Preparing for Winter

pigpen

My list is as follows..

1. carpet the hallway!!
2. draught excluders for the french doors, front door and kitchen door
3. Sort blind for the remaining window in the kitchen
4. Find a way to get a curtain at the back door
5. Get the curtain up at the french doors
6. Somehow cover the huge hole in the french doors
7. See if we can budget for double glazed units for the back room!

Already..

1. Got the utilities capped!
2. Got a credit balance on the utilies.. hoefully it is at least the next bill paid in advance!
3. made curtains for french doors
4. Decided what jobs need doing!!
5. bought new winter coats
6. sorted bedding surplus

tryingtodobetter

I loved reading this thread last year, here is my list of things I need to do for this winter:

1. Buy Thermal curtains for backdoor
2. Buy fleece pyjamas and dressing gowns for the children
3. Slippers for everyone
4. Make a rice bag for all the beds in the house
5. Buy fleece blankets x 2
6. Seal windows where needed
7. Open new bank account specifically for energy bills

Thats all I can think of for now, I will enjoy reading everyone elses plans.

frugalswan

This is a great thread. Here's my Winter Is Coming To Do List:
1) Buy a big fluffy blanket to snuggle up with on the sofa
2) Buy slippers. And fluffy socks.
3) Sort wardrobe and get rid of the jumpers two sizes too small and charity shop them. While I'm there, buy something more my size.
4) Make curtains for the small windows in the kitchen and bathroom. We've roller blinds currently and I want a bit of extra insulation.
5) Make draught excluders for a couple of the windows. There's a small gap between the bottom of the curtains and the top of the windowsill that is just begging for a draught excluder. I've old pillows at the ready!
6) Stock up on dried and tinned food, and keep up with the meal planning I'm doing to save money for the fuel bills!
7) Use my slow cooker more often and find more recipes to do in it.

That's about it for now, although I know I'll probably add another ten or so yet.

SuziQ

Blimey you are all so organised,I'd best get my list started! All I've done so far is buy 3 good bargain chrissy presents for my youngest after the heads up on the argos thread on here!
I have been unable to cap my fuel bills due to arrears following a mess up by edf last year-without being able to pay them off in one go I couldn't change suppliers so that does worry me at the moment.

Justamum

mandy_moo_1 wrote: »

hi aimless with the rice bag, you put it in the mwave together with a cup of water next to it, and ''cook'' it on high for about a minute and a half

the water stops the rice drying out too much i think and no, once you've made one, you don't need to keep changing the rice

I'm sure I read somewhere recently about one of these bursting into flames :eek::eek:

For my list this year I have to

1. Buy hot water bottles for everybody (maybe two each)
2. Make draught excluders for all outer doors - the front door howls in winter
3. Either buy more fleece blankets, or buy fleece by the meter and make some. We have some heavy blankets, but I prefer fleece as it's difficult lugging the heavy ones around.
4. Buy vests and thick tights for me and thick tights for the DDs. I don't think my DH or DS would appreciate any :rolleyes:

nicki_2

I bought the washing up bowl today - should reduce the amount of time I spend in the kitchen washing up at any one time.

Also bought a blanket for the livingroom (£2ish...the woman only charged me £4 for everything when it should have been more ) from a charity shop - will go back when I have more cash and have another look in there for the curtains etc

telboyo

I am a bit puzzled about people wanting a washing up bowl that could save money, how does a washing up bowl save money? If so why not use the one that is in the kitchen sink?
What do you do with hot water bottles, surely if you eat more food you will be warmer!

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

telboyo wrote: »

I am a bit puzzled about people wanting a washing up bowl that could save money, how does a washing up bowl save money? If so why not use the one that is in the kitchen sink?
What do you do with hot water bottles, surely if you eat more food you will be warmer![/quote

Whilst I appreciate what your'e saying I can honestly say that a washing up bowl and kettle in my case will save me money.I live in a very old, rather large house and to be honest because we have a combi boiler it can take about 4 minutes before you get tepid water in the kitchen never mind hot come winter.I also have a huge butlers sink which takes about 10 washing up bowls of water to get nearly enough to wash dishes.I can honestly say a washing up bowl has already saved me money.
As for eating food to keep warm,well I eat a lot less than my hubby who is always cold,so I guess that depends on the individual.Although come winter when it gets realy cold I don't think any amount of eating will keep you warm.You'll still freeze.

nicki_2

telboyo wrote: »

I am a bit puzzled about people wanting a washing up bowl that could save money, how does a washing up bowl save money? If so why not use the one that is in the kitchen sink?
What do you do with hot water bottles, surely if you eat more food you will be warmer!

I have a large metal sink and didn't have a washing up bowl until I bought one yesterday.(The last one was used by DD as a sick bowl for weeks at one point so just got used to not having one). The sink took 4x the amount of water to fill it to wash the dishes, and the heat of the water heated up the sink. I also used to leave the washing up until I felt I had enough to justify filling the sink up to wash the dishes. Now I only fill the bowl with water, and I spend less time standing in the kitchen washing up when previously I could spend 30+mins in there "catching up".

I have hot water bottles, just didn't use them that much in the past as my ex used to get cold and insisted on having heaters/fires on. This winter is going to be very different.

mardatha

I dono about winter, I'm frozen today. And after we have some dinner we're going to make a start on the Ark.:)