Grantham mum who hasn’t put heating on this winter shares weird trick

Vicki can’t afford to keep her home warm, despite a condition that makes it painful to have cold hands

A mum who hasn’t put her heating on all winter has shared her bizarre hack to keep warm while working from home – using a bobble hat as gloves. V

icki Alderman, 58, has kept the heating off for the last three months because she can’t afford the high bills.

She tells the Coventry Telegraph she  has an underlying health condition, an underactive thyroid – which results in her hands getting cold to the point where they hurt. To prevent this, Vicki tried all types of gloves to keep her hands warm when using her computer at home.

Now she puts her computer mouse and pad inside a woolly hat – so she can stay warm. Vicki, a self-employed artist, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, said: “I tried fingerless gloves, thin gloves and thick gloves.

“It’s very hard to type. I would have to take the thick gloves off to type. But thin gloves were not warm enough. I spent a couple of days trying a couple of gloves, but you can’t type when your hands are cold.

“It just came to me, I just tried a woolly hat and it was brilliant. I just posted it thinking it would be quite funny and quite cool – I had no idea it would go so viral.

“So many people really liked the idea. It’s not great but it’s doable. I wrap up and get on with it.

“It’s unpleasant but it’s not an impossible situation.”

Vicki rarely turns on the heating as she has a limited budget of £3-day and is on a key meter meaning she will be without electricity if she uses the heating too much. She received a £300 crisis payment in November 2023 but says it only paid for four hours of heating up until December.

She says the daily electric cost went up from £3 to £9 – for just four hours of heating – and hasn’t turned the radiators on since Christmas. Vicki said: “When I put the heating on for five hours a day it nearly doubled my electric costs. I have a key meter so I’m not able to run up a bill to pay later.

“I’m on a tight budget and have to be careful that I don’t run out of electric so I use the heating very minimally. I’ve had no heating on at all since Christmas. And can not afford to put it on again until I receive next crisis payment, sometime between Feb 6th and 22nd.”