Finding ways to stay warm during the winter is never easy, especially with rising energy costs. Now more than ever, keeping heating bills low is crucial.

On Reddit, a user shared frugal advice from their single mom about keeping a home warm during brutal Michigan winters on a tight budget.

"I currently live and grew up in mid Michigan with a very frugal single mother of 3 kids," user KookyUnderstanding65 explained. "We had a 100 year old house with terrible insulation. We learned a few tricks for staying warm on a budget over the years. ... It was tough for a while, but we always made it through."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

These are six frugal ways the Reddit user's mom kept their family warm during the winter:

"You can get it from consumers energy for a steep discount or sometimes for free. It's ugly and a pain but it makes all the difference on a drafty window! