To be cold and panicking about how I will pay the winter heating bills...

[notevenamousie]

I know, it's only September 2nd. We've been in our new home since July. It's got cold.

Or maybe it's not that cold. I am cold in the mornings when I get up and in the evenings when we get home. But with my recent decision to take a lower paid job to get a better work life balance... it's going to be cold in my house because I don't know how I am going to be able to afford winter heating bills.

I need suggestions. My biggest worries are my dd (2.9) at night time and my feet (Raynauds). Low cost suggestions would help.

We have full waterproofs as it is rainy here. But they are not warm. And I do not want my gorgeous girl to have childhood memories of being cold. Or me to not be able to get hands and feet to a temperature where I can sleep before work the next day.

We don't use the heating at all. We layer up, have doonas for the lounge room. Lots of blankets etc. We all have ugg slippers that we wear when at home.

Don't know if it helps but we never get the coughs and colds that seem to start up when people turn their heating on.

what kind of heating is it?
we moved to a house with oil heating in december last year and found that you can get payment plans to spread the cost so you dont suddenly get £200-£300 bill.

Primark sleeping bags . If we are downstairs watching tv or reading etc we are inside them. Get dd her own. You can even sit in them whilst in the kitchen chopping. They also sell thermal underwear. TKmax if you have one near does heavily reduced waterproof coats with warm feather inners. Good luck it is not fun but you do get used to it.

what power co are you with? we have a card thing that we pay so much on every week and it comes off your bill. its not a pre payment card and you dont have to put money on on a set day, we just do it as and when we can, it makes the bills much easier when they come.

No, YANBU.

I've spent 3000 euros on heating/hot water in the last year and I wouldn't even mind if I'd spent the entire winter sat around in my pants - but I wasn't. I'm so effing paranoid about big bills anyway that I won't let anyone turn the heating on.

Before moving to that house I lived in the mountains and would have snow for 5 months a year and was always bloody freezing there too. Tip: Dogs are a cheap and entertaining source of heat - but put a rug on the bed first!

Hence... I'm moving house at the end of the month in to a flat where heating is included in the price.

We're moving to a very bijou 1st floor flat next month.

We'll be living on top of each other, quite literally and will worship those gods of crowded home design that is IKEA, but at least the fecking bills won't be so high!

This house is fecking freezing and on LPG so it costs a bomb for even minimal heat.

I won't be sorry to see the back of those £400/tank bills, windows all steamed up at night and the girls waking up shivering.

Slippers, a big cardy/jumper on top of normal layers, blankets in the sitting room, hotwater bottles/wheatbags to hold if really cold and to put into beds 30 mins before going to bed. Hot bath or shower just before bed will help warm you up too.

FWIW my dc don't really seem to notice the cold and are frequently stripping off and running around half naked whilst I am shivering and clutching a hot water bottle.

Will look at sleeping bags and get some more blankets - are they in primark already? And buy even more layers!

Have british gas for elec and heat, not allowed to change as per tenancy agreement.

I guess there are hot water bottles available cheaply - anyone seen them??

ring british gas, they might do the cards, we had them with edf and now with scotish power. we used to really struggle paying our gas bills but doing it like this has helped us.

claireybee speaks the truth, your DD may not even notice. DS will happily run around blue with cold if I don't insist that he rugs up.

We got some fleece blankets in Primark, about £3/4 each. We have some in the living room which we wrap ourselves in at night, or during the day when at home, and have extra ones at the bottom of the beds, which can be pulled up if it's cold, you'd be surprised how much extra heat you get from them. Also hot water bottles are great

The only bad part about no heating is the midnight wee run. That really sucks.

Sleeping bags are in our primark right now but they do differ. There may be some in the larger supermarkets as is the end of camping season. The thermals are 2.50 a packet of two, somtimes they do the leggings to go with as well and they last well. They also do fleece blankets that are very cheap. We cut a hole in the top of one for our youngest to wear in the house like a poncho. Primark also do hot water bottles in the winter with a cover and are good quality. I don't work for them honest

I am going to see how long we can put off putting the heating on this year (with the aid of blankets,slippers etc!) Am aiming for Christmas Eve.

Morloth hate the midnight wee run as well. Getting out of the shower in winter is no fun either.

oooh no I like getting out of the shower into a cold room. Love the sensation.

The wee run though, you know when you wake up and stick a toe out, and lie there and try to go back to sleep and put it off and put it off, when you know you are going to have to get up but you just can't quite bring yourself to do it until you are entering the danger zone. And the floor in the bathroom! Argh!

Do they make those grobags in bigger sizes? DS always kicks his blankets off so it might help your DD to have one.

Those hot water bottles from Primark are fab, we have 1 each, and have been known to sit with one at night watching tv, even for youngish children (obv not babies) you can put warm water in just to take the chill off their bed and remove when they get in

dd is fortnately tiny for her size so still in a gro bag, she just needs a thermal top. We will go to primark en route home from nursery today. Thank you so much!

I've started my yearly fret about cold house and heating bills. We only managed last year because the Govt gave everyone on DLA £60 to help.
dd must be kept warm or she will die.

how about getting your daughter a couple of fleece all inones (like babygrow shape) DS2 lived in his last winter. My brother and his wife have grown up ones so they don't put the heating on on the days that they know they are not having anyone round (would be abit embarrassed to answer the door wearing it)

Riven - that must be hard for you, and a worry, is she able to wrap herself up in blankets at all, or do you need to have constant heating on instead?

The thermal vests have pink spots on and pink stripes on and are in packets.

Actually my mum and step dad have these things that are a bit like adult all in ones, the go over the head a bit like a poncho and have feet things in them, but I don't think they fasten up the front I think you have to wrap is round yourself

she's quadriplegic but has flialing limbs so wrapping doesn't work. She needs a warm room. We generally heat one room for her and leave the rest of the house cold.

I hardly ever turned on the heat when I lived in London - many thin layers is the key, and cotton socks + slippers or cotton socks + wool socks.

I also find the warmest thing to have on the bed is two autumn weight duvets with a cotton cellular blanket (like the ones they use at hospitals) sandwiched in the middle.