How to stay warm cheaply?

WantToBeSE

I really need to stop putting the heating on so much, as I cant afford it all the time.


I live in a terrace, but 1 house to the side of me is empty and the other side try to keep their heating off as much as possible, so no chance of much warmth there.


I keep it off during the day (at work until about 3pm) but the house is so cold.


We wear layers, slippers, dressing gowns, sit under fleece blankets when we can.
We have thick lined curtains and have put rolled up towels by the bottom of the porch door to act as a make shift draught excluder.


We have double glazing, so no heat escaping from the windows.


I think the problem is that our house is in a 'dip' so doesn't get the sun at all.


What do you do to keep warm when its really cold? Any help or tips would be very much appreciated. Thanks

C_Mababejive

Easy Peasy,,just go out and buy a pair of thermal long johns and a thermal long sleeved vest..

imho

Everyone house will be cold on the days we have no sun so your no different than anyone else on those sunless days.U have to switch heating on low just to take chill off or cover up more but looks like your doing that already.Were all in the same boat.

SailorSam

I always wear a jumper and 'cos there's isn't anyone here to see i look like a tramp i'll have an old baggy cardi on top. Of a night the lounge gets quite warm without the CH and just the gas fire. I've got DG and lined curtains.

Callie22

Thick curtains. Buy some cheap ones off ebay and stitch a cheap fleece blanket to the back to make them even thicker. I've just done that to cover our front door and the difference is amazing.

PenguinOfDeath

WantToBeSE wrote: »

What do you do to keep warm when its really cold? Any help or tips would be very much appreciated. Thanks

Move a lot, run up and downstairs, do some housework :eek:

Drink lots of brews/Hot chocolate/soup/hot toddies

WantToBeSE

Thanks everyone.


I was thinking about getting a curtain from the charity shop and making a door curtain (is that what they are called). It cant be that hard, right?


Its always warm upstairs, so I often go to bed early and snuggle under the duvet with my kindle. Its the lounge that's freezing. No matter what, I cant warm it up for very long.

thriftwizard

Fleece isn't the warmest stuff - good, but nowhere near as warm as a real wool jumper or blanket. You can often pick these up cheaply in charity shops or at jumble sales, if they're not trendy patterns or colours; I still find them being sold as dog blankets. And I'm often asked for real wool dressing gowns by older customers, again because they are very much warmer than the modern fleece equivalents. Ditto socks; with the exception of Heat Holders, which are pretty good, you're better off with an ordinary pair of cotton socks under a pair of real wool socks. I got several pairs of John Arbon alpaca wool socks for £4 a pair recently and they are blissful. I'm ashamed to say I've never mastered the dark art of knitting & thus can't make my own.

You seem to have done most of the logical things already. Back in the olden days when I was growing up in a rural household, it was usual to have one constantly-warm room in the house, normally the kitchen because the solid-fuel Rayburn would be "in" all day & couldn't be started or stopped in a hurry. We'd do our homework at the kitchen table, Mum & Aunt Ethel would be knitting in there, and Dad most likely chopping wood or digging something up outside, which is warm work anyway, except when he dropped indoors for a cuppa. He had a study, but took his books & wrote his sermons at the kitchen table late at night, because it was warm in there. Once we moved into town & had a cooker, the living room took over with a stove which was lit first thing every morning, if it had gone out from the night before. The room was arranged with seating round the fire & the TV off to one side, and a table by the window for homework & hobbies. We still ate in the kitchen, warmed by cooking but cold the rest of the time; we only slept & dressed in our bedrooms, bathed once a week (with a paraffin heater taking the chill off the bathroom) and generally lived most of our lives in that one warm room.

So, is there any way you can manage to heat just one room to a constant reasonable level? At least you'd be comfortable some of the time!

Ilona

As penguin says, move about a lot. Maybe a hot water bottle on your knee when you sit down. Wear fingerless gloves in the house, and a woolly hat.

I have on at this moment, 3 teashirst, 1 sweatshirt, 1 fleecy top, thin pair of socks, leggins, knee length thick woolen socks, scarf, pair of jog bottom trousers, and on top of the whole lot a large size mans thick dressing gown which wraps round me nearly twice and almost reaches to the floor. Oh, and a pair of old fashioned slippers like bootees.
Ilona

goggle

I would seriously consider putting the heating on for several hours to "warm up" the house just once - it's much easier to keep warm if you aren't starting from very cold & very damp

WantToBeSE

Ah, hot water bottle, what didn't I think of that!? Great suggestion.


I have bought down the spare duvet to use on the sofa.


Re heating just 1 room- I think that its better I spend more time upstairs than in the lounge, as the lounge is the only room in the house that just wont heat up. Its quite 'open' as well, with the stairs leading from it, so I am heating 'empty space' up the stairs.


Just been looking online for wool socks and they seem quite expensive. Its not really my toes that gt cold (I have great slippers) but more my hands, face and nose.