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Home : Money & Time savers : Budgeting : Be warmer all winter long
Be warmer all winter long
When the weather gets cold outside, there are many of us who are fighting the cold air and the frigid temperatures to keep warm in our homes. In this article I want to tell you more about how to keep warm all the time without worrying about the high prices of keeping warm. There are many tricks that you can use to keep your self warmer without having to add more to the fuel bills.
Perhaps you are moving into a new home, or you are moving out of your parents for the first winter, it can often seem colder when you are on your own, on a budget, and the house has cold air leaks or drafts. To fix these drafts there are a few quick fixes that will help get you through those long winter months. If you know someone who is struggling to stay warm, direct him or her to these tips to help them save money and stay warm all winter long as well!
First thing, think about it being warm! When you think warmer, your body is sub consciously going to feel a little warmer. Think that you are warm, and your mind will be tricked into feeling a bit warmer!
Start exercising in the morning or in the evening when you feel you are colder. Getting your blood flowing will warm your up so you don�t even feel as cold. This is a great time to work on the house, do the household chores and to clean out those closets � moving around more you are not going to notice the draft in the house while you are working.
Baking, cooking and making bigger meals is going to help warm the house for a while. Turning on the oven and making your favorite cakes, cookies, treats and such is going to add to the heat in the house making you warmer at the same time.
When you are cold, take a look around the house. Where is the air coming in most often?
The windows are a large source of losing heat. Put a plastic covering over windows that do not seal up tight. Put storm windows in when ever possible. And putting heavy drapes over windows that you have plastic and storm windows on is going to seal your home up better and leave the cold air outside where it belongs.
If you home is always cold in the winter, don�t turn on fans in the bathroom when you are taking showers. The heat from the shower is going to warm the house slightly. Just as if you are baking or cooking, do not turn the fan on above the stove. The heat from the stove will warm the house a bit more, but if you had the fan on the fan is going to suck out the warm air and put it outside as well.
If you find that your home is a little cooler than you like it, turn up the thermostat just one or two degrees. Don�t turn it up and down all the time, as this makes the house more difficult to heat. If you keep your thermostat where you like it and keep it there it is not going to turn on as much!
To save money in heating your home, wear more clothes when you are in the home. Put a sweater or sweatshirt on, and make the children wear heavier clothes as well. You can�t wear shorts all winter in the house and expect to really be warm. Socks and slippers are another item of clothing that when worn all the time is going to make you feel warmer all the winter long as well. Take off the chill by putting on a few more layers of clothing.
If you find that you have a few drafts in the house still, don�t forget to make sure the doors are pushed all the way shut all the time. Swinging screen doors can leave air in the home when the storm doors aren�t shut. In the coldest areas of the world, homeowners will put plastic, canvas, or even plywood up around the patio and entry ways of porches to block the coldest winter winds from entering the home when you open the door and walk in the house. Large sheets of plastic and a staple gun to put it up is going to block wind from hitting your doors when the wind is whipping around.
Putting rugs and rolled up blankets in front of doorways where the air sneaks in under the doors is a great way to stop those drafts without added costs.
Don�t forget, if you don�t have any insulation in your attic, the heat from your home is leaking out of your home through the attic and the top of your home. Think about some type of insulation when you are preparing for the cold winter months.
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