Ask the Readers: What Winter Savings Tip Do You Swear By?

I knit "fuzzy feet" (i.e., felted wool slippers) for my hubby every year. He wears them almost nightly and they keep him from turning up the thermostat!

I am a hot beverage fiend. I try not to buy cocoa mix anymore. I'm always testing out new recipes for it instead. I just saw this one yesterday:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/hot-cocoa-recipe/index.html

I find when it gets cold it is all the more reason to snuggle with a loved one. I love knerling up with my wife Linsey on those cold winter nights.

I agree that warm feet are the key to being warm! I fill a 2-liter soda bottle with the hottest tap water I can run (don't try boiling water -- they melt), close the top securely, and then tuck one or two under a thick feather comforter. They (and my feet) stay warm for hours.

I take advantage of the free radiant heating from the sun during the day. I open my blinds during the day, letting the radiant heat from the sun help to warm my living and bed room (south/west facing). At night, I close the blinds to help provide some extra insulation and keep the warmth in.
I also put extra thick blankets on the bed, keep a warm throw within arms reach of the couch and wear sweaters while I'm home. All of that helps me to be able to run the furnace a lot less.

The sliding patio door in our apartment has seen better days, and since our family room is about two feet away, we were really feeling the effects of the worn out seal. My fiancé put some weather stripping and it really seemed to help keep the cold out.

We bought a door draft guard last year and it helped keep in the heat as well as keep the house cool in the summer.

Slippers and tons of blankets are essential- as is baking every day!

I change the temperature on my thermostat incrementally throughout the winter. So when it starts getting cold around October, I start with the thermostat on 68, and every 3-4 weeks, I turn the thremostat down another degree. That way my body has a chance to adjust its own internal thermostat to compensate.

Of course they're up their year round anyways - but in winter I make them come on MY side.
Plus I married a man who always runs about 10 degrees warmer than me.

I am all for saving money on monthly bills, but I refuse to sit in my home with a hat on my head, and dressed for the outdoors. Living in MN, it gets cold, and having a hubby who is cold I try to make it comfortable for the both of us. He will use my heating pad for his feet, which helps warm the rest of his body up. He works outside and comes home frozen so he needs to come home to a warm house. Dinner is usually in the oven when he gets home, so it is even toastier. We are on the budget plan with our gas company, and gas prices are down, so this coming winter we will be paying $52 a month. Now, that is for a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house, that we keep at 70-72 degrees.That price also reflects our gas stove, water heater and dryer. I can't complain about the cost at all. I have been in friend's and family's homes that are freezing and it is no fun!

So a heating pad helps, cups of tea (warms the hands also!), I am going to make the rice filled bags someone wrote about this year (these can also be used as draft stoppers as well.) This summer we also recaulked all of our windows and added weather stripping as needed. We do our part, but refuse to be uncomfortable, and refuse to have our family and friends avoiding our home because it is so cold!

This doesn't save money, but it saves effort.

I shovel the driveway before bed even if it's still snowing; then in the morning, I don't have to get up extra early to dig out my driveway. Maybe just a quick pass with the snow shovel, or it might be low enough to just drive out if I'm in a hurry.

Before I had a garage, I would clear off my car at the same time. Less work in the morning = more time for coffee.

Of course, I enjoy being outside on a snowy night, so it's easy to convince myself to grab the shovel and get a head start.

A fresh snowfall raises the outside temperature by a couple of degrees, as long as it's not windy.

So if you're cold-phobic (wimps!) take advantage of those days to get outside and get your exercise. At least a nice walk around the block. You can't sit on the couch wrapped up in your snuggie and your hot water bottle ALL winter, lazybones.

I go for a run immediately after getting home. Gives the heating system time to warm up, and my entire body is warmed up, meaning I don't need the thermostat as high.

i live alone, so i close off rooms i am not using often, like the guest rooms, and shut the vents in them and close the blinds. just moved into a new house and i need to install draft stoppers on the interior doors that have a gap under the door.

also i turn the ceiling fans switches to blow the warmer air down from the ceiling [vacuum the fan blades first if they have any dust on them!!]

Boiled wool slippers, fingerless mitts, a stylish knitted hat and a shoulderette (small shawl): I may look like Eliza Doolittle, but I'm comfy! Perhaps more appealing, a set-back thermometer even when I am at home. If I get too cold, I raise the temp 1 degree at a time. Of course, I live in a warm climate, but we do have our 20 degree nights (and we have Very Thin Blood).

We play a game to see how many weeks/months we can wait before turning on the furnace/heat in our house (and conversely, how soon we can turn it off for the year in the spring). We live in south-west Canada, and can make it until December most years, and have had it off again as early as mid-February. With 4 people, a few cats, liberal sweater/slipper use, and normal around-the-house appliance usage, the temperature rarely drops below 16C (~60F). Each month we abstain saves upwards of $100, and makes for sounder sleeps!

We use a programmable thermostat and turn down the heat at night and while we are at work.

