A few days ago, a true cold spell rolled through our area, taking temperatures down to nearly -20 degrees Fahrenheit. Given that it was also a day where every member of our family had some business out and about, it meant that we were all exposed to the frigid elements.
This post originally appeared on The Simple Dollar .
I don’t mind cold weather, but there comes a point where frigid temperatures become nearly painful to experience, and when you have to go outside for a particular errand, such temperatures are particularly nasty, even when the wind is blowing.
Many people around here respond to this with all kinds of expensive gear and disposable items. Things like remote car starters are wonderful, but some of the best tools I have for combating frigid temperatures and keeping myself warm are very inexpensive. Here are some of the things that my family does to keep the worst of frigid temperatures at bay.
We use reusable hand warmers.
These are just small cloth bags with dried rice inside of them. You can actually make one easily out of a sock by putting some dried rice down in the toe, putting clothespins in place above the rice, then cutting the sock about two inches above that, rolling it down, then sewing that little roll of cloth together.
Then, just microwave the hand warmer on high for about 60 seconds or so and you have yourself a toasty hand warmer that stays nice and warm for a surprisingly long time in your pocket. I often take one of these to bed with me, too, warming one up just before I go to bed and tossing it under the covers with me.
We keep a bottle of homemade de-icer just inside the front door.
Our de-icer is just a container of 70% isopropyl alcohol (bought for a buck at the dollar store) mixed with just a few drops of dish soap and poured into a spray bottle. This mixture does a fantastic job of eliminating ice, even on really cold days. I often start my vehicle and let it heat up to get it warm and let some of the external ice melt, and if there’s any ice left, this spray mixture makes short work of it. Far better than buying a bottle of similar stuff at the store.
We dress in lots of layers of clothing.
As I write this, I’m wearing a t-shirt, covered by a long sleeved t-shirt, covered by a sweatshirt, and a pair of sweatpants covered by jeans. If I were to go outside for very long, I’d probably add another layer to my bottoms. All of the innerwear – the stuff you wouldn’t see in public – is stuff that’s well worn but still keeps me warm, so I don’t have any need to buy a lot of clothes for this. There’s really no need for a special “warm” winter wardrobe.
We open the curtains/blinds on any windows facing direct sunlight, but keep them closed on other windows.
Direct sunlight tends to warm up a room, so we open the curtains on windows with direct sunlight shining upon them to let warmth into those rooms and leave the curtains and blinds closed on other windows. In the northern hemisphere in the winter, where we live, that means opening the curtains on the east and south side of the house in the morning, and on the west and south side of the house in the afternoon and evening, with all curtains drawn in the middle of the day (as the sun is close enough to overhead to provide no major benefits).
We add caulk to any windows that leak cold air, and we add weatherstrips and door stops to any doors that leak cold air.
Cold air leaking through the edges of windows and doors is a great way to lose heat throughout the cold winter months. While no method is perfect, our strategy usually is to identify spots around windows where air is leaking and add caulk in those spots (a very easy task with a caulking gun), and to add a weather strip to any doors to the outside where cold air leaks through the edges. In some cases, we add a bit of clay to the inside of the door frame if a weatherstrip won’t work well, as clay can block a small amount of cold air flow very well. We also use draft blockers (effectively, a small pillow) along the bottoms of some doors as a temporary fix.
We bake a lot of food.
Baking a loaf of bread in the winter is even more cost effective than doing it in the summer, because during the winter months, one can just leave the oven door open afterward and allow the heat to flow out into the house. Thus, during the winter months, we tend to bake a lot more than we do in the summer because the heat actually helps with our energy bill rather than working against it.
We park our cars so that the morning sun hits as much of our windows as possible.
Part of the reality of living in a cold climate is that many mornings find us with ice on the windshields and doors of our cars. One great tip to avoid that problem is to find places to park that start to receive direct sunlight as soon as the sun is over the horizon. This often serves to begin the melting process of ice on the windows, making scraping much easier–if it’s even needed at all.
We keep water in the tea kettle at all times.
Tea and hot chocolate tend to be consumed quite a bit during the winter months in our home. Not only does a hot beverage make you feel much warmer (meaning that you’re not as predisposed to raise the temperature of the home), but the actual act of boiling the water adds additional heat to the home. We make this convenient by keeping water in the tea kettle, as we often use an entire kettle’s worth of water once or twice a day.
We get some indoor exercise.
