First off every fall I cover all the windows with plastic to help cut the cold air from coming. I also have mini blinds and heavy curtains over all the windows. When temps get really low like they have been this month we all wear thermal underwear under our clothes. They really help us. We also dress in layers so that we can take off or add things as we need them.
Back in 2007 I bought 6 extension rods of various sizes. On really cold days I put them in all the doorways with out doors and hang heavy blankets on them. You will want heavy rods for this not the cheap ones. One rod goes in the doorway between the living room and den, one goes in the doorway between the kitchen and dining room, one goes between the hall way and the kitchen, one goes in the laundry room doorway and the last one goes in front of the upstairs stair case.
I have curtain rods hung over all outside doors, These have to be attached above the doors since there is no opening to put them in. I hang heavy quits on these using cafe curtain clips so the quilts can be slid back and forward to give access to the doors. We keep the doors to all the bedrooms and the two bathrooms closed at all times. Our one bathroom does get pretty cold when we keep the door closed but not cold enough for the pipes to freeze. I keep a small electric heater in there to heat the bathroom when we take as shower. It is kept well away from the shower.
My kitchen which is on the north side of the house is another room that gets really cold. I have a 3 foot long electric heater with a temp gauge in it. I keep it set at 65 degrees and only turn it on in the morning when I first get up and again when I am ready to start cooking a meal. Once I start cooking I turn the heater off because the stove warms up the kitchen while I am cooking.
Also on the bottoms of all outside doors I have those draft dodgers that go on the bottom of the doors. They are made out of cloth and have a round piece of foam that goes on each side of the bottom of the door. I am sure you have seen them advertised on tv. They do help a lot.
We wood floors. I do not like carpet. Since the north side of our house in on a crawlspace the floors can get pretty cold. Any place I have to stand for any period of time I place throw rugs down on in the winter time. Like the stove, the kitchen sink and the bathroom stool.
I place nice warm throws and small quilts on all the living room furniture. We keep our heat set on 65 during the day and 58 at night. We cuddle up in the throws when we are sitting around reading or watching tv. Plus each of the guys have a Snuggie that they can use. I have a throw that can be turned in to a robe and I wear it at night while I am on the computer. I like it because it allows me to still do anything I need to do without taking it off.
These simple things allow us to keep our thermostat down, save on the heat bill and yet still stay comfortably warm no matter how cold it gets outside.
The first year I did this I saved over a $100 on our heat bill that much. I was paid back that very first month for the expense of the curtain rods and the clips. When we sit down the following summer and figured out how much we paid for heat against how much we had paid the winter of 2006 we had a total saving of over $800. Now I can not say that you will save that much but you will see a good amount of savings.
In 2010 we had our house winterized plus we got a new energy star furnace. The following winter I did not put up the rods and blankets. Our house stayed pretty warm but still since we were having a hard winter the heat bill was starting to climb more than I wanted. It didn't climb any where near as high as it had in the past but I had gotten to the point that I loved the saving the rods and blankets had given me in the past so I put them back up. I put them up every winter now and they really help keep the house warmer and keep our heat bill down. I love it!
Prepping Granny