You can also close off rooms you’re not using, to keep usage down even further, if you have such things.

Our house is well over a hundred and there are drafts. I’m hoping my hot flashes help me keep warm this winter. That and some well fashioned polar fleece.

What sort of heating do you have? Three years ago I put in gas central heating, and in the beginning of July (ie winter) it broke. Angry? I was in meltdown mode, especially when I found out that the repairman was booked out for 7 weeks. Yes.

I’m guessing Melbourne doesn’t get as cold as where you are (where are you?) but it still gets bloody cold. Luckily a friend had 2 electric heaters, one a radiant and one a blower.

My electricity bill for that quarter was HUGE. I had to have a glass of wine and a lie down….

(Well, any excuse for a glass of wine!) Good luck with your heating bill.

Mice do have good taste. When we moved from an apartment into our last house, we had to store books temporarily, and mice got into them. They only chewed up old, rare, hard to find, sometimes irreplaceable books. The good news was this meant none of mine were eaten, but we lost a few from a collection of Mark Twain that would be very expensive to replace.

Equally painful, I’m sure, when it’s something handmade.

I wear sandals until it’s either snowy (where I used to live – doesn’t snow here) or so ridiculously cold I can’t stand it (probably not happening here either). Nothing wrong with sandals in the winter, if she doesn’t mind.

Good luck on the heating bill.