NO MORE COLD MUMSNETTERS!

[KungFuBustle]

Right, don't really know how to start this but I'm raging. I see over and over on here people struggling with heating, sitting cold after kids have gone to bed, waking up in cold houses and it makes me want to stamp my feet and scream. Apologies if I'm not articulate or organised. I just want to do something.

No judging, please share anything you feel may help, no matter how small. Also feel free to have a whinge. DS is at school and I'm cold now, and I'm fucking miserable. I don't mean to patronise, some of this may seem so obvious to some, but if one person is a wee bit warmer I'm a happy bunny.

Here goes.

U Switch We might as well be getting the cheapest deal.

Warm Home Discount You may be surprised by who can apply for this. A lot of providers have their own criteria and it's broader than you think.

Which Guide to Free Insulation Self explanatory but also has some information about DIY.

Draught Excluders - I have these on every door now. If you're turning down radiators or trying to save by only heating one room they are brilliant. You don't have to buy them. I cut up old trousers up the crotch. Stuffed with old sheets and sewed up. You can use newspaper at a pinch.

Curtains - Thick lined curtains on windows are great. They are also expensive. If you can forgo colour scheme charity shops have AMAZING deals. They might not fit in with the room but lord they keep the heat in. I've also fixed them over front and back doors. Our kitchen has no heat source but since covering the back door I can no longer see my own breath when I walk in.

Tinfoil - Wrap in round cardboard and whack it behind your radiators. You can buy special stuff for this, but if like me what wasn't an option this is better than nothing. We noticed a real difference. I did downstairs, doing upstairs today.

Builders Plastic - Not cheap but cheaper than double glazing. Tape it over windows and it can keep the heat in and the cold out. I haven't been able to do this but another MNer mentioned it and it seemed a very clever idea on a budget.

Cashmere - I wanted to laugh when someone said this, like I can afford cashmere. Keep an eye out in the right charity shops and you will. I've not been so lucky yet but I know other MNrs have. Real wool jumpers and throws are a great find too. Doesn't matter if it's not our colour (Don't tell the S&B board!) warm's warm.

Candles Heater Instructions in the link. Building mine today. Candles in a room can also give an impression of warmth. I pay £1 for 100 tea lights at ikea.

Slow Cookers - I made porridge in my slow cooker last night. Soon as we got up I had a bowl of porridge in DS's hands and some hot squash. He also gets a hot squash as soon as he comes in from school. Cheap and warming.

Hats - I'm not much of a knitter. But if you want a hat making PM me. They're usually wonky, not stylish, but if you're cold and want one for wearing around the house I'll make you one. I can also make little ones for children.

Crikey, this was longer than I expected. Please share any warm tips you may have. I'm sorry so many of us are cold, and I'm sorry I can't just pay all of our heating bills and we all have warm Winters.

Our curtains have been pulled since summer first beacause of sunshine and now beacause of weather as dp does nights by the time hes up and im home its dark we like mushrooms

possibly been said, but put 2 fleece bkankets on top of your bedsheet and sleep in between them, with a duvet on the very top.

it's warm when you lie down and gets toasty. I'm never cold, in fact sometimes I kick off the duvet as I get too hot.

Make your own (almost) free heated neck warmer with stuff around the house.
You need a pair of old clean tights (i used a pair of DD's which are outgrown as kids' sizes are ideal) and some rice (I used 40p value stuff)
Tie the waist of the tights closed, then pour the rice into the legs, about a quarter full. Make two or three knots in each leg to hold the rice evenly through the length of each leg.
Nuke in microwave for 2 or 3 mins and wrap around your neck. Keeps you warm for ages!

I got a nice hat yesterday, dark blue knitted, lined with fleece and with ear flaps. £1 from the pound shop!

This is the oddest addition to classics ever.

Shhhh Spencer. There's obviously been a huge oversight, but due to a lack of wit and hilarious events I'll never make it again. Unless I go dry my minge with a hairdryer in a members only gym.

Yey MrsDeVere!

This isn't exactly a heating tip, but I'm guessing lots on this thread have cold and possibly damp houses. I found a useful leaflet from the Scottish govt on how to deal with this and prevent mould.

www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/05/10103020/30217

I've got one of those candle heaters going now instead of having the heating on - it's only really beneficial close-to, but it's keeping my hands toasty while I type I've had to reduce it to one flower pot though - I tried with two stacked yesterday, and the outer one barely got warm.

This thread is officially amazing.

Just wanted to say that you lovely people have inspired me to give what I can to help others stay warm: my offer

I wanted to post this here, in case anyone on this thread would like one.

Sorry if this has already been posted, read most but not all! Someone mentioned those wheatbags you stick in the microwave that will keep you warm (I use one instead of a hot water bottle and accompanying me on the sofa in the evening). Well if you have a Home Bargains near you, they are only £1.79 which I think is fantastic!

If anyone's in the east Midlands please do pm me, I have the number of a company that will assess your house for energy saving measures which they may well be able to carry out for free even if you aren't in receipt of any benefits. We had cavity wall insulation installed and it hasn't cost us a penny, our loft insulation was already the required thickness otherwise we could havehad that done too.

We moved into a cold draughty house in February this year during a cold snap. Dh is especially sensitive to cold and draughts and went on a crusade to sort it all out. Some of the measures were £££ but some were incredibly cheap.