Back in Canada, my family wore sweaters and thick socks around the house so we could turn down the heater. We used thick down comforters and piled blankets on the couch.

Now that I'm living in northern California, we still use thick down comforters for cold nights and still keep blankets on the couch.

It rains a lot here in the wintertime, but I invested in high quality rip-stop rain coat and rain pants so I can continue biking to and from work.

Just like Jimmy Carter advised, put on another sweater.

For cutting down costs, a small electric space heater has done wonders. We just warm up whatever room we're in for a few minutes, stay bundled (thick toe socks for the win). Also, gaps around doors? Duct tape around the edges does a great job for only a little money (and it can be re-used as long as it's sticky).

I use space heaters to heat the kids rooms, so I can keep the whole house cooler at night.

Oh, and blanket sleepers for the kids as well! You know, the footie pajamas.

This will be my first winter in a new-to-me house, so I am looking forward to see what the bills look like. I have one room that is just a guest room. I see lots of people who want to shut that room off, but the heating and air technician who worked on my mom's ac this summer said shutting the vents in that room can actually make her heat pump work harder, and therefore be less fuel-efficient. Do any other southerners know what I'm talking about?

I am going to add weatherstripping to my front door and see about rigging up a door snake to rest at the top of the front door. The door has about 1/4 inch of space in that corner - my landlord calls it character, and in a 90 year old house, I guess he's right. But weather stripping and a door snake should cut the amount of cold air that comes in through that door plenty.

I keep the temperature at 65 in my house all winter. If I end up going to a programmable thermostat, I'll lower it to 62 while I'm away, but if I don't I probably won't remember to make the change. My dogs will cuddle up if they are cold, and if I am cold, I add layers. One of my mutts doesn't have much of a coat, so she has some sweaters to wear, too.

For the bedroom, I have an electric heating pad that I can use to warm up the bed if it's especially chilly - I plug it in for about 20 minutes and then unplug it, because it's not safe to sleep with those things on. I also let the dogs in the bed if it's cool out - it's a win for all three of us. I also have a down comforter that I will add into the bedding. When it is really cold, I have a down throw and an extra comforter to layer on the bed. I don't usually need all of that, but if the power goes out and I'm without heat, I can do pretty well that way.

When it gets colder, into January and February, I have a small electric heater that I can set up in front of the couch. The mutt without a decent fur coat warms herself in front of it, but she is kind enough to share. A cup of hot tea or cocoa to warm the hands and the stomach helps a lot, too, and tea is a cheap indulgence.

In November, I'll shrink wrap all of the windows except for one in my bedroom (in case we get a warm spell, I like to be able to open a window in my bedroom), and one in the kitchen (for my inevitable cooking disasters), and one in the living room (the dogs look out this window and they tear off the shrink wrap). I'm also going to add another layer of fabric insulation, and by that I mean curtains, to the windows that currently only have blinds and sheers over them. They are all in rooms that don't see a lot of daily activity, but I think that adding a layer of fabric will still help hold the heat in.

Right now, the weather is so darn pleasant, I have windows open and the heat and air off! Ah, fall in the south, I love you!

We live in Klamath Falls, Oregon and usually get Nov-Dec-Jan snow and it gets very cold at night, starting in October. We put pink insulation cut-outs in the crawlspace vents to keep the pipes from freezing. We blow the water out of the sprinklers to keep the PVC from freezing. In winter, unused rooms (guest bathroom and bedroom) have the vents shut tight and a magnetic block over the vents and a 'snake' in front of the door to prevent heat from going into the rooms. I put the heavy curtains up with a protective backing that are wide open during the day to let in lots of light and warmth and closed tight at night to keep it in! We stay cozy with the heat at 66 during the day for the Yorkies (well, the dogs get cold and so does the retired husband) and lots of polar fleece comforters on the leather couches. We keep the heat at 61 at night. The oven and dryer in the laundry room and sometimes the natural gas fireplace keeps the living areas plenty warm when we are home in the evenings! We have electric blankets on the beds, so we stay toasty warm with minimal heat use. (and we get to sleep naked- sorry,not gross, just a life long 30 year habit with us as old married people) We also have a cup of hot tea (sometimes with a shot of brandy) for a nightcap and always hit the jacuzzi before bed on a very cold night.
Our gas and electric bills are VERY low during the winter compared to a lot of our friends! And we are comfortable without wearing parkas, socks to bed or heavy sweaters in the house.

The best thing I do to keep comfy during the winter is to use the two thick Polartec blankets I bought from LL Bean years ago. I remove the sheets on the bed for the winter and use one of the blankets as a fitted sheet and the other one as my blanket. They keep me toasty warm without overheating like a down comforter can do. Plus the fact that the bed is warm from the moment you get into it is worth anything!

