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Preparing for a very frugal Autumn/Winter anyone?

171 replies

caughtupinthismoment · 11/08/2014 14:53

It maybe a little early but its no harm being prepared.
I'm going to learn from my mistakes last Autumn/Winter

My clothing for the cold weather wasn't up to scratch it just wasnt warm enough. this year I'm going to outlet winter stores to buy thermal fleeces hat scarf gloves ect I also need to wear proper footwear converse dont cut it feet like icicles and wet most of winter. My dd was kitted out properly all snug waterproof just forgot about myself.

Im going to stock up on the meters before the winter sets in. I plan to be snug and warm with a hot choc in hand instead of trapsing to the shop for the meters.

This year I shall be making more hearty comfort food such as stews soups, broths and casseroles. I do make them but not so often.

Im going to bulk buy dried goods cans ect to get us through the winter. I tend to go out to buy fresh every other day/ week but there more expensive in winter so i'm going to buy seasonal and keep loaves in the freezer and long life milk just in case.

Im defo not spending lots on xmas this year cutting back drastically most people seemed to forget I existed at xmas and they didnt seem to appreciate all the effort I went to making hampers for them.

Xmas and Bday presents for my Dd are going to be things she needs. She has enough toys and Im sick of plastic tat that seems to break when I accidently stand on it as she has so much.

I'm going to start saving now so that I can have a nest egg incase I need to use it. seemed to be skint most of the time and january bills were hard.

With our filled stomachs of homecooked food and Our thermal clothing we will be able to venture into the unknown (wink) i.e long walks to jump into the crisp snow and to crunch on the autumn leaves to collect pine cones and such to decorate and we will come home to a warm house freezer and cupboards full to snuggle by the fire with a hotchoc and a family film.

OP posts:
justmuddlingalong · 19/08/2014 15:53

Seff not Serf!

AliceDoesntLiveHereAnymore · 21/08/2014 10:36

Hi, I'd like to join if that's okay. So far to prepare for winter I've:

  • fastened fleece throws to back of the dcs' bedroom curtains with big safety pins (way up at top, so they can't reach the pins) - I've done this every year for the last few years and it works well. And I'm too cheap to buy further lining curtains as then I can just take them down in the spring/summer.
  • dug out material (some old jeans that are beyond repair) to use the legs to stitch up a few draught snakes.
  • started putting extra money on the gas and electric meters (a tenner a week right now each, but in September I will up it to £20 a week)
  • looking through slow cooker recipes for good ones to use this winter
  • slowly stocking up on nonperishables and uht milk and tinned goods and some cupboard supplies in case of illness or bad weather
  • checked coats and hats, mittens, gloves, and scarves. We're all okay for jackets this year and the extras are all there.
Snowie2 · 21/08/2014 20:51

Hi Alice I must make some draught snakes thanks !

MsAspreyDiamonds · 21/08/2014 20:56

Waitrose have their own brand essential toiletries on offer atm for 1 each. I have bought 10 worth of hand & shower gels to stock pile for the winter. I do the same with cleaning products as that's what pushes the final bill up.

MsAspreyDiamonds · 21/08/2014 20:57

Waitrose have their own brand essential toiletries on offer atm for 1 each. I have bought 10 worth of hand & shower gels to stock pile for the winter. I do the same with cleaning products as that's what pushes the final bill up.

MsAspreyDiamonds · 21/08/2014 20:57

Waitrose have their own brand essential toiletries on offer atm for 1 each. I have bought 10 worth of hand & shower gels to stock pile for the winter. I do the same with cleaning products as that's what pushes the final bill up.

MsAspreyDiamonds · 21/08/2014 20:57

Waitrose have their own brand essential toiletries on offer atm for 1 each. I have bought 10 worth of hand & shower gels to stock pile for the winter. I do the same with cleaning products as that's what pushes the final bill up.

spottymoo · 21/08/2014 22:21

Marking spot to read tomorrow Smile

AliceDoesntLiveHereAnymore · 22/08/2014 13:14

Here's a list from MSE that someone posted, if it's helpful to anyone....

Winter Checklist

Clothes
Wash all coats, scarves gloves
Wash and mend jumpers and cardigans when you have done this for the time being put them away in the vacuum seal bags to keep them fresh and out of the way of moths until needed.
Repair or buy new socks
Check Wellingtons
Reproof/treat leather or suede gloves, hats and shoes/boots
Send to the cobbler any shoes and boots that need repairing
Polish all shoes and boots
Go back through clothing checking what you need and what you need to replace. Think - what will I wear - what do I need?
Put away all your summer clothes in either those vacuum bags or in a suitcase for the following year.