It’s often easy to think of a northern winter as a “hibernating” time, where people are curled up under blankets to stay warm and not moving around much, but I’ve found that one of the most effective ways to feel warm indoors in the winter is to exercise. Do an exercise routine or some body weight exercises and you’ll feel incredibly toasty. I really like the free daily body weight exercises over at Darebee.
We keep emergency kits with warming items in the car and the house.
Sometimes things don’t go as planned and you find yourself stranded by the roadside or without power, and those situations can cause you to be seriously cold very quickly. Our solution is to have emergency kits in the car and even at home. Those kits have some instant hand warmers in them, some backup warm clothes for everyone, some blankets, a flashlight, some road flares, and so on. We keep these items in a box and load them in our vehicles in the winter months.
We keep blankets out in every room.
Whenever anyone is doing anything that’s sedentary during the winter at our house, they’re wrapped up in a big thick blanket. We have stacks of blankets that we keep in every room, so if you’re going into a room to watch a television show or read a book or play a game, you just grab a blanket and swaddle yourself in it. That way, you’re always nice and toasty.
The big idea here is simple: You don’t have to keep your home thermostat running at 72 degrees Fahrenheit for everyone to feel warm all of the time. Doing so is incredibly expensive, especially when there are so many other simple tactics to use to stay warm during the winter months. Keep that thermostat lower and use some of these tactics instead when the snow is flying and the wind chill is frigid outside.
Good luck!
11 Frugal Ways to Make Frigid Temperatures More Tolerable | The Simple Dollar
Trent Hamm is a personal finance writer at TheSimpleDollar.com. After pulling himself out of his own financial crisis, he founded the site in late 2006 to help others through financially difficult situations; today the site has become a finance, insurance, and retirement resource. Contact Trent at trent AT the simple dollar DOT com; please send site inquiries to inquiries AT the simple dollar DOT com.
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In 2016 Microsoft achieved levels of success it hadn’t seen since the dotcom boom of the late 1990s. Its revenue and earnings have been on a roll this year, and its stock price is hitting new highs as the year comes to an end. It has taken eight years for the company to fully recover from its low points during the last recession that started in 2008. But the company now is as rich and powerful that it has ever been in the IT industry. The Redmond, Washington, software giant now offers enterprises a sprawling suite of Azure services, from basic cloud storage and virtual machine deployments to its promising artificial intelligence and blockchain solutions. Although Amazon Web Service (AWS) continues to dominate the cloud computing market, Microsoft is making strong progress in building out its cloud services portfolio. Rival cloud providers let out a big sigh of relief this year after Microsoft scored a major legal victory against the U. S. government that, at least for now, strengthens the data privacy and residency assurances provided by American cloud companies. Also this year, the Anniversary Update breathed new life into Windows 10 for power users and regular folks alike and signaled an ambitious new approach to developing system software that keeps up with the times.

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Simple vegetable dishes are healthy and bolster any meal, but if you’re tired of the same old steamed or roasted flavors, reach for the mustard. Just a little—to just about any vegetable dish—can transform it beautifully.
A good, grainy mustard adds both a kick of flavor and texture just by mixing a spoonful in. You can use a plain grainy mustard, or step it up a notch with a flavored or spicy one for even more layers. Cook your vegetables as normal, whether you plan to steam, roast, or anything else, then just before serving or packing them up, toss with a little mustard. If you want to tone down the mustard’s tang, also add agave nectar or a touch of honey. This technique is perfect for spicing up dishes like green beans, roasted cauliflower or brussel sprouts, and steamed broccoli.
5 Ways to Use Grainy Mustard to Make Any Dish Pop | The Kitchn
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Is today the day you’re going to start working out more often? Or are you just getting back to what you used to do before all the holiday parties messed with your schedule? Either way, it’s time to get started. We’ve picked out six workouts that are perfect for your first (or second) day back.
Remember, the golden rule of re-starting is to take it easy. Treat yourself like a beginner, and before you know it you’ll be back to your old routine without too much soreness or difficulty.
You probably have an idea of what kind of exercise you’d like to do, so just click on over to the one that works for you:
There are plenty of other great options out there too, but if you haven’t chosen one already, grab the one that fits you best from this list and just do it. Remember, which workout you pick doesn’t matter as much as whether you make good on your promise to yourself to get a workout in.
Photo by Bro. Jeffrey Pioquinto, SJ.

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