Preparing for Winter

sammy_kaye18

Hi All

Well I have got slapped with a £429 gas bill - they helpfully gave me estimated readings despite me ringing with accurate ones all of last year but it has been noted on my account that because i gave an accurate reading last time that I have 6 months between statements so Ive 6 months to pay this one off. how very helpful of them.
ALso questioned OH on ti and found that when Im not in the house on weekends the heating is left on constant and he's walking round in PJ bottoms and Ben runs around in his pants 90% of the time.:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: not any bloody more! was the response he had.

Ive been sat snuggling under Bens Ben 10 blanket on the sofa of an evening now but I have an advantage of baby bump helping keep me warm.
Got fleece blanket on Bens bed as well as the duvet wrapped around and under the mattress as hes in a cot bed so it stays on him all night unless he kicks it off.
PJs and dressing gown for him
My winter bed has been made up for ages. Fleece, sheet, duvet, bed cover. Lovely and warm to get into of an evening and helpful as the radiator in our bedroom doesn't work and hasn't all winter so its nice and snuggly if you can stand the cold blast last thing at night to get undressed etc and its very hard to get out of in the morning.
We aren't forecast to get above 9 degrees all week and have lots of rain coming our way too - oh how i love you wales.

Also have come to the conclusion our council is bloody useless. besides our radiator not working when they retiled the roof of the flat one of the scaffolding poles knocked off an outside vent cover. Now I ring them about once a week to get it repaired as since that's missing I effectively have a 5 inch hole in my living room wall that all my nice warm air is sucked out of!

Also doesn't help that we are in a single glazed flat so the windows are carp anyway!

Oh so mad

BigMummaF

nykmedia wrote: »

....
Found the rhyme:

If Candlemas day be dry and fair,
The half o' winters to come and mair.
If Candlemas day be wet and foul,
The half o' winter's gane at Yule.

Although it was raining first thing this morning, it's been lovely and sunny for most of the day here, so we may not even be ha;f way through winter here. ....:)

Holding my hand's up here--a sassenach respectfully requesting a translation please Presumably it is similar to the St Swithin's harbinger of rain for forty days, or the Shepherd's red sky? I do wish I'd taken more notice of Grannie's folklore now as they have a lot more truth to them than I'd ever imagined.

euripidesralph wrote: »

....wanted to get us all slankets....well and truly out of my budget,
just got them in the local petrol station for 5.99 each, ....
as ours are cream i susoect they will be washed often, ....
it was a bp garage in case anyone is looking for the same....
love it when a bargain is something you have been hankering after!!!!!!

Hope you don't mind my snipping your post, but I could :kisses: :rotfl:Just got to think where my nearest garage is :think:
At least fleece washes well, & you could always dye them &/or add appliqu! so you knew whose was which Don't know why, but I've now got a mental image of your hubbs sat in his blue slank, puffing on a pipe & reading a broadsheet while you three ladies are busy embroidering around the fire :rotfl:

Have you contacted WarmFront Sammi--I know there's a few problems with waiting lists & stuff, but they may be able to embarrass your council into doing something in the mean time

mardatha

If Candlemas day be dry and fair,
The half o' winters to come and mair.
If Candlemas day be wet and foul,
The half o' winter's gane at Yule.
******************************
It means if Candlemas is nice then there's still half the winter or more to come.
If Candlemas is horrible, then the winters practically finished (yule was the halfway point of winter)
I think.:D

Frugaldom

Yes, Yule was a traditionally celebrated date that got replaced by Christmas, as far as I know. It's the winter solstice, around 21st December, so a miserable, foul, wet day at Candlemas means Yule was halfway through. A fine, sunny day (like we had) foretells the same again still to come of the winter weather. Think Yule logs to remember when it is.

We had more snow today but it seems to have cleared away already and left us with the below zero temperatures again. Logpile is going down at quite a rate when the fire's being lit as early but the stockpiled food stores are still looking good.

mardatha

We got minus 7 today and the snow set like concrete, been trying to snow for a bit now.

downshifter

Now that the snow has returned with a vengeance I'm going to have to find the money from somewhere and buy some coal, I'm going through wood like anything and it really isn't keeping us warm. Seems very wasteful.

How much do you pay for coal? Last time I got a couple of bags of ordinary housecoal delivered, - it seems to be the cheapest. Not sure how much is in a bag as it doesn't say on the receipt. Last time it was around £24 for the two. Is that around normal? It didn't seem to amount to an awful lot and didn't last long but if I mix it with the wood it should do ok.

Feeling very fed up with this winter!

DS

mardatha

So is my husband LOL! We pay £15 a bag -- if you keep a low fire on as much as possible that seems to heat the walls if they are solid stone. We found its better to keep the fire in 24/7 but it does cost.
xxx Not too long now pet, spring will come !

westcoastscot

Yes we're £15 a bag here too - my stove is on 24/7 but I've had to put my order up to 2 bags a week - I used all I had "saved" from over the summer when the stove is turned down. I have hardwood but used it all and am waiting a delivery - it's £7 a bag. It snowing here again too - we haven't had the depth of snow my children have on the east coast but it comes and freezes - it was -11 degrees before christmas, and we're in the gulf stream!
Shall need to stockpile more over the summer, although here it isnt any cheaper - just spreads the cost around a little
WCS

cbsexec

Sorry to jump in - I know I'm not a member of this thread but I do enjoy reading it.

£15 a bag for coal - thats terrible - I was shocked when I had to pay £12 during the bad snow (emergency) and normally pay £9. Had loose coal this year as it was much cheaper.
Its awful how the price varies around the country.

westcoastscot

Mine's for smokeless. I can get ordinary coal for £12.50 a bag but find smokeless easier to use now I'm not as agile as I used to be. Less cleaning out and only need to tend to the stove twice a day
WCS