Car
Buy in screenwash now (either ready mixed or concentrate)
October make sure all fluid levels in cars are correct
Check tyre pressures and tread levels
Clean car inside and out making sure car has good amount of wax which protect it from harsh elements and salt and grit on the roads which will cause rust.
If possible make sure your car has rubber mats to catch wet and snow. Check Pound shops for cheap mats for £1.00 or so each.
Make sure that your mobile phone has enough credit in the event of an emergency on it.
If possible clean out your garage and put your car away each night. This will also help with insurance premiums as well and save you de-icing in the morning.

Food
Stock up on tinned products such as soup, rice pudding, baked beans and spaghetti. These items will keep as good store cupboard standbys.
Check and clean out your freezer, make a list of what you have and what you need to buy in. Keep at least two loaves of bread in the freezer. A clean frost free freezer will work better than a ice capped one!
If anything crops up on BOGOF and it will keep/freeze for winter buy it and store it.
Make a start on your Christmas food shopping list, allot of it can be frozen.
Create a 'stash cupboard' or area where you can put all of your extra buys away safely.
Buy in sacks of potatoes direct from a farmer, it will be cheaper than buying individual bags from the supermarket- protect them from frost in garage or shed - old carpet wrapped around them does a good job.
Sink four pints of milk in the freezer or have UHT milk in on standby.
Make jam and preserves from the garden, sink fresh veg from allotments into the freezer.
Batch make homemade soups and freeze. Good idea to do this now while fresh veg is plentiful and it will save on condensation during the cooking/prep during the winter months.

House and garden
Get your boiler serviced
Chimney swept
Snow Shovel - do you need it?
Buy in your logs and coal now while cheap deals are on offer. If you can and you have storage buy in your winters stock in one go.
Clean your home
Make sure your windows are not rotting away and repair them.
Make door curtains to keep out draughts
Add fleece linings to curtains for extra insulation
Clean out your guttering and facias
Clear away all fallen leaves
Clean windows inside and out
Launder you winter duvet and change over when the weather turns, now is also a good time to pick up reduced summer duvets for next year!
Launder all your throws
Buy in cheap white candles in case of a power cut. Also keep a torch on standby and use in emergency.
If you have oil CH try to make sure that your tank is stocked up by the end of October
Buy in Flannelette sheets. It may seem old fashioned but the oldies knew a thing or two about keeping warm. If buying from new make sure you wash and dry your sheets to remove the formaldehyde preservative that the manufacturers use to keep them damp and mildew free.
Repair your shed, check the felt lining for splits/tears and wood preserve it. The same goes for all your garden furniture and fences.
Decorating - do it before middle of October so that you can air the room and let the paint dry.
Tidy your shed up to make more room in there.
Put all garden furniture away (either in shed or garage) by the second week of October. If you have no room to store - buy garden furniture covers to protect your investment.
Spring is generally the time to use wood preservative on your fences, but if you can there is no harm in coating them now, it's just that shrubs might get in the way making your job more difficult.
Cut back everything in the garden late October to give your garden a big boost the following Spring. Roses love this!
Wash curtains and cushion covers
Clean Your carpets on a good warm day so that they have a good chance of drying quickly
Buy in or make dehumidifiers from Pound stores or use household salt in a bowl to draw in moisture.
Look around your brickwork on your home does it need repointing anywhere? Check your ridges on the roof top as well for mortar loss and repair. Get it done and this will save you from a bigger job later on. Key areas to look also are where pipes extrude from walls and windows.
Oil all shed and gates locks, it will prevent rust and stop them seizing up when you most need to open them.
Drain any outside taps and protect and cover either with an old towel and then covered over with plastic or buy a proper outside tap cover.
If your interior doormats can be washed in the machine do them.
Re-silicone shower areas where the silicone has turned black or mouldy, take it out and redo it. Easy job but so often overlooked. Having the window open also allows the silicone to cure or go off better.
Wash your vacuum cleaner filters out. It will help with your HEPA filter and keep your home cleaner as well, it will also make your vacuum work and perform better.
Conservatories, clean inside and out, make sure that your seat covers and cushions are washed and that all the frames are clean.
Some people still Autumn clean as well as Spring clean. In the winter we semi hibernate so if you feel a burst of cleaning everything in your home do it, it will be less to do when Spring does roll round.
Put away all garden pots and ornaments if they are not frost proof and protect them.
Cordylines mine suffered in the last winter, but I saved four of them using gardeners fleece from Poundland to protect them I stored them in the shed and it worked. Fleece is still available to buy now.
Take down any hanging baskets and dispose of the contents. Put those away for the following year.
Check lightbulbs and outside security lighting if broken replace or repair.
Buy in batteries now.
Put food out for the birds they will so thank you for it. Buy in their food now while it is plentiful.
Get your paracetamol, throat lozengers and cough mixtures in now, when you are feeling ill the last thing you want to do is traipse down to Boots having to get it in. Mixtures have good dates on them and when you are feeling lousy the well stocked medicine cabinet will be a huge relief!
Finally make sure that the battery in your bathroom scales is new after the Christmas blast

