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It is only the beginning of the winter and although it has not yet been cold enough for any payemets to be issued, I am posting the link here to the relevant page where you can type in your postcode and see if any payments are being issued. It also tells you who is entitled, as not everyone on Income Support is eligible anymore
I must say I put in the postcode for one of the places recorded as the coldest (in Wales) and it still didn't say it would be triggered. It has to be seven days though so maybe I am being a bit keen!
I have just put our postcode in and its also not been cold enough for long enough, it should kick in for next week for people hopefully.
How is everyone keeping warm?
Any tips?
I use lots of hot water bottles at night but during the day I think its more difficult to keep warm, what does everyone else thik?
A really good tip is to wear a hat but you may or may not like doing that. The other thing I do is rush up and down the stairs a few times lol. If I am sitting working, it is the worst for getting cold. Duvets can travel round the house with you as well
It is best to wear several layers of thin clothing than one thick one.
I have just been looking around for any advice websites that might help but the ones I have found are saying the things we are already saying on this thread. I notice that websites recommend a thermostat set at 21 degrees for the daytime and 18 degrees at night. Of course, much of the advice is for older people....but I wonder how many people could afford to heat their home to that level? or at night?
Hi Louise
Yes a hat is a very good idea, my friend and I did try to find one that looked ok ha ha.
I think thats why I tend to decorate in winter as it does tend to keep me a little warmer.
I certainly cant afford to keep the heating on, its on now but only for an hour or so then off for a while then back on, I am finding it is costing on average £3 per day which is £42 per fortnight then the electric on top, last winter was really hard as my friend and I were both putting around £30/35 per week on the gas alone, I am dreading it staying this cold for a while this year.
My son has one of those snuggle blankets, managed to pick on up for £5 in one of the discount stores, have to say they are good, he uses it to snuggle on the settee and also for bedtime, if anyone does get one I would say get the adult size even for little ones as they are not massive.
My mother-in-law gave me some spare quilts she had. They stay in the living room, and we snuggle into those!
Use water bottles here at bedtime too. Couldn't be without mine!!! Have the heating on now for a while, then will turn off after hour or so. C has fleece blankets, so they are always in the living room.
In the cottage and when I was in Rhosniegr, we had a coal fire. I loved it. Somehow you always felt cosier when that was lit!
My parents' house had a coal fire when I was a child. It was a nuisance to rake it all out and light it every morning though 
Dad was away a lot from when I was about eight, and so it was left to Mum and if she was ill, it was Yours Truly doing it 
It has just started snowing here, really big flakes.
I had to go out. The cat is fed though. I was clinging onto eldest and daughter to get up to the car and back down... And that was with crampons!
The clouds that are building up towards the western side of the island are terrifying! Well, to me...
My friend has had one of these for a year now, I have just ordered one for our house.
I am putting the link to the one I am getting but there are lots of different ones around, the one piece of advice is if you are going to get one, make sure it comes with the extender ring, it makes the 12ltr one into a 17ltr capacity which means you can cook a family meal in it.
Jackets potatoes are yummy and meat cooked in it tastes divine.
They are also more energy efficient by I think 40% and also cook much faster than a regular oven, my friend has cooked a leg of lamb today in just over an hour
I've seen those advertised on one of the all night channels, and they do look really great. Let us know how you get on with it tiredmum.
I lived with my gran for a year when I was seven/eight and every morning I used to help her clean out the grate and build a fire ready for the day, just lighting a fire makes you start to feel warm.
Anyone remember that particularly cold winter in the 80's? I was 16 at the time and living in an old semi derelict farm house with missing windows and holes in the roof and it was freezing, I basically lived in a sleeping bag, fully clothed. When my dad came back from Africa after six months there was no wood anywhere to be found, I had burnt doors, two sheds and all the timbers he had saved for the roof : )
I woke up one morning and an inch of snow had blown in through the roof and half covered my sleeping bag.
Ooh tired mum I have not seen one of those, it will be an energy saver no doubt
Bubblegum, I was casting my mind back to the 80s, the worst winter I remember was 86-87, I was living near London and had some lovely bonus days off work when the power lines for the electric trains failed. Sounds horrendous with the snow on your sleeping bag. I am thinking you could only cope with being so young, as we get older we seem to care about these things more.
(((Bubblegum)))
It probably was 86/87 as it was just after I had left school. I remember on the news that many old people died because of the cold and not being able to afford heating.
That was before I started work in Wylfa. East winds and awful snowdrifts? I remember the snow plough going past the cottage (lived on the side of the A5), and almost seconds later the road was covered again.
What was everyone else doing in the winter of 1986?
I walked all the way from Trefor to Llanerchemedd in that snow Sparklinglime, no cars as the road was covered in feets of snow, and driving wind blowing the snow I could barely see the road, just bumpy white everywhere. I kept thinking this is how Scott died, I'm going to die, don't sit down for a rest, keep going, hypothermia...
When I got there my friend I was going to see wasn't in and I had to walk all the way back, in a blizzard. I got back in the early hours of the morning, shook all the snow off me and got in my sleeping bag, I was scared to go to sleep as I kept thinking this is how people die in cold places, they got to sleep and never wake up.
But obviously I did.
: )
Flipping heck, bubblegum. I read that and cried!
I had enough problems driving back to Llangefni from Carmel (Llanerchymedd - the in-laws live there) on New Year's day in the snow.
It was a difficult winter in 1986. Really, it's when I should have left my marriage, as things weren't really acceptable then...
Hindsight is a wonderful thing.....
Cold weather payments appear to be kicking in now, I dont receive them but we always check to let other people know it will be coming for them.
It is absolutely freezing here tonight, they did say it would be -10 and it feels like they were right.
Yes there has been a report on the local radio here that one of the rural areas is recording minus 16.
Cold weather payments here too but of course, only for those with under-fives or with a disability premium for child or adult. Shame, I think anyone on a low income should get it.
I think everyone should too...
Me too. What I don't understand is, two elderly people living in same house, and they each receive a payment????
Hi
I have just read this and thought it might be of interest, yet another attack on the less well off!
The Warm Front scheme is a bit of a victim of its own success. More people have been able to apply and they publicied it widely. Hope that it is continued come April
A lot wasn't means tested. My friends, she was 60 last year and has had the house insulated. While I know this year has been very difficult for them (and still not good), last year the business did really well...
I really don't see how the people who need it can be reached without others thinking 'well if they can have it, I want it too'.
About time too! At last an official food parcel scheme is put in place. They are going to pilot it in a couple of areas to start with. It should be nationwide immediately in my view, and more food banks set up to support it. See here
That's a useful site Louise. Just checked my postcode, but unfortunately not. Will keep trying throughout the winter though