NO MORE COLD MUMSNETTERS!

I shave in a hot bath (when I bother to shave at all). Don't know if it's just me (?) but I retain heat from a bath for a good while afterwards - can even stand in my cold bedroom doing the whole body cream / oil thing for 10 minutes before getting dressed.

Oh god I used to have that problem in my old house Damnauto

I would do everything else first, so I was as warm as I could be, but then something would make me shiver, like touching the freezing cold wall or something, the goosebumps would appear and I'd have no choice.

I would regularly appear from the bathroom with blood streaming from multiple wounds. Hideous.

Oh another one, how on earth do you shave your legs in a cold house?! It's like I've done it with a kitchen knife!!

Sorry I haven't read all the thread yet but wanted to jump in with a warning - do not wear a scarf in bed. My DF attended at a house once where the child died from strangulation caused by a scarf they had worn to bed. Obviously devastating for everyone involved.

I'm off to read the rest of the thread with interest.

Brilliant pisses I was just thinking I could do with some thermals today.

LOVING the biscuit idea, might manage that. I try rewarding myself with a brew if I do something and I obviously warm up once I'm busy it's just the motivating I struggle with when all I want to do is be warm!

Home Bargains do thermals for 2.99 each

Great thread and some very handy tips
Thank you

I struggle with that too Damnauto in the evenings. I think it means I'm not wearing enough!

Now I know getting up and doing stuff warms you up but how on earth do you motivate yourself when it's so cold to get off your blanketed sofa?!?

I second the advice to invest in a good Duvet - I shivered under my crap one for years, used to put extra blankets over me, sleep in a fleece and hat, and put my oil filled radiator on.

I eventually splashed out on one of these Duvet and it was the best investment I ever made. I ummed and aaahed about the cost for ages, but I'm so glad I bought it.

I literally haven't used the heating in my bedroom since I bought it 2 years ago, so I think it has paid for itself - and I no longer sleep in a fleece!! It's so cosy, and I'm the coldest sleeper.

Thankyou Kungfu and everyone else! I'm going to get busy putting all this into practice

I tend to sit in the back of the house in winter as that's where the sun shines in. Currently in the kitchen with the tumble dryer on and washing machine running. So it's toasty warm. Heating doesn't come on for another hour. I know some cant afford a tumble dryer, but it don't half heat the room up good and proper.

I only just realised in our house if we bolt the doors top and bottom rather than just lock them it keeps the seal tighter and let's in almost no draught. Previously the draft was severe...

Feel like an idiot after freezing near the door for a few years.

Invest in a really good quality set of seasonal duvets that you can join together or separate to suit different temperatures. Mine has a very thin summer duvet, a medium thick spring/autumn duvet and when combined they make a super squishy cosy thick winter wonder! I've just put it on a few weeks ago and once I'm in bed, I am toasty all night! And they last for years and years, so the initial expense is really worth it if you can afford it. Loving this thread!

We had a similar experience (in old flat) with British Gas where we were chased for a previous tenant's heating debt. It resolved itself eventually but has made me choose another provider.

If you cannot face exercising, get up and do the ironing.

(I know it costs money to heat the iron, but at least you are getting a job done as well as keeping warm!)

What a lovely thread. ..though equally crap that its needed

Primark have a range of blankets that are £5 and well worth the money. ..they currently have a xmassy one-its red and white with deers ob and a kind of nowergen pattern and this one seems to be slightly heavier than the other designs. ..no idwa why. ..and they are fab

As an aside to the thread, I will never have British Gas again.

Many years ago I moved into a new home and hadn't set up to pay monthly direct debit. I was single, no children then.

I got the first quarter gas bill, it was for £400 odd! I was shocked as I had budgeted for around fifty quid! I did have a bit of a fright and phoned them up and they sent someone to read the outside meter again and phoned me up to tell me that the previous meter man had recorded it wrong and my actual bill was for £40 odd!

They then wrote off the forty quid bill for my distress and sent me a cheque for more money, quite a bit I seem to remember as compensation! Whilst I was pleased I did think it was a bit over the top and a simple apology would have sufficed. It made me think they had money to burn.

Then, this is what really ticked me off, another time I moved I got reminders from British gas for the previous occupier whom appeared to have never paid a bill, including his gas one and he was owing five hundred odd pounds. I had his forwarding address as he came to see me about an urgent letter he needed forwarding. I didn't mention all the debt letters I had for him as he was an arrogant unpleasant sort.

So I phoned British gas and said I had opened the letter and told them his new address. The woman said thanks but it would probably be written off as it wasn't always worth their while chasing people.

I was furious! How many people rent for six months, don't pay bills and then bugger off to the next property to do the same thing!

I realise this was a long time ago and maybe British gas are more tightly run but this obscene waste of money accounting really ticked me off and made me think that the coat of the waste was being passed on to the paying customer.

Thanks Solid Gold that's interesting. Don't want to de-rail lovely, helpful thread, but am not very aware of our heating costs - just that they're probably too high, and I'm (a bit) scared how much heating our home through winter will cost this year.

Maybe we need to think again about central heating. We've only had it for the last 60/70 years. Maybe with diminishing natural resources, we need to think about dressing better & being more clever with how we keep warm. So many UK houses are so poorly insulated, it is like heating green houses!