You are literally closing your home down for the winter and that is what and how you need to think, that everything is to be put away, protected and brought in. The more you do this and think ahead the better the chances are that your home, car and your garden will come through winter without you having to spend money replacing or putting right what you failed to do. Sometimes, things do go wrong and you have to replace or repair, but if you have done the basics then you stand a good chance of minimising any damage.

Finally, when that weather does turn in, ask yourself what you would like to do on those evenings, maybe hunt down that book in the charity shop now for reading later on or something else that you want to do, now is the time to get it.

spottymoo · 22/08/2014 14:14

Excellent points Alice I've copied it a all so I can keep looking back at it Grin

Ellisisland · 22/08/2014 14:27

Great post Alice!

I am trying to get more organised for autumn / winter this as have DC2 arriving in Jan.

Things I have done so far

Washed up put up door curtains
Washed window seals (rubber bit where the window closes)
Cleared out loads of clothes that don't fit or no good and eBay or charity shopped
Bought new wellies for DS
Winter coat for DS
Have been very careful with our gas and electric so we are about £200 in credit with British gas which should help over the winter

Need to do

Get new wellies for me
Get maternity winter jumpers
Car Serviced
Get covers for garden furniture and new felt for the shed roof

Am also definitely stocking up on the medicine cabinet after reading Alice's list above! I won't be able to take most to it but DH works outside all year round so always gets some cold or other. Will definitely help to have stuff in already.

AliceDoesntLiveHereAnymore · 22/08/2014 14:37

I will be very careful to say it's not my work. I copied it from another site (MSE) on a prep for winter thread.

I am determined to be organised well in advance this year.

spottymoo · 22/08/2014 20:50

I need to look into how I can attach a door curtain as our hall way gets quite cold even though it has a massive radiator in it.

I've ordered some rugs for our bedroom as it's wooden floor and freezin in winter and we havnt got round to replacing it.

New tumble dryer coming next week as our 11 yr old one died in spring and we go through a lot of towels which are a nightmare to dry.

Wintercoats / gloves scarfs all sorted. Grin
Need to find dd some new waterproof boots to fit over her afos which are a nightmare to find.

Garden furniture needs new covers as to big to fit in the shed so need to look out for some.

Tins and dry goods could do with topping up so going to start adding extras to the shopping for the next few weeks.

Seff · 22/08/2014 22:15

For our door curtain, we put some curtain tape onto some fleece and attached curtain rings. We put them through a random piece of round wood we had lying around (unhelpful, sorry!) and used a couple of coat hooks to hold it up. Total bodge job but it does the trick.

Sootball · 22/08/2014 22:30

Hi,

We're heading for a second very frugal autumn indeed. Last October my DH got notice of redundancy, I went into ninja saver mode and we shocked ourselves at how much money we had previously frittered away.

DH managed to get another job, and we.decided that we would invest money into replacing all the windows and doors, as well as gutters and loft insulation. Hopefully this will reduce our energy bills.

This year though it's me that has finished my work contract so with two tied into childcare so I can find another job we need to tighten our belts drastically.

We have door curtains but I want to re line them this year, particularly on the doors we are not getting replaced in plastic. I'm debating a Lakeland airer.

Basically we need to save enough money to keep paying the bills and save for Christmas, I've asked for some very simple timber to make more raised beds to grow more frugal veg for next year!

