My mother got through the Big Freeze of 1963 on a pension and a larder. The warm, ready house was never the one with the dearest kit — it was the one that knew what to buy, where, and for how much.

If you came here from the link in the description, the pinned comment or the square on screen in one of my shop videos — this is the book I was talking about. In the videos I call it my shop list. Its full name is Frank's Make-Do Manual: what to buy in which British shop, what it should cost, how to use it — and how to cut the bills that keep landing on the mat. No gadgets. Just the cheap, boring things that work, in the right order.

By Frank Miller — Army veteran, thirty years in uniform  |  Prices checked: November 2026

You know me from the videos. B&Q, Argos, Aldi, Screwfix — I've walked you round half the high street showing you what to stockpile before a winter blackout. Plenty of you wrote in to say "Frank, B&Q's never got it in stock, try Toolstation". You were right. And plenty more asked the same question: "Where's the whole list, with the prices, so I can take it to the shop?"

This is it. And while I was writing it down, I realised something my mother knew without ever saying it: the things that keep you warm in a power cut are the same things that cut your bill every other week of the year. She never called it prepping. She never called it saving money either. She called it common sense.

Or read my full case below first. Four minutes. The book costs the same afterwards.

The comfort trade (and why it keeps you cold and skint)

Every October the adverts start. A plug-in box that "cuts your bill by a third". A "miracle" eco heater. A £200 smart gadget to save you £20. A survival bundle for the winter that's coming. I call it the comfort trade — and I'll tell you as an old soldier what's wrong with it:

Nobody makes a penny teaching you to need less.

So nobody teaches it. The energy company sells units. The gadget firm sells gadgets. The shop sells whatever's on the end of the aisle the morning after the storm warning. Meanwhile, here's what quietly leaks out of an ordinary British house, year after year:

• Heating the whole house to sit in one chair — a few pounds an evening on gas, when a heated throw costs about 3 to 4p an hour and a hot water bottle about 4p a fill. Over a hundred winter evenings, that's £200 or more.
• Draughts round the doors and windows — the Energy Saving Trust puts draught-proofing at around £45 a year off a typical bill. The strip to do it costs about eleven quid.
• Things on standby — Age UK has put the cost at £45 to £80 a year for an ordinary household. A switch on the wall fixes it for nothing.
• The tumble dryer twice a week — over a pound a load at this winter's prices. That's £120 a year for something an airer does for free.
• The plug-in "energy saver" and the "miracle" heater — money for nothing. Every plug-in heater turns one unit of electricity into one unit of heat, whatever the box says.
• The storm price — torches, batteries and gas bought the morning after the forecast, when the shelves are bare and everything online has gone up.

Add the first four up and an ordinary house loses well over £400 a year — before you've bought a single gadget. If that sounds familiar, hear me out: it's not your fault. Nobody ever showed you. My mother showed me, and I've put it in a book.

You don't save money with a cleverer gadget. You save it with fewer things that need switching on.

Here's what that looks like in one ordinary front room, on a cold night — before, and after doing the warm-room chapter:

Heating the bricks

Heating the people

Same front room. Left: the heat goes out through the gaps and the glass, and everyone ends up in coats anyway. Right: door curtain drawn, draughts sealed, foil behind the radiator, one warm room. No new boiler. About £50 of kit and a Saturday.

The only money-savers who ever had the real thing

In the war the government had a name for it: Make Do and Mend. Waste nothing. Fix what you have. Buy only what earns its place. Our grandparents got through rationing — it was 1954 before the last of it went — the Big Freeze of '63 and the three-day week of '74, with no central heating, no freezer and no gadgets. Not because they were tougher than us. Because they knew things we've been talked out of.

Frank's Make-Do Manual is that common sense, brought up to date with what's on the shelves at Toolstation, Screwfix, Aldi, B&M and Argos in 2026. Eight parts, each one tried in my own house:

• 🛒 The Cheap Kit — three ready-made shopping lists, about £50, £150 and £300, with the shop and the price for every item. Plus which shop for what, honestly — and where not to bother.
• 🔥 Warm the Person, Not the House — the candle test for draughts, window film, radiator foil, and the one warm room we lived in during the Big Freeze.
• 🥫 The Wartime Larder — the £25 cupboard that does two weeks of meals, and how my mother never once paid full price in a panic.
• 💷 The Bills — how to read yours like an accountant, what every appliance really costs to run this winter, the "vampires", and the water bill nobody questions.
• 🔧 Mend It Yourself — bleeding radiators, boiler pressure, the frozen condensate pipe, the stopcock and the dripping tap. The jobs that cost a call-out on a frosty morning.
• 📅 The Calendar — when to buy each thing (the camping clearance in August, the throws in January) and when to do each job.
• 🚫 Don't Buy This — the ten things I'd never spend a penny on, from plug-in "savers" to doorstep energy deals.
• 🕯 When the Lights Go Out — the first hour, the 72-hour plan, and the fridge-door card with every number you'll need.

