Works For Me Wednesday

As you might be able to tell from a quick browse of my sidebar, we are participating in the Freeze Yer Buns challenge this winter brought to us by none other than Crunchy Chicken. We are pledging to keep our daytime thermostat around 65 degrees and night thermostat around 60 degrees. We are working our way down in the evenings, but have been pretty successful so far keeping the thermostat around 65 during the day and at night.

If you are concerned about the ever increasing prices of gas and oil, along with the daily ups and downs of the financial markets, it makes sense to find ways to cut costs as we head into the winter months. Winter heating is one of the highest costs people face each year.

Here are some of the things we are doing to stay toasty warm while trying to keep our utility costs down this winter:

1. We live in a 2-story home that is about 25 years old. There is a sliding glass door upstairs and down. These offer no insulation at all, since the glass does nothing to keep the heat in. On the slider upstairs, we are enclosing it for the winter in the plastic shrink-wrapping that you put in place with your blowdryer. We're also going to wrap windows in rooms that are least used the same way.

2. For windows that we rely on for light, we have decided to try the bubble-wrap idea to see if it really helps to insulate and raise the R-value while still allowing filtered light in. You can read more details in this link about the bubble-wrap insulation idea. We're thinking of it as our winter, frugal alternative to "glass block". Sounds kind-of neat, huh? I'll let you know how it goes.

3. We are using our woodburning fireplace in the evening before bed to get the chill off the living room and in the morning when we first get up to chase the chill away. A lot of our firewood comes to us free from downed trees on our pasture, so this is not an added expense.

4. Our downstairs living area is our biggest challenge, as it has 3 windows and one of the sliding glass doors - these seem to cause a constant drafty feel in the room. These windows are the ones we're going to try the bubble-wrap idea with. We might also enclose them with the shrink wrap if we don't find enough effect from the bubble wrap. Unfortunately, we utilize the sliding door in this room to have access to the backyard for our dogs. In the winter we keep the sliding blinds closed and at night often put up a window quilt to cut down on the draft from the sliding door glass.

5. I try to do a lot of my baking in the morning hours - this allows me to use the oven to help heat the kitchen and breakfast room area while baking. When I'm done baking and turn off the oven, I leave the oven door open to allow the residual heat to help warm the room until the oven cools off.

6. We all sleep in knit caps at night. Well, except my 8 year old daughter who is her own little furnace. She hardly even needs a coat in the winter. Anyway, you'd be amazed at how much warmer you are, even when the air around you is cool, if you have your head covered! We just picked up inexpensive knit caps from the dollar store for each family member. We have some that are more expensive and hold in more heat that we'll use as the temperatures get colder later in the winter.

7. Most of us also sleep in socks at night. I can remember the whole time growing up my mom would tell me "if your feet are warm, the rest of you will be warm". Well, I don't know if it is just the power of persuasion or fact, but when I have warm feet it sure seems to help the rest of me feel warm! I have great wool socks that I use just for wearing to bed. (Some of these came to me by way of my husband when they were accidentally put in the dryer and then would no longer fit him.)

8. If I can fit it in before the holidays, I'm going to make bedwarmers for each of us. I'm going to make mine with corn, but you can read about the different varieties at Crunchy's site.

9. We wear layered clothing during the day, so we can add layers if we are cool and remove layers if we get too warm.

10. We have invested over the years in great wool blankets for our beds. Think military surplus - here's a great place you can shop - Sportsman's Guide. My husband loves this online store and their prices are fantastic.

These are just a few of the ways that we have found to help us stay toasty this winter. Of course, I've also found that when we stay busy moving around during the day, that helps us stay warm too. I'm cold anytime the temperature drops below about 75 degrees, so we've learned over the years ways to help me stay warm, even when most people don't even think it is cold yet!

I hope you found some of these ideas helpful if you are trying to find ways to cut costs this winter. If you have others you'd like to share with us, please leave a comment ~ I'd love to hear your ideas!

One more thing - be sure to sign up for my holiday giveaway this week and come back to visit every week before Christmas for a new giveaway each week!