I also desperately need to meal plan.

PinkAndBlueBedtimeBears · 23/08/2014 05:55

Ohh I love the idea of home made draft excluder from trouser legs- what did you stuff it with? We live in a first floor rented flat so very little we can realistically do, but one of these draft excluders on our front door should help.

I also line dds curtains with an old fleece blanket over the winter, and I'm aiming not to have the heating on (storage heaters) until October!

Although, anyone else without a tumble drier and no way of getting one.. How do you dry your clothes in the winter? We now have 2dc, and I'm dreading it and thinking about getting anther airer (there is nowhere in our flat the Lakeland one would be able to stand..)

and anyone who uses desktop versio on their phone, how do I bookmark? I hate the new mobile site so I've swapped over!

Evilwater · 23/08/2014 08:29

Hello I'm going to join too.
Will post more later.

AliceDoesntLiveHereAnymore · 23/08/2014 09:11

BedtimeBears I have been struggling with the new mobile site as well. So I'm sticking to my laptop for now. For the draught excluders you can use anything, really. Old clothes cut up a bit (or scrunched up, we're not particular! Grin), old pillows cut up into chunks if you want (I always buy 3 new pillows in autumn anyway, to force me to get rid of older misshapen ones, so the old ones sometimes get used for other projects).

I also buy enough batteries for all the smoke detectors in the house, as it's a type I don't always keep on hand. So even if every single smoke detector battery went over the winter, I've got it covered. I believe you're supposed to check them every month (I do anyway!), so if you haven't been, now is a good time to start! Write it on your calendar for the first or last of every month and check them all. We have one in each bedroom and one in each of the main hallways upstairs and down. Also make sure you check the carbon monoxide detector and have a battery ready for that as well. I'll be replacing mine next month as it's almost five years old, and it says replace after five years. It'd probably be fine, but I don't like to take chances on something so important.

I found my snow shovel last week while doing some cleaning in the back shed (what a mess!!). I've propped it up against the inside of the shed by the door - so at least for now, I know where it is, and when we get about mid-late October I'll bring it into the house and tuck it into the back of a closet so I have it handy in case of any snow. We didn't get any snow last year, but we've had some years where we've had enough to need the shovel, so again I'll be prepared, just in case.

I also think I may buy one of those boot trays at Home Bargains (?). It was under a fiver, I believe, and would be very handy as the dcs usually just drop their boots inside the door in the winter, dripping water/snow all over. If I can get them to set them upright in the boot tray, that's half the cleanup done right there!

AliceDoesntLiveHereAnymore · 23/08/2014 09:14

Oh, obviously with the draught excluders you want a little bit of weight so it stays, but not a huge amount, so something to keep in mind. Check them out at a store, pick one up, get the feel for how heavy it is, if you're not sure.

Fluffycloudland77 · 23/08/2014 09:30

I've been buying up brush draught excluders from b&q, it's made a real difference to the house because I only heat rooms I'm in.

They were £5 each.

ememem84 · 23/08/2014 09:46

We don't have any heating in our flat but have found that we rarely need it - except maybe in January. Were fully double glazed south facing and on 1st floor. Both above and below neighbours have heating.

We were given a slow cooker so batch bulk cook diners and freeze. Bought a super thick winter duvet in the sale so am looking forward to using that!

Car has been serviced recently but we are trying to cut down on using it so need to replace my old north face ski jacket and get some wellies so I can be warm and dry on my walk to/from work - 40 minutes in rain is not fun!!

I tend to bulk buy toiletries etc when on offer so have a stash stored away.

Same with food. We have a small stockpile of tins cans pasta rice tea coffee etc. so can always make something.

Mum4Fergus · 23/08/2014 11:02

Great thread Smile marking place to come back later!

MinimalistMommi · 23/08/2014 12:11

Marking place.

MinimalistMommi · 23/08/2014 12:14

We are having a woodburner fitted at the beginning of Sepetember. It's a Clearview Pioneer so pretty efficient. I've been wondering if it would be cheaper to use use burner during day rather than have central heating on? Initially we bought it to use in the late afternoons/evening when it's getting dark. We've just had a skip of logs delivered which were £150.

AliceDoesntLiveHereAnymore · 23/08/2014 12:21

oh I officially am jealous!! I want a woodburner!! I have an open fireplace, but can't use it at the moment as it seems to be leaking smoke into my bedroom. Hmm