how are you preparing for October?

[nickthefox]

When prices are set to rise again and temperatures are going to plummet. We are buying curtains and have got some fleece throws second hand. Got in lots of easy and quick to heat 'meals' read tinned soup and noodles but I'm afraid it won't be enough.
We have recently moved and in our old flat ot was cold but at least we had people above and below us and to the side, we were insulated by other peoples flats. Now we are in a house ans last winter was freezing and we have lots of drafts in the windows, single glazing and no carpet!

I have been stocking up on tinned food and long shelf life products over the summer where costs are lower to try to keep the shopping costs down in the winter when the electricity will be shooting up again.

I have hot water bottles and a few thermoses (is? 's?) too.
What else can we do?
We are a family of six by the way so, food is quite a big cost anyway.

@FourTeaFallOut we didn't have a garden until we moved, so we used to have washing on a line in the kitchen, it did take days to dry but a trick is to flip the clothes around every day. So the parts that are touching dries. we also had to use doors. not good for mould but we didn't have anywhere else and no room or money for a tumble dryer.

Could you use the bath? and leave the bathroom window open? (we didn't have a window in ours) just block the door with a pillow and use that as a draught excluder
works for me now in winter, i don't want to use the doors now we have moved.

blimey yes but I don't have the money for it, especially now as the prices are going up.
we used to have 400 left over a month and now that's gone down to 1-200 I just am running out if money.
This is for school trips, uniform, shoes, sun cream, all the little extras that add up.

Insulating film on the windows makes a high difference - we tried it last year and it really helped to reduce condensation.

Is this a house that you have bought or privately rent?

If you rent then please contact your local authority who may have a department aimed at getting private landlords to update their homes with double glazing, central heating, carpets.

Similarly you may be able to find charities that can support with some of these things locally.

It's not OK for slum landlords to rent out cold homes that are not fit for purpose.

If you have bought such a cold house then I'd have to ask why especially in this climate, with kids and no funds for basics like carpets.

You can often get second hand carpets for free when people are doing up their houses. They may not be perfect, but are usually perfectly serviceable as rugs, even if they don't fit the room exactly. You can trim them with a Stanley knife, and either ignore any slightly fraying edges, or edge them with some duct tape. They would do for over winter, or until you can afford something you prefer.

@LeavesOnTrees

Get electric blankets for your beds. They are cheap to run and will mean that you only have to have the heater on in your son's room for a few minutes while he is getting changed.

I really don't know how we managed without them. We only keep them on fire about an hour but our house isn't particularly cold.

*on for (not fire)

Have bought a ceiling clothes airer and replacing current open fire with a log burner. Have been doing lots of house renovating and all spare wood is getting chopped and stored. Only a small cottage so hoping the stove will help to heat the whole house. Also have blankets and thick curtains. We are up in Cumbria and really hoping it won't be a harsh winter.

I bought a Lakeland heated dryer from their outlet on eBay. We’re a family of 5 with a non working tumble dryer, and it dries 2 loads of washing a day in winter. Is next to my desk so I get some residual heat too.

i actually want a spin dryer. Not sure DH would entertain that, for now just use extra soon.

I am with octopus and liked at our energy cost, gas is half our electricity every month and having heating in makes a massive difference to damp. We have a hive so can set it to come in and off, cheaper than running electric heaters

How are you meant to buy double glazing when you can’t afford heating?? Even really cheap carpets cost hundreds to carpet even a small house.

we already have lots of blankets, hot water bottles and warm clothes and bedding but we’ll get a couple of heated blankets and a heated clothes airer this summer before they all sell out!

Do you both work? Are there any evenings or weekend days you or your dp could get a second job - bar work or in a restaurant? You could save for a basic carpet in a few months if you do some extra shifts. Long term your earnings are not enough for 6 people so the jobs need to change.

The cling film over windows is a cheaper way to reduce window heat loss

Also check around doors - if there are drafts curtains plus sausage dog socks plus the sticky passes insulation tape - look at that for windows too

If you need more insulation in the loft - do you know of any sheep farms - they may well have stacks of wool that they haven't sold - currently the cost to transport it anywhere outweighs the price of the wool - and may give you a good price for

Floors / skirting if there are any gaps use PVa glue to infill ( pva mixed with wood shavings ideally if you have a spare bit of old wood )

Padded not passes

I was going to get the living room carpet removed and put floorboards down but this thread has made me think otherwise.

Maybe look up if there are still.any schemes running for low income households to get double glazing done by the government op. I know they used to have them, but probably not anymore. 🙁You can sometimes get cheap rugs in Aldi or lidl too, or check the fb marketplace or eBay.

Maximise use of solar - open the curtains only on sun - if you face east open those curtains am , the other side later and keep closed when no sun shining on the windows

Not a lot tbh but it makes sense to buy things like duvet covers, quilts and throws in the summer sales (and garden furniture and barbecues in the middle of winter).

Taken on a second job temporarily. 12 weeks of this should earn me enough to pay for 12 months gas/electricity.
It's killing me and my body is broken but I don't really have a choice, I'm not sitting freezing 8 months of the year and rationing hot water etc like we did in the 70s.

Average energy consumption of a dehumidifier is .28kwh. So, about 10p per hour.

Getting a carpet is key. I'd stop stockpiling and focus on getting that.

Also you will presumably have the heating on at some point so covering it with furniture isn't a good idea.

Second hand shops for curtains?

Re carpets/rugs, could you ask in Facebook swap groups if anyone is getting rid of theirs? I have seen them for free or cheap. I got laminate flooring that way.

Just bring more active. It's hard to get cold in a house when you're moving.

Being!

If you have any windows you don't need to 'see' out of, you can get bubble wrap ( so long as one side is flat) and fix it to the glass with a light spray of water. I did this in my knackered old conservatory and it made a big difference, especially combined with the lightweight curtains I already had.

Overpaying on my energy bill now so I have a lot of credit built up to ease us through the winter.

We bought the house.
it was the only one in our whole city that we could afford without having any structural problems. Thankfully the seller wanted to sell sell a family not a landlord, so she took our long wait for a mortgage over a cash buyer. I thank the Lord she did that every day as now the houses are going for £40k-50k more not even a full 2 years later. Would have been priced out of the city. (we aren't city center or anything very much on the edge)
Windows were something we were planning to save for just as hard as we saved for when we were saving for the deposit, BUT we didn't think prices would rise so much. Naive really.

and the floors are beautiful wood and laminate downstairs so there is no rush really.
totally agree with landlords renting out not fit for purpose properties. I just came from one.