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.

If you are buying seasoned wood, then a quick scan on Google suggests you are looking at about 8p/kWh which is currently more than the cost of gas at the current cap rates - so you are paying a premium before you even pay for the upfront costs of the unit and installation.

Obviously gas is going up in winter but I can't see why wood would be the only commodity to buck the trend and not increase in that time too.

I suppose you could throw any old bit of scrap wood in there but damp or treated wood come are far more polluting and I really can't state how bad this is for children/elderly/those with respiratory illnesses.

I'm on prepay meters for both gas and electric. I'm building up credit over the summer months so that should provide a buffer for the winter months. I do that every year and the amount I have to top up over the cold months is the same as the warm ones. My credit on my electric is reading £210 and my gas £340. Both are being topped up again on Friday (pa day), with £49 each. There is a lot of negativity around pre-pay, but for me, they are better than DD meters as I was paying far more when I was on them than now.

Am
using an instantPot for everything.

This plastic stuff works well on draft windows Shrink wrap draft excluder

I also thought this was for spooky season and was getting ready to talk about the new pumpkin decor I bought.

Could you try and get a rug on Facebook marketplace? We got one for our study that was quite large and only a tenner, it really helped that some of the chill away

@Chaoslatte thank you!!!!

You could crochet a rag rug from old clothes that are too stained to give away. Or hook a rug on a Hessian base but that requires buying the base.

Draught excluder made from a pair of kids school tights stuffed with other old clothes.

@PurpleButterflyWings

Bloody hell. Read the bloody room, would you?! Unbelievable.

I'd look at sorting out your single glazing and buying carpets for a start You don't have to go for the most expensive but carpets in the bedrooms will help. Many companies will also have payment plans or you could bung it an a 0% credit card and pay off withing the two years before they start charging you interest.

Beyond that if you are looking at rugs we got a pretty good one for our living room from IKEA which covers most of the wood flooring in our living room. We have a runner in the hallway. Kids all have slippers and nightgowns. I've got hot water bottles that I put in their beds before they get in so the bed is warm. Mine are young and will often jump in with each other. You could try to batch cook in the next few months depending on freezer space so come October you are just heating food up.

Whilst you're borrowing for that it would be best to add on curtains carpets etc etc as they are much smaller costs compared to windows and won't cost much more monthly on the extra mortgage borrowing as its over such a long period. Speak to your broker, I am a broker for context.

Argh I just typed out a massive post and then lost it. I disagree about adding carpets and curtains to the mortgage if it can be at all avoided - if you can get a loan or credit card price it up against that because paying for the interest over the length of the mortgage adds up more than you might expect given the lower interest rate because of the long term. Check with the window and carpet companies if they offer financing too as they might be able to do you 0% for a period.

Curtains don’t need to be expensive anyway. Get cheap ones from Argos/IKEA/supermarket/eBay/charity shop/Facebook and safety pin cheap fleece blankets behind them or buy cheap thermal linings. I got some thermal linings from dunelm that just hang from the rails behind the curtains so no sewing required.

For carpets get the cheap ones from the rolls that they tend to have at the back of the store (rather than the ones where they have the flip books of samples at the front) and ask about off cuts for smaller rooms like DC bedrooms. Fit them yourselves to save money but try to get a decent underlay. If you do downstairs and you have a suspended floor there then stick a few rolls of loft insulation from B&Q under the floorboards while you’re at it.

Getting the windows done will make a huge difference though. We recently had some of ours done and the front door and you can really feel it, and ours were already double glazed (albeit 25 years old and badly fitted).

I can also vouch for ikea rugs. We have this one www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/stoense-rug-low-pile-medium-grey-40427005/
it comes in various colours and sizes and is soft enough to nap on… not that I would ever do that

I am overpaying as much as I can on the gas and electricity now so hopefully I will have a few hundred credit. My internal doors were glass but I have replaced them with wooden ones. I have also replaced the drafts single glass door from the porch with a double glazed one. Next I need to find heavy lounge curtains with a good thick lining as my lounge has a big bay window, double patio doors and a large front window so I lose a lot of heat from that room.
cooking I have switched to using the air fryer rather than the oven. Keeping the freezer full even if I am just putting extra bread in the empty draw. At the moment I am drying clothes outside but will buy a couple of cheap airers to save using the dryer in the winter.
I am also trying to build up a stock pile of toilet roll, kitchen roll, foil, bin bags, washing powder, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, cleaning supplies and anything else I see on offer that I will use. So I buy one to use and one to put away and spare money at the end of the month I use to stock pile.

A good place for cheap rugs is studio
www.studio.co.uk/shop/homewares/home-furnishings/rugs-runners-doormats?beginIndex=0

I have both a rug and a runner from them and for the money they are great value and quality

You’d be better off putting the money aside into an easy access savings account so at least you can get a few pennies’ interest on it. When you are in credit with an energy supplier you aren’t pre-buying the energy, you are charged the price at the billing date, so it’s only the same thing as putting it aside without the benefit of interest.

Luckily we have an open fire. Will be burning plenty of logs instead of gas, and have been stock piling.
Going to be fun as there's a woman in the village that is vocal on Facebook about open fires or log burners as she has asthma and knocks on people's doors moaning???
She did ours once and my husband answered, she definitely won't make that mistake again.

Yeah, polluting the air with shit you've foraged for is fucking hilarious when it triggers asthma attacks in the people living in your local area, it's not like it can be a lethal condition or anything.

Foraged for? You mean had delivered from a company thst supplies logs and coal locally.

Isn't it a sad state of affairs that we are having to think about this stuff in 2022.

Fair enough - I don't know why I had in mind you were scooping bits of crap you'd found on the ground, I must have got that from the pp.

Lol. I'm far too lazy to do that It's all kiln dried logs (has to be by law now) and the guy delivers it and stacks it for us.

Coal is dreadful though. I have a neighbour three doors down who burns coal. My asthma was impossible to control after that and it took installing a house ventilation system the next year to be able get through the winter without a motherload of steroids.

I don't used coal because I find it messy with dust.

Bought a heated throw , and also a Oodie . Realise these things have a cost but hopefully will eventually be worth it.
Also considering buying extra pasta / lentils / dried beans to get to make soups and casseroles . My dh jokingly said buying dry food / tins etc now could be seen as an investment for the months to come !