I've found that the window kits that are supposed to insulate your windows are expensive and the plastic is too thin to do much of anything. Several years ago, I bought ten of those thick clear plastic shower curtains for about a buck apiece at the Dollar Tree. I use nails or thumbtacks to fasten them to the outside of my window frames, which cuts down on air coming in through the windows as well as through gaps in the window frames. since they're clear I can still get lots of light in the house, and since they aren't taped or shrink wrapped onto the windows I can take them down and re-use them the next year.
I also have two pairs of those rubber backed curtains from the 1950's that i found at a yard sale. They're ugly but the rubber backing will keep wind and cold air out really efficiently.
I live in an old leaky building, and mine is usually the warmest apartment out of the entire building!

We have a programmable thermostat so any time of the year it is set to run less during the day while we aren't there. During the winter my husband and I prefer to be under lots of covers as well so we can keep it fairly low. We close the doors and vents of rooms we aren't using so we are not heating the extra square footage (guest room, guest bathroom, etc). In the summer we close most of the vents downstairs to force the cold air upstairs where it will then sink. In the winter we do the opposite and it seems to help the house maintain a more consistant temperature. And finally I love to where my Duofold shirts and pants around the house in the winter. They aren't bulky but they provide extra warmth. In the end though if I am truly cold I allow myself to turn up the heat because it is not worth being miserable!

I live alone, so I am ok with setting the thermostat at 60 and wearing a hat around the house. I also morph into the pilsbury doughkid during the winter (hey, extra adipose=insulation, right? just kidding) in terms of LAYERS. As previous commenter said, wear the first layer close to the skin and you will be toasty warm. The only thing I hate doing is wearing lots of socks because I feel like my feet are getting all sweaty and smelly- but then if I leave off socks they get cold. Bah!

If you have an electric dryer you can vent the heat into a dryer vent box which you fill with water to supposedly keep the lint down. When I was single, I did this in an apartment and was able to open the exterior door and have steam come out! Downside is some lint gets by the vent box. This lint issue didn't matter in the apartment because I mounted the box right next to the heater intake filter so I could run the HVAC system on fan only and easily distribute the heat around the apartment.

Now married and living in a rental house I am planning to use the same type of vent box but surround it with a larger box with air filters built into it to keep the lint fuzz down. Probably put a diverter inline so the wife can pick to exhaust the heat outside or keep it inside.

Years ago there was also some sort of heat transfer unit for gas dryers which you mounted in line with the gas vent that allowed the exhausted combustion air to tranfer heat to the room air. As I remember this only worked if you had a dryer vent in the wall above the dryer (like in a basement or high up on the wall) as you needed the pipe run to put the transfer unit into...

This is not a good idea, venting your dryer into the house. In MN you have to have it vented directly out of your house. I also would worry, as Stew mentioned about the mold problems.

Anyone using space heaters, especially in your kid's rooms, I do hope you are not leaving these on all night. Every year there seems to be more and more house fires in the winter here, caused from space heaters. Also how healthy is it to be closed in a room with a heater, and then soon as you step outside into other rooms in your house you are going to feel cold all over again.

Again it is all based on how warm you need your home for you to be comfortable and how many layers I am willing to have on when at home. I love my sweats and fuzzy socks, but when I have to dress in more layers inside then I need to have on to go outside, that means the house is waaaaaay, too cold. Also, depending on which state you live in if the house gets too cold, you can end up with frozen pipes. When the plumber comes out to fix the problems created by this, that cost alone will eat up any money you might have saved keeping your house freezing cold.

I keep the thermostat no higher that 65 during the day or when at home and turn it down to below 60 at night time. If we are chilly we put sweaters on or get up and do something which usually warms you up quick. Thank you for the giveaway.

koinonia572001@yahoo.com

We lower the thermostat and wear polar fleece in the house. I even have polar fleece jackets for the short-haired dogs.
Thanks.

Since we live in a drafty mobile home our power bill quintuples in the colder months.Some tricks we use are: plastic on the windows(this really helped!), hot water bottles,heated rice/flax pillow etc.to warm up the foot and middle of the bed,thick quilt over the sliding glass door,jumping jacks to improve circulation when you are sitting too long,having a family bed (kids are little heaters!nice in the winter).
WOOL! I grab wool items whenever I find them cheap or free. They are great at keeping you dry and they wick sweat so you don't get chilly. A wool blanket on the bed over the sheet will especially help to keep you from overheating.
A knit cap on your head at night will really help keep the heat in.
Since I find thermals too clingy and tight I just wear regular cotton pajama pants under my clothes. It is much more comfortable and the extra fabric seems to hold in warmth better than thermals anyhow.

I save money in the winter by living in Phoenix, where it rarely gets below 50 degrees and you can turn off your a/c but never turn on your heat.

:-)

If you normally pay to get your property snowblowed or plowed, consider buying a Wovel (wovel.com), which is a large snow shovel mounted on a big rolling wheel, and doing it yourself by hand. You will make your money back in the first month or two, plus get some moderate (not heart-threatening like normal shoveling) exercise to boot. I am planning on buying one next month for the upcoming snow season as it's vastly more efficient, faster, and vastly safer for your back than a traditional snow shovel.