To be so cold - freezing inside and don’t know what to do.

[MullerCentre]

Like many of you - suffering with the frigid temperatures and just don’t know how to keep going!

Temperatures plummeting on the daily to -5 degrees. Frozen lakes, ponds and grass. House can’t possibly stay warm - heating has to be on for it to be hot and it goes without saying that we simply cannot afford that.

DC all having to wear outerwear, thermals in the house. This should be a place where they come to feel warm and safe but I just can’t provide that for them all year round anymore. The cold weather destroys my mood, leaving me miserable.

When will this end and why won’t there be further subsidies for families who can’t afford to heat their home?

@Shessyillinbed

no it’s not

Fair enough but that has not been my experience. The oil radiator I use has a thermostat so doesn’t use power all day long, only when the temperature in the room starts to dip. It came top in a Which survey for cost v results.

Eh? I'm literally in the middle of England right now and it's 12/13 degrees, it's nothing like below freezing. I'm agreeing that being cold is awful but it's not freezing here, far from it.

Some parts are. It was 8C in my car this morning when I set out to work
I realise other places (especially Scotland) will be colder. But I am sure this is why @Shessyillinbed asked.

Sadly, you need to move house if you cannot afford to run it. Try and find a newer, better insulated house. If you own your house there are grants available for insulation which makes a huge difference to heat loss and heating.

Our 1960s house has been insulated in all external walls, roof spaces and most floors after building works. Even on the coldest days it holds 16 degrees without heating and it doesn't take much to get it to 20-22. Even a kitchen extension with lots of glazing hold a basic 16 with no heating, the underfloor doesn't need to be on long to bring it to 19/20 and on sub zero days we light the logburner and it vets to 24.

Have you applied for the warm home discount or whatever it's called? If you're unemployed or low wage part time then you should qualify.
Also February is the final cost of living 300. Can you allocate some of that to heating?

If you don't qualify for both of those then you have enough income that you can probably really look at what you're spending and re-prioritise.
Being cold is miserable as a grown up, but for children it's awful, they can't maintain their temperature as well. I grew up in a house like that and I would rather cut back on quality of food than have the house cold.

Cheap thermal leggings/tops from Primark & Oodies from Home Bargain have been our go to clothing choices this winter. Kids get in from school and put Oodies on and sit under a blanket. I have hot water bottles to warm their beds up. Quick hot showers before bed and socks on in bed. Can’t wait for Summer!

Get each kid a microwave bag full of cherrystones or some such thing. Heat in microwave for 2/3 minutes and they get really hot. Keep under a blanket or duvet and you get super snug.

Did you know that you can buy special hot water bottle belts, to keep them strapped to you?!

Not up North it isn't.

A sock filled with uncooked rice and microwaved is a good emergency item to warm you up.

Unfortunately heating is not going to get any less expensive so you’ll either have to earn more money or heat a smaller house.
I’d concentrate on heating the living room. Warm blankets to put over your knees in the evenings. Hot water bottles in bed at night. Having a thermostatically controlled temperature in a home is a relatively new phenomenon.
We light the fire in the living room during the colder months. It’s the only time of year you’re guaranteed to find us all in one room in the evenings. The kids wear oodies in their rooms. Heating is on in bedrooms before they get up and before they go to bed for an hour. We rely on OFC and it’s ridiculously expensive hence the fire.

It's not 'balmy' in my bit of England!

5 degrees out there and falling now.

Last week it Scotland it was baltic, I had 2 pairs of socks on as well as the heating at 22 and my feet were numb with the cold - never felt anything like it.

Thankfully it has slightly warmed up but still very cold, agree that there should be a bit more financial support this winter for folk not on benefits - even a £50 a month credit would be a big help over the very cold period.

I recall the 70’s and early 80’s when everyone tended to sit in the one room during the winter as it was the only place with heating but hopefully we have moved on a bit since then!

Try a heated throw, uses very little electric but makes you really warm when sat on the sofa.

I don't think it's just about having central heating though. It's about having even just one room heated to an adequate temperature.
In the particularly cold winter (at least where we were, there was snow on the ground for weeks) of 2010/11, we could barely afford to use the central heating at all. But we had an open fireplace and gathered random wood for it so we could have one room warm. With central heating you have to go around turning radiators off and it's still hard to heat one room adequately. (Obviously it's not really designed for that.)

Does anyone else find it's much harder to get stuff done when it's cold? Because when you're sat still it's fine having a hot water bottle, heated throws, etc... but you don't want to get up and do the washing up/laundry/whatever. I like to sew whilst watching TV but that involves kneeling on the floor pattern cutting and so on. I hate only being able to be warm whilst cocooned in blankets!

Our sittingroom is warm and the beds have lots of blankets (put some under the bottoms sheet) so we’re warm in the evening and warm in bed. It’s fine so far.