And here's the line the comfort trade will never say, because there's no repeat sale in it: none of these works on its own. Foil behind a radiator in a draughty room heats the draught. A heated throw in a house with no plan for a power cut is a cold blanket by teatime. It's the order that does it — seal first, then heat, then stock, then plan. Order beats kit. That held for thirty years in uniform, and it holds in your kitchen.

Power cut, no plan

Power cut, Make-Do

Same kitchen, two power cuts. Left: one phone torch, a fridge nobody dares open, and the boiler dead because it needs electricity. Right: the lantern from Kit B, the flask filled the night before, the kettle on a stove used by the rules in the book. Nothing in there cost more than £35.

What this looks like in an ordinary home

You don't need a new boiler, solar panels or a handyman on speed-dial. Most readers have a terrace or a flat, a pension, and not much patience for faff. What changes is smaller and quieter than you'd think.

The draughts get found in ten minutes — with a tealight. Walk it round every door, window and the loft hatch on a windy day. Where the flame leans, there's money going out. Rubber strip, a letterbox brush, a draught snake — about twenty quid for the whole house.

The shop stops being a panic. When the storm's named, everybody has the same idea on the same afternoon. The Make-Do house bought its torches in the August clearance and its tins two at a time, on offer.

The storm price

Bought in September

Same afternoon, two households. Left: the bread aisle and the battery shelf six hours before the storm. Right: the £25 cupboard from Part 3, filled a couple of tins a week since the summer.

And the bill gets read, not just paid. Four numbers on it, one letter "E" to look for, a meter reading on the day the price cap changes. Most people never check — and most people are overpaying for something.

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Let's talk money — straight

Here's the comfort trade one more time, next to what the Make-Do way costs:

The book isn't competing with nothing. It's competing with the leaks you're already paying for — and with every winter you put off sealing them.

Get Frank's Make-Do Manual

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Instant download through the secure checkout — on your phone in two minutes:

• 📕 Frank's Make-Do Manual (43 pages) — the cheap kit · warm the person · the wartime larder · the bills · mend it yourself · the calendar · don't buy this · when the lights go out (£47 value)
• 🎁 FREE: Frank's Pocket Shop List — 13 UK shops, 70+ fair prices and four cut-out wallet cards to carry to the shop (£9 value)
• 🎁 FREE: The Penny Larder Cookbook — 34 ration-era recipes, most under £1 a portion, five you can eat with the power off (£17 value)
• 🎁 FREE: The Help Nobody Tells You About — Pension Credit, winter payments, the £150 Warm Home Discount and more, with three letters to copy (£19 value)
• 🎁 FREE: The 7-Day Warm House Challenge — one job a day, a before-and-after scoreboard, and a certificate for the fridge (£12 value)
• 🚫 No subscription. No follow-on costs. Nothing comes in the post. You buy the book, the book is yours.

Yes — I want the Make-Do Manual, £19 →

30-day money-back, no ifs or buts Read it. Do the candle test, put the strip on the front door, foil behind one radiator, read your bill. If you don't reckon it's paid for itself within 30 days, you get the full amount back — one email does it. The risk is on me, not on you.

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What you might be wondering…

"Is it a real book? Will it come in the post?"
It's digital — nothing comes through the letterbox. The moment you order, it lands in your email. It opens on your phone, tablet or computer, and you can print it at home as many times as you like. Most people print the shop list, the kit lists and the fridge-door card and keep them in a drawer. That's what I'd do.

"Frank, I'm not handy. Will I manage?"
If you can use sticky tape and a hairdryer, yes. Every job is in steps, with the red-box safety rules alongside — and the book is very clear about the ones that need a Gas Safe engineer or a hand from someone younger. Nothing in it means going near a gas pipe.

"I rent a flat. Is this worth it for me?"
Especially then. Removable draught strip, window film, a door curtain, foil behind the radiator, the warm room, the larder, the bills — none of it needs the landlord's say-so, and all of it comes with you when you move.

"Is this another end-of-the-world book?"
No. It's about the gas bill in February, the storm that takes the power out for a day, and the shop that charges double what the trade counter down the road does. The power-cut part is there because you'll need it some time — but the money part works every week.

"If it's that good — why is it only £19?"
Fair question. The answer's dull: it's a file, not a printed book. No paper, no warehouse, no postage. And I want it in the hands of people on a pension, not just people with money to spare. Try it for thirty days and then decide.

"Why order through your page?"
The price is the same — the button goes to the official secure checkout. Order through it and I earn a commission, and my videos stay free.

"And if it's not for me?"
Thirty days, one email, full money back. You've seen in my videos how I handle a promise: I don't make one I can't keep.

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