Preparing for Winter

Confuzzled

butterflylady131 wrote: »

Don't know if anyone has suggested it, but we will be making full use of the Wii we bought a few weeks ago. Using it will keep us active, and therefore warm (well that's the theory anyway!)

actually that's my plan for winter PE for the wee one and myself. i home educate her and we've both been wanting a wii. i spent a few months visiting friends in america last year and i used their wii sports to keep in shape as much as possible since they didn't have any olympic sized swimming pool (like my then local one) for me to do my 2 miles of swimming a week

whilst it's not as good a workout as swimming you really can get a decent workout, especially if you do something like dance dance revolution for 30 min to an hour! even the sports aren't too bad and i must say it was nice to play bowling and be able to do well through an entire game vs just the first half as real life bowling has my wrists aching terribly by the time i get midway through the first game and you can imagine how badly my score suffers once that sets in!

so since both of us want one i plan to get the wii and the wii fit package for christmas. i'd have liked to have gotten it for her birthday but alas i'm forced to move sooner than expected and those pesky landlords are always so adamant about things like rent and deposits

Patchwork_Quilt

i know I'm always suggesting charity shops but they are a good source of flannelette sheets. We got some two years ago and unfortunately, used them as decorating sheets as they are so absorbent but I went back and got two more so that DD and DS had one each.

Confuzzled

poorbabe wrote: »

I'm wondering whether I should get a humidifier for the bathroom/hallway or moisture crystals as I tend to dry my clothes on those areas and, whilst I don't have a problem with damp, I don't want to start it off.

not sure if that was just a typo or not but please be sure to buy a DEhumidifier. if you buy a humidifier that is meant to put moisture back into the room. lots of people in the states use these as their forced air heating really dries the house out, here i'd think dehumidifiers would be much more popular since it's generally speaking a much damper country and many of us do dry our clothes out in the house

Confuzzled

Gigervamp wrote: »

We pay for our oil by direct debit and spread the cost over the year.


.

i'm curious, how costly is oil compared to other forms of heating?

i know a few older cottages in this area use oil fired heating and i've always been put off by that but with the cost of gas rising so steeply i'm beginning to wonder if oil is at least comparable? i'm still on a house search (renting) so i don't want to miss out on an otherwise good home just because it has oil heating if it's not goign to be as bad as i fear

Patchwork_Quilt

Just had a thought - we have the usual duvet on our bed with a duvet cover on but my patchwork quilts come in useful. They are only as large as an old-fashioned eiderdown. Did anyone else used to have those? I make a patchwork top with a plain backing, then sew a 4.5 tog duvet (cut down, they are extremely cheap at the Factory Shop) inside. This goes on top of the bed. It's like having another duvet on your duvet, if you see what I mean.

One of these days, I'll work out how to post a picture on here.

Gigervamp

Confuzzled wrote: »

i'm curious, how costly is oil compared to other forms of heating?

I haven't had gas for years, so don't know how much it costs, but oil is very expensive. We usually fill the tank twice a year and currently pay £75 a month.

We were a few hundred in debt to the company last year when the prices rocketed, but they've gone down again for now and we're back on track for our DD payments to cover the cost of the oil.

The thing with gas is that you can get discounts from suppliers if you use the same one for your gas and electricity, whereas that obviously doesn't apply for oil.

So, if I had a choice, I think I'd get a place that has gas rather than oil.

Savvy_sewing

jd1000 wrote: »

Has anyone experimented making paper logs? Thinking about building up a supply for those cold winter nights when an open fire goes down well but the machine is £20!

Hi, I am experimenting with one at the moment. Got it on Ebay, new, from Germany for £15.50 came within the week.

poorbabe

Thanks Confuzzled, I did mean a dehumidifier .

Mooloo - ditto what cyclingyorkie said about the SAD light. I live on my own so only visitors are affected, and I don't get too many of those during the winter

Frugaldom

jd1000 wrote: »

Has anyone experimented making paper logs? Thinking about building up a supply for those cold winter nights when an open fire goes down well but the machine is £20!

I've had one for a couple of years now, the rectangular metal, (might chop your fingers off) type. My biggest problem is finding somewhere to dry out the logs, especially if you don't have any central heating. I made a box load during the good weather and sun dried them, but it took about 3 days per brick. Great if you can dry the bricks and get free newspapers, though, and you can always add in dried leaves and small twigs. I also collect pine cones throughout the year, they are great for burning and I guess they'll be as carbon neutral as locally grown logs.

Reverbe

I am very impressed with all of you on this thread for making preparations. I do not even know if I will have somewhere to live this winter the way my landlord/flatmate is talking but well done OS peeps!