Obviously, do the weather proofing plastic and seals for windows and doors. It helps to fill the space between window and plastic with packing peanuts on windows that don’t face the sun. On the sunny sides of the house, cut a piece of cardboard to fit the window, wrap it in foil, and paint the foil black. Then set it inside the window, this catches and intensifies the heat from the sun during the day.

At night, we all slept in one room. We slept in sleeping bags, which are designed to hold in your body heat. We used one space heater, which helped a little even though all the bedrooms had really high ceilings. We closed the door and wedged a foam camping pad against it to keep the heat from escaping around the cracks.

In the morning, it was usually down below 40 degrees in the rest of the house. My husband would get up, move the space heater to the kitchen, and cook a good breakfast to warm up the kitchen. Then we would set the oven to broil and leave the door open to generate enough heat to make it to the other downstairs rooms.

To generate heat throughout the day, we disconnected the hose that vented the dryer to the outside so that the hot air would come into the house. With the kids and using cloth diapers for the baby, I always had something to wash then dry, and if I ran out I would just wash blankets without any soap. They make a filter for this purpose that you can route the hose through it and it uses water to filter the lint out and moisturize the air at the same time, but we didn’t have it so I don’t know what it’s called or how much it cost.

We were also lucky enough to have a fireplace, but it was in the draftiest room of the house–it was on the end and had 6 old, ill fitting windows, so it wasn’t good for heating more than just that room.

I hope these tips help someone!

This kinda fits in to what you’re talking about – I bought a fuel conditioner for my home hot water heater and another for my furnace last year from the guy at http://www.SaveMoneyOnHomeHeating.com

It saved me about 14% last year, which in my home was more than the cost of the products. I live in a very inefficient home, and this thing lasts forever. It’s guaranteed to work and my brother had one, so I have it a try. I put it on in about 10 minutes.

Anyways, keep up the good writing frugaldad!

JW

Plug all the cracks in your windows with putty!
Put something to keep the drafts out under the door(s). Put up heavy curtain to shield you from the cold. Consider black paper on some windows facing the sun to absorb heat. Close down some rooms and don’t heat the bedrooms at night…

I also had a kerosene heater when I was a student in London and it worked great.

Our utility does have a fund to assist those in need. But I hope that the people they help are truly in need and just don’t want to cancel their cable or cell phone to pay for heat. That’s what drives me nuts.

Me? I keep our heat at 60 at night and when we’re out. When we’re home, it doesn’t go above 64.

I guess that if you contact the company and you offer an alternative way to pay them back (smaller payment with a payback payment plan), they might give you a second chance.

Worst thing to do would be to ignore or avoid their calls and written notices. Creditors hate to be ignored and are much faster to react when goodwill is not shown in the first place.

I figure tho if people have money for cigarettes and booze and fake fingernails etc, then they should have the money to pay the electric bill… one would think so anyway. That is not a comment to those who really cannot pay the bill tho and already do without those things and many others.

I’d love solar – but it has to come down a long long way to make me want to trade in my $40/month average electric bill for a solar panel payment. But sometime in my older age, it would be nice not to have to hustle for firewood the 3 or 4 days a month I usually spend doing that. Right now I just consider it my exercise time