Joe Harker
As we get closer to the end of the year and it gets colder day by day, a lot of people are being faced with the difficult dilemma of whether to put on the heating or not.
It's no fun living in a freezing cold house, but even worse is living in one where you can't afford to stick the heating on because bills have been going up so much.
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The sad reality is many people are facing this exact choice this winter, so for those who can't afford to heat their homes it might be helpful to learn some heating hacks which could keep things a little bit warmer this winter.
Any advice on how to cut down on heating bills is going to be welcome, and one woman who lives in a very cold part of the world revealed a trick to help keep the heat in and bills down.
TikToker @shay_creates explained that living in Minnesota means it gets very cold over the winter, and she's developed a useful tip for keeping the heat in during the chilly months.
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The average temperature in Minnesota during the winter months of December, January and February are below freezing, with the US state being bombarded by snow, sleet and freezing rain during the colder months.
This is thanks to cold polar air pushing down from Canada, which makes conditions positively arctic and very difficult to cope with.
According to tripsavvy, the Minnesota city of International Falls is the sixth coldest city in the world during the winter months with an average January temperature of -15C.
Shay explained that her family used a kit with a plastic sheet they could tape over their windows to keep things a little bit warmer during these tough months.
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By taping a plastic sheet over the window and using a hairdryer to smooth out the wrinkles she demonstrated how you can get a better insulated home without blocking up your own windows to do it.
She then cut the excess plastic around the edges so that you 'couldn't even tell there was plastic on it', showing what it looked like when they'd finished the job it honestly looks pretty good and could be a handy heating hack to stave off the worst of the cold.
The science-y bit here is making sure you use a hairdryer to properly seal the plastic around your window frame to block any cold air from seeping in, or warmer air leaking out.
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When the alternative to finding ways to keep the heat in at home is spending most of the day somewhere warmer and being out of the house as little as possible, it's good to know there are some things you can do to make things a little bit more bearable.
There are so many tragic stories already of families struggling to keep up with the costs of heating because bills are going up so much.
Others are developing their own hacks to try and save as much money as possible this grim winter.