I know because we have twice had pipes burst from freezing--so turn off the outside water pipes soon.

Also, bring in outside furniture and garden tools. Clean and sharpen garden tools (store in a five gallon bucket with sand and used oil). Bring in hoses.

Bring in outdoor plants to overwinter. I do this with geraniums, impatients, mints, herbs--and have a free jump start in the spring. Also, it brightens up the inside during the winter.

Change the air filters in your furnace.

insulate outlets and switches on the exterior walls of your house.

Pick up mousetraps and set them as mice will come in as it gets cold--why wait until you have them?

Get a carbon dioxide smoke detector if you use those heaters.

Vent your dryer into the house to warm it and give moisture (put a nylon stocking on the hose to prevent lint from blowing around).

Bake in the morning to heat the house--leave oven open afterwards.

Keeping your furnace at 68 will save alot of money.

Open your curtains during the day to let the sun warm your house.

Clean gutters.

Now is when I check into mending of winter clothes, etc.

Check the air in you tires on your car.
Proper inflation gets better gas mileage and longer wear.

Turn off lights when not in use, and use energy saving bulbs.

DH and I bought a house last year. We know we're only going to be living here for a few years at the most. We're busy planting trees and working on the landscaping so not only can we make our house more valuable for the future, but also so we can enjoy it for ourselves. The same goes for installing wood foors, tile, etc.

Today I happen to be facing one of these choices again - Last weekend we cleaned all our carpet. I had done this when we moved in several yrs ago. One room was used by the previous owners as a sort of indoor dogpen. Digusting - As we used the rental extractor, it seemed to pull up all of that old smell from the pad into the carpet. We ended up worse off - and that's after going over it SIX times with the extractor.

So... went to Home Depot and looked at Legato carpet squares thinking diy and cheap was best since we're either going to be relocated next yr or do major remodeling if not... Don't want to sink a bunch of money into one room that we either won't be here to enjoy or will be a temporary fix if we remodel.

Stopped by our local flooring dealer on the way to pick up Legato at Home Depot. For the SAME price, we can get an economy grade berber - installed with better padding - they cart away the old smelly carpet and pad - and it will be better than trying to keep the seams hidden on the Legato.

Sometimes 'just do it' saves money and time in the long run.

Added water.

Must check its low temperature tolerance and add more anti-freeze.

Soon.

Cracked engine blocks are not a pleasant experience. Or frugal.

ole (stingy) joyful

When you find places where the flame flickers, check what needs to be done in the way of insulation, caulking, sealing or other activity to stop that flow of wind into your home.

You'll achieve heavy-duty saving of fuel with the investment of a little money, time and (personal) energy.

Someone spoke of turning the vent of the dryer into the house.

Others said that it would put too much humidity into the home and might cause mold, etc.

It depends on how much laundry that one does - for me, living alone, I do not have a lot of laundry, so install a large net, e.g. pantyhose, over the end of the exhaust to filter out stray lint. Take it off and clean it occasionally to avoid restricting flow of heated exhaust air.

If you plan to do several loads of laundry, perhaps vent the later loads outside.

Possibly a good idea to get a hygrometer, that measures the amount of humidity in the air, to guide you in knowing when to turn the vent outside.

Most houses in the northern areas get really dry in winter - about as dry as the desert. Most plants don't like the atmosphere so dry. Not good for people, either. As in a number of areas of human activity - it seems that moderation is the way to go: too much moisture in the air can be harmful, so can too little.

Hoping that your home isn't too short of hot air this winter - or that you have too much (especially when certain relatives, friends come to call).

joyful

Compact fluorescent lightbulbs in every light that you leave on for extended periods.

This is especially important on balances owing on store-issued cards, for most of them charge interest at over 25% annual rate. Regular Credit cards often charge 15% - 18% annual rate.

I just received a report on my Line of Credit which, fully secured by equities, and unused at present, says that they are charging interest rate of 4.5% at present.

That's a major extra benefit with owning liquid assets - they can be used as collateral for loans at much lower rates than that charged on unsecured loans.

They add to one's peace of mind if one suffers temporary layoff, or termination due to downsizing, etc.

It might be wise to take on one of those card offers that allow zero, or low, rate of interest on balances transferred in for several months.

Check carefully whether there are extra fees, penalties, etc.

Likely plan to charge nothing on such new cards, as many require that your future payments will go to pay off the low rate debt transferred in before your payments can be used to pay off amount owing on the new purchases. Which means that, after a few months, you'd be back in the situation where you had rebuilt a substantial debt balance on which you were required to pay interest at their regular high rate.

Unless you could find a new carrier willing to carry balances transferred in at a low introductory rate.

Check out all of the terms and conditions first, though, to avoid unpleasant surprises, later.

Make a resolution to purchase gifts for various birthday, anniversary, Christmas and other gifting occasions when you find relevant products at any time of the year.

That will avoid the stress of calculating how to afford Christmas just after Thanksgiving, this fall. Much of your costs will have been incurred at various times during the year when they were less stressful than if they're bunched together at Christmas.

As I've often said, "Learning how money works is an interesting hobby - that pays well".

I publish an occasional newsletter dealing with such subjects, as my years as a personal financial advisor led be to feel distress that so many people know so little about effective money management.

Single copy free to anyone with email capability who asks.
As many seem to judge that something received at no cost has little value, and the newsletter distills a lifetime of regular experience as well as substantial financial experience and training, I charge a negotiable fee for continuing to receive it, usually asking that much of it go to chjarities, including some international ones, for there are millions of homeless refugees in the world, wondering how they can feed their children when employmentis so scarce.

Good wishes to each of you for as low-stress money management as possible.

Good wishes to all for a memorable New Year.

joyful guy/Ed

When you heat with oil, what system on the furnace needs anti-freeze?

Just curious.

joyful

It doesn't always work--but hey--it's free!

-----------------------
Also at this time of year--most stores have their winter clothing on sale. Stock up. Buy your next year's christmas presents at 50% off.

... I neglected to mention that I seldom use the dryer.

In summer I hang the wash on a clothesline, stringing lines back and forth between two short portions of fence that jut out from the house, delineating my back yard from that of the neighbours in this side-by-side townhouse project.

I had a complication there in that I pulled loops off of one portion of fence when finished so neighbour kids don't hang themselves. Having dropped the loose end on the ground beside the other fence, I was somewhat incensed when the lawn care guy ran his mower over the (bright yellow) cord lying on the ground. When I asked him whether his eyes were in good shape, he accused me of being guilty of slovenly housekeeping.

One's point of view does influence one's talk, doesn't it?

Right now there's about a foot and a half of snow out there.

In winter, after spinning clothes, I often run shirts, pants, etc. for a short stint in the dryer, on fluff or possibly on low heat, to reduce the wrinkles. Then hang shirts on hangers, hang from doorknobs.

Having washed yesterday, I draped my small washed items over furniture in the bedrooms, dining room and living room: I can look at about a dozen items of t-shirts, briefs, winter underwear and socks right now.

Shower rod is a good place to hang bed sheets.

Saving energy makes for fat wallets in consumers' pockets.

Hope you're enjoying winter.

joyful - it's a "guy" thing