I know my timing’s a bit off with this (well it is for me – your skies might be bluer than ours right now) but I wanted to share a few ideas with you on how you can keep cool on a budget when the weather is too hot to be comfortable!
Keeping cool on a budget is something we know a lot about as our house can be super warm in the Summer months and over the years, we’ve definitely learned a thing or two about the things we can do that will help – even just a temporary reprieve from the heat is welcome and if we can do that without having to switch on the energy-sucking fans then that’s amazing!
These keep cool on a budget tips are kind of like the equivalent of popping a jumper and a thick pair of socks to help you keep the heating off for longer.
Create a breeze in your house
I don’t know what your house is like but if I open the windows in the living room when it’s warm outside makes hardly any difference but if I also open the patio doors in the kitchen then there’s an amazing breeze through the downstairs of our house – so much of a breeze that I have to block the living room door open to stop it slamming shut. We do it upstairs too by opening the windows and leaving the bedroom doors open. It genuinely makes that much of a difference that even the kids leave their doors open to get the benefit.
Don’t use the oven
I try to avoid using the oven or the slow cooker when we have a super hot day. We have one of those George Foreman outdoor electric grills so I tend to just cook tea on that outside when I can or we might just have salad or something like that depending on what we have in.
Run your wrists under cold water
I know this probably sounds a bit of a feeble one to start with but believe it or not, running your wrists under cold water is a proven way to keep your body cool during a heatwave. Apparently, we have a vein that passes through our wrists so running cold water over them every two hours encourages your blood to stay cool which in turn keeps your body cooler.
Ditch the quilt
There are nights when it’s too hot for the quilts, even though we have the thinnest possible quilts (all year round) but we’re all a bit odd and can’t sleep without the comfort of a blanket so we have some super thin blankets that we swap the quilt out for on the really hot nights.
Freeze the sheets
I have been known to pop our Summer blankets in the freezer for an hour or so before bedtime. You’re going to heat them up pretty quick when you get into bed but the temporary chill is definitely welcome!
Enjoy a bath or shower
A tepid shower before bed will do wonders for cooling you down – just make sure that you don’t use cold water because as nice as that might be at the time, the cold actually makes your body work harder to get back up to normal temperature which won’t do you any good.
Close the curtains
Now I’m not telling you to keep your curtains closed all day and sit in the dark but we close our curtains upstairs around 4 pm in the Summer to cool the rooms down a bit. It really works, just as it does in the winter to keep heat in.
Go for cotton
Cotton is the best fabric I know of to keep you cool so I’d go for cotton bedding where you can and also cotton pyjamas if you can.
Don’t miss out on future posts like this – receive updates directly to your inbox by email by adding your email address here and hitting subscribe. You can also follow me on Twitter or BlogLovin and I’d love to see you over on my Facebook page and on Instagram. If you’re interested, you can find out more about me here and while I’ve got your attention, if you’re wondering why some of my posts lately are a little bit less frugal then have a read of this post. 😉
Do your future self a favour – Pin ’10 ways to keep cool on a budget’ post for later:
