My Top Ten Winter Preparations….

After this weekend’s freakish (but very welcome) mini heatwave, there’s a definite chill in the air tonight.  So much so, that I’ve just had the heating on for an hour to warm the house up which is only the second time I’ve needed it on since before the Summer.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not the sort of person who waits until there’s icicles on the end of our noses before I turn the heating on but I do try to balance having it on as little as possible with having a nice warm house.   I’d love to be the type of person who could just put on an extra couple of jumpers and pairs of socks rather than turing the heating up but I just have to accept that I’m not and try to do my best to keep our winter energy costs down in other ways:

1. Change the Summer duvets to the Winter ones.  We managed to get some lovely big thick quilts from Tesco a few months ago and I’m looking forward to snuggling in them.  I’m going to put the Summer quilts on top of the mattress for some extra warmth.
2. Get the blankets and throws out.  I try not to have any heating on at night unless it’s really cold as we all find it difficult to sleep when the heatings on so everyone has an extra blanket at the bottom of the bed for if they need it.
3. Put up the new curtains.  I have a lovely pair of thick cream curtains to go up in the living room when I finally get around to putting up the curtain rail.  If you don’t have thick winter curtains to put up you could add a thick lining to the ones you already have up.  I bought some thick lining fabric from dunelm mill last year for our upstairs curtains and it’s really easy to do.  It’s well worth it as up to 23% of a home’s heat loss is through the windows.
4. Sort out Winter wardrobes.  I’m going to spend a few hours this weekend working out what clothes we all need for the winter and then buy them off Ebay wherever possible.  I do this in Spring and in Autumn and last time I did it I managed to buy a whole new wardrobe (needed due to a growth spurt) for Miss Fussypants Frugal for about £50 – that included a jacket, loads of jeans leggings, tops, skirts and dresses all brands like Next, H&M and M&S.  I also bought both kids Winter coats from ebay last year for less than a fiver each and they were brilliant.
5. Make a draught excluder.  Our front door, despite it being a new house is very draughty so I need something to keep out the cold and I thought I’d try and make something myself.  I may or may not share the results with you depending on how it turns out

My other Winter peparations include:

1. Making sure we have spare lightbulbs, batteries, candles and matches.
2. Stocking the First Aid box.  It’s better to have and not need that to need and not have you know.
3. Doing the garden.  We need to mow the lawns and get the kids summer toys, bikes and scooters into the garage.
4. Making sure the car is prepared for Winter.  I don’t mean putting it through it’s Winter service, although that would be a great idea if I had the spare pennies at the moment.  I mean by making sure that we have supplies like blankets and an umberella in the boot just in case we breakdown at any time.
5. Making sure everyone’s wellies fit.  I usually leave it until the snow is here before realising that someone’s wellies don’t fit and then have a mad dash round the shops to find some that fit. 

While you’re thinking about how you could prepare for Winter, why don’t you have a look at Becky’s top tips here.  There’s some great ideas on how to stay warm without using your heating so well worth a look

What do you do to prepare for Winter?