find the draughts as the weather changes...:eek:
Someone mentioned thicker dressing gowns. I found out quite by accident that OHs dressing gown was much thicker than mine and really good to wear on top of clothes! (In the house, of course:D) The same applies to mens sweatshirts and jogging bottoms. Then they say that we are soft if we complain about the cold!

rachbc

Eenymeeny wrote: »

Thanks for the new thread pink-winged, hasn't it filled up quickly?! Thanks to this thread I'm really into preparing for winter. Does anyone else shout NO! at the telly when they advise knocking down walls, putting huge glass doors in etc? and those church/barn conversions! Give me a cosy little house anytime....

Couldn't agree less! My parents have a massive open plan barn with acres of glass and due to the under floor geo thermal heating and super eco glazing it is super cosy and heated for maybe £20 a month..when the get the wood burner (fueled with free wood) going its unbearably hot and I'm sitting around in my vest!

midnightraven3

using cheap cat litter to fill draught excluders stops wee beasties being attracted to them and still moulds to the shape of the door or window

Minxy_Bella

NualaBuala wrote: »

Hi Midnight, I know Ikea have a good range of curtain rails - I think the Kvartal system can be ceiling mounted and you can customise the lengths plus it has curved bits for doing corners.


I'm another one who likes the feeling of battening down the hatches once I know everyone and their property are safe and sound. It feels very cosy!:)

I would just say be very careful with the Kvartal rails - we tried to put £80 quids worth into two bay windows in our 1930s semi and couldn't get the curtains to pull round :eek:

We ended up using a £5 plasticy strip from B&Q which worked beautifully :T

alec_eiffel

Anyone in the East Lancs area looking for flannelette sheets should head to Oswaldtwistle Mills, the ones they sell there are great. Not the cheapest but very nice quality. Another simple thing we do (and I think loads of people do this anyway) is have a duvet and sheets one size bigger than the bed. So we have a double bed with kingsize sheets, it means when you want to wrap yourself up comfy cosy you're not stealing the warmth from anyone else!

I'm very thankful to the previous owners of our house that they did no modernisation whatsoever so we have a sliding door at the top of the stairs which is great for heat loss purposes, it gets pretty warm up there, but at least it's not escaping anywhere.

mrs_motivated

OOOH I LOVE THIS THREAD! :T

I am feeling quite smug this year :A as we have taken our house back to brick (as it didnt have cavity walls) - battoned and 40 mm therma lined the walls and had them replastered, insulated the floors etc. so i am hoping for the first snug winter in 5 years!

On a more normal level we have stocked the woodpile up, bought some thermal lined bedroom curtains and bought some tealights (99p for 200 from Asda)

mrs_motivated

Oh i forgot - I have bought some old fashioned blankets and a new snuggly quilt as well

rachbc

I got flanette sheets from primark - use them on the spare bed as don't really like them myslef - will get some for the kids this winter though.

We have slippers, dressing gowns, hats scarves etc but need new wellies for me and dd (dh and ds won't wear them).

Have had our wood delivered.

We currently don't have a door on our kitchen and the draught flies through from the cat flap in the back door so gonna try and persuade dh we need one.

flowertotmum

Confuzzled wrote: »

a point here that hopefully many of us ladies have not forgotten is to stock up on feminine hygiene products... also you might like to make sure you have enough contraception to wait out being snowed in, after all there are certain activities that make long cold winter nights that much more interesting

:rotfl: why do you think i have 6 children then:D