We replaced all the knackered windows with thermally efficient ones.
Blocked all draughts around doors with draught excluder tape around the frame and draught excluders at the bottom.
Blocked the chimney in the open fireplace.
Cavity wall insulation as above.
Making sure that the loft hatches are insulated as well as the loft itself, and again with the draught excluder tape around the hatch.
All curtains closed at sunset and tucked behind radiators.
Foil behind all radiators.
New fire in the front room as the old one was crap, meaning that we can now heat just one room rather than the whole house.
Thick curtains, lined with thermal lining, across all doors and windows. Floor length where possible. For the bay window in the front room I am making some curtains that have slits in them so that the middle bits can be tucked behind the radiator but the sides will still be long enough to reach the floor.
Not done yet but a work in progress... rods down the sides of the curtains in the front room which will clip into catches on the wall, stopping draughts coming round the sides of the curtains.

I appreciate that a lot if the above is expensive, we were fortunate enough to have enough equity in our old house to pay for it all after we'd bought this one. Dh is very resistant to wearing thermals and layers due to skin sensitivity issues, so we've draught proofed and insulated the house as much as possible.

Next door fell asleep with a home-made candle heater burning. I was letting the dog out and saw the flames. I rang them (mobile in pocket, quicker than getting round wall), woke them and they managed to put it out.

Please be careful with these things.

Oh, I knew there was something I wanted to ask - I'm a layers gal, but vests and leggings rather than an all-in-one types of undies/onesies (even though I used to wear bodysuits in the 80's and found them great at keeping my back warm - I tuck all the tops in the bottoms these days).

How the hell don't you freeze your nuts off stripping out of these things to go to the loo?! Great if you're a bloke, not so easy for females.

Massively cold bum every time common sorry, no other advice to give. Other than don't sit on the toilet seat, hover!!!

I So want one of those Japanese heated toilets!

We store our toilet paper on the radiator. For an hour a day we have warm bog roll and I feel like the queen of the world.

Make homemade draught excluders to reduce draughts under doors. Get old wooly tights and divide to make 2 stockings. Fill the stockings with anything insulating (old rags, socks, blankets, old clothes, wool, cuddly toys, balled up newspaper) and then sew the two open ends together, sealing the stuffing into a sausage. Jam the excluder tightly against the draughty door.

@queen of the world.
What a lovely caring thread.
My tip is to rub like fury after your bath or shower then use talc. Just makes me feel warmer being bone dry and the furious rubbing perks the circulation.
Co-sleeping is an absolute boon in cold weather, too.

I have an asthmatic child where the cold triggers the asthma, and just bunging extra covers on/putting him in a sweater can't heat what goes into his lungs. In winter we've had to have the central heating on all through the nights in his room - ruinous. We can't use any plug-in electric heaters either, as they make him cough. So I bought a really good electric blanket in desperation, and it works. Heats his lungs, and the air around his bed a little too I think - no more hacking through the night, anyway.

It was £39 so NOT a cheap option, I realise, but it costs 0.5 pence a night to run. And will last years. And they are so, so much better than the ones I remember from my own childhood - lovely and fleecy underblanket, with the heat the same as sinking into a warm bath. You can set it at 28 or 36 degrees, you can set it just to your feet, you can set it for an hour or 9 hours. Brilliant thing. And no need for all night central heating any more, either.

Good news perfect I'm thinking of one for my eldest. Which brand was it?

Thank you all. I'm havig difficulties with FIL, MIL and nan-in-law. MIL got mightily offended a few weeks ago - she was complaining about rising fuel costs and how they were struggling to pay for adequate heating, so we offered the services of my mate's husband who does loft insulation and can help arrange grants for pensioners. She said they weren't in need of handouts or benefits and would simply have to adjust their heating settings to reduce their outgoings. They won't accept help as they are too proud to admit they need it, and living abroad we can't physically do anything but I can send them things that'll help masquerading as christmas presents.

Thanks to this thread I have now bought nan-in-law and MIL some tartan wheatbag things, and some nice draught luckily I noticed I'd typed draft before it was too late excluders with matching throws for their living rooms. These are obviously for comfort and house decoration and nothing to do with us thinking they can't afford their bills, oh no.

Nan-in-law also has a nice cashmere jumper which until reading on this thread I had no idea they were supposedly that much warmer than normal jumpers, and a big thick dressing gown each for FIL and MIL. I think I'll order some nice candles too.

Whoever mentioned trying to keep their two year old warm - mine refuses to keep slippers on, won't wear a dressing gown and kicks the duvet off at night. He has never been able to bear blankets/covers even as a baby. I feel horribly guilty snuggling up in all my fluffy warm layers whilst he trots around bare-foot divesting himself of jumpers etc!

Madmomma it's this one. (Out of stock, but Amazon did them for the same price when I was looking around.) I know you can get cheaper, but my memories of the things as a kid were they were a bit crap, and the new one is blardy amazing. Given a cheap useless item is a bigger waste than a more expensive effective one, we went for it.

It's so nice not having the poor kid cough and gasp his way through the nights.

I just want to thank both the op and whoever suggested putting bubble wrap over your windows.

I have been waiting patiently on being able to afford to buy some and remembered I hoarded some from packaging.

I can finally have my curtain open in the day! You are wonderful.

I live in an old miners cottage with super high ceilings, thick stone walls (with cavity insulation), no loft insulation and SINGLE pane windows.
This bubble wrap or GREAT