Winter Planning

[JanieD]

The days are getting a little shorter & the need to get ready for winter is at the top of my list. I want to be the ant instead of the grasshopper. Can ya'll point me in the right direction?

No extra garden items for canning (just too dry again this summer). I'm stockpiling some & plan to do lots more over the next 2 months. Are you cutting some in your budget now to help offset increases in utilities & such for winter? Are you concerned things will cost a lot more this winter? How are you preparing for the wonderful winter ahead? Got to stay positive, right!

[WV_mom_of2]

I plan to can tomatoes, freeze squash and get more store bought food into my stockpile as I find items on sale. I need to stock up on baking supplies, pasta and dried beans.

Christmas is my big winter thing. I have to find a way to buy for everyone on our list without killing us financially.

I also need to get some menus made and get a written plan in place for the winter. My summer job ends full time on Labor Day. Then I'm down to 2 days week until the end of October. We will lose about 1000.00 in income after that so I have to get a plan together and cut everything to the bare bones to survive!

[kaurand554]

I am very afraid of the cost of oil for the winter.... last winter it cost me about 650.00 every time the damn trucked pulled up. I'm digging out my receipts to see how many times that happened... I think 3 max.

It is really what started me on this adventure of trying to budget and what I can cut back on... I love the stockpiling Idea and have been working on that along with meal plans....

Who knew everything that was supposed to go into a budget to make it actually work. LOL Maybe that is why mine never has.

Love to hear more ideas for winter.... Salvation Army here I come for some WARM BLANKETS

[peanut]

I have full freezers. I'm canning. DH and I will not be short food.

Now utilities are another matter. WE save extra in the summer in order to make our winter bills, but we haven't done that this summer. And the natural gas provider is proposing a 45% increase in rates. I'm worried. DH isn't. He claims they never get what they ask for. They make horrendous profits, and yet they still want to jack up our rates. In the past the government has kept them under control. One good thing about government owned utilities.

Aside from that, we're hoping with DD#2 gone utilities will actually decrease. At least electric and water!

Jean

[jade73]

For our furnace we will have to pay $4.99 a gallon for heating oil OUCH we have almost a full tank and I will make that last sooooo long.But I am still worried.I have been stocking up on meat due to for me it takes the most of my money when shopping I can fill in with veggie and a carb.I hope all goes well for all of us

[inneedofhope]

I'm worried about Oil, too. I'm thinking about adding some electric space heaters. The cost for electric is less than the oil at this point.
Let's hope for a mild winter.

[Missourimom]

I'm very, very worried about winter, especially since our line of work is very slow at that time of the year. We haven't been able to save anything since work has generally been slow all of this year and we depleted our old savings. I'm certain our Christmas will be extremely different this year, but our 17 and 18 yr olds are old enough to deal with it.....our 7 yr old will be our main concern as she still believes in Santa.

I've been canning, but my garden didn't produce all that well this year due to all the rain we had early in the season. Hopefully we'll be stocked on deer meat around November. I'll start trying to stockpile basics such as flour, sugar, yeast, etc as soon as I can.

Our house is old and drafty....not much I can do about that. We'll hang blankets over the doors (as they are incredibly drafty) and we're moving dd7 back upstairs to where it'll be warmer. Dd17 loves the cold temperatures and she'll stay downstairs. Our thermostat will be set even lower than in the past, but thankfully we have plenty of warm clothes, socks and blankets and we have small electric heaters to use in the bathrooms.

[brainyblonde]

Oh yippee!! Another list I have to make.

Find the snow shovels and make sure they are in good order.

Check the ice melting crystals. I think I have about 4 lbs left over from last year. I don't use much, but I like to make sure the front and back steps/walk are safe.

Buy 2 bags of sand for the pickup - rear wheel drive - needs the extra weight in bad weather.

Fill up both propane tanks for the grill/camp stove, just in case.

We heat our home with natural gas, and while it is an old house, it is pretty well insulated. I will need to put new weatherstripping on the doors, and get a draft dodger or two for the attic and basement doors.

I have lots of blankets, and always keep a stack of throws in the living room for TV watching.

Stockpile is building. I still need more ground beef.

That is all I can think of at the moment.

[missyali]

I plan to can some fruit and freeze some veggies. We are stockpiling what we currently don't have 1 year's worth. When baking items go on sale in the fall, we'll stockpile that. We have TONS of blankets! I love winter clothes and slippers! We use or flannel sheets from November - March. Heat will be at 66 or 68. Our thermal curtains are up and will be closed . We are all electric, so heating bills are not too bad. Planning our winter remodels more than anything.

[Clutterbug Jen]

I've been stocking up a bit here and there for the winter months.

Actually I thought I had more than I actually do [I do have lots of bags of beans though! *lol*]

I'm getting ready for a move the 1st weekend in September and after that, I'm gonna get majorly serious about getting stocked up for winter.

Would do more now but don't want to have to move it [even though I'm just moving from the 7th floor in our building, down to the 2nd floor.]

Not that far but still, moving is moving!

Jen

[pollypurebred39]

Dana,

My sister found a way to make Christmas special for her young children. She makes a lot of her kids gifts. Here's some of the things she did.

*She bought a dollar store plastic shoe box and filled it with a set of cookie cutters and 4 small containers of homemade playdough. You could even use ziplock bags. Her kids loved it and played with the playdough all afternoon on Christmas Day.

*She made Snowman soup. She got the idea from a website called CraftSayings. I dont know if you are allowed to put the dot com on a post so I didn't.

*She filled bottles {squirt and spray} with colored water. She glued decorated labels on each bottle and packed them in a homemade red cloth bag with a drawstring. Wala, a snow decorating kit. Her kids couldn't wait until the first snow storm.

*She bought a hat, gloves and scarf a the dollar store and got 2 long sticks from her yard, and stones from her driveway. She got a heavy duty box from a store. Call stores and ask what days they stock shelves and ask if you can get a box. She then painted the box and labeled it "Instant Snowman" Her kids built a great snowman and the neighbors kids begged their mother for a snowman kit.

* She made each one of her kids their favorite candy or cookie and packed it in a decorative tin.


And I made her daughter a dress up box. I scoured yard sales and thrift stores for fancy dresses{big enough to slip right over her clothes} hats, ladies shoes, hair clips, etc. She was thrilled and still talks about it to this day. She said it was her favorite gift ever and that she played with it for years.

You could also hit school sales right now and pick up crayons and markers cheap and then get her some coloring books and stckers at the dollar store for her stocking. I don't know if you sew but my Grandmother always made us kids a flannel night gown and crocheted us slippers. I loved that gift. I opened it on Christmas night and wore them to bed. I always felt so special on Christmas morning wearing my new PJ'S and slippers.

I hope this helps,
Polly

Oh, and I used to go to yard sales and buy games and toys for my kids. I always purchase new or like new. It's amazing what people buy that they never even open and then sell for $.50.

[janis362529]

Despite moving I am still working on my stockpile. I know hubby will return to work right as overtime season starts so I am hopefull that by spring I will be off food stamps and have a 3 mth stockpile.
I am slowly making a list of ways to cut energy b/c that is going to go up.
Even though we get oil I am not keeping the house cold instead it will be set around 68-70 degrees. Hubby my plumber/heat tech swears by what he was taught at school that a therm is a therm is a therm. That while it will burn more to get to temp once there it will burn the same as a lower temp setting to maintain the temp.
But I need to stock up on sand for our drive way which is super steep but will not need salt with no walkway other then the lawn.
So noy much to get ready

[pollypurebred39]

I've been thinking about this today and I would say that I am going to get an emergency box prepared for both my husband's and son's car.

In each box;
extendable snow shovel(already purchased $1.00 on clearance)
Extendable Snow/ice scraper(already purchased $1.00)
Ski mask and heavy gloves (already purchased $2.00)
a bottle of ice spray (already purchased $.10)
a bottle of ice proof windshield washer fluid
a bottle of anti freeze
a bag of cheap cat litter(for traction if stuck in the snow)
a flashlight w/batteries
a warm blanket in case of breakdowns/getting stuck and waiting for help
Something to do while waiting for help ie, books and car games
a box of meal bars and a few bottles of water
and an emergency window shade that states that you need help along with traffic reflectors to let other cars be aware of your car being stuck so you don't get hit.

For the house:

Well our electric goes out quite often so i think I will stock up on

*water
*candles
*a few bundles of wood
*some heavy blankets
*batteries for the radio

We already have a few oil lamps and a gallon of lamp oil. I have 2 candle lanterns that I swore I would have hung by now in the kitchen, I'd better get to that Winter is fast approaching.

Just in general

*plastic for the windows in our drafty house
*restock our medicine cabinet
*Salt

[Ms. Clear]

My hubby and I are renters. We have oil heat, which is included, but I worry every year about the price anyway. If heating is too expensive, we get asked for an "oil surcharge" at renewal or the rent could be raised.

I wish I could figure out if the upstairs neighbor has her own oil tank or not. I hope we have separate tanks. She's older and not well, so she tends to crank the heat. I understand that of course, but I keep my temperature quite low. I'm thinking of 65 for when we are home and we always keep it at 60 at night or during the day when we aren't there. The place actually keeps fairly warm. It's a partial basement.....like a bunker LOL.

I may look into stockpiling, though we don't do this typically. No kids yet to eat all the food. Groceries only run us about $65/week. Maybe I will buy up a few pot roasts when they go on sale.

I do need to restock the medicine cabinet, get the car tires checked for hubby and SAVE MONEY. There's always some sort of car repair in the winter.

[anna021]

Since the last 2 mornings have been in the low 50's here, I haven't been able not to think about the oncoming winter. We just filled the tank with oil, we paid cash and ordered over 400 gals, so we got a 6 cent discount, so we paid 3.73 per gallon and we took 525 gallons. Just shy of 2,000.00 dollars! Wow, can't really believe it. I will make it last the winter, it must. Now school taxes are next, they'll be well over 25 hundred too, thankfully, I have the money saved for those too. My stockpile is looking pretty good, still need a few things.
Here at our house Christmas is not about gifts, we enjoy getting ready for the day by baking, decorating the house and getting together with family and friends. Keeping warm and fed are more important than what under the tree. Just my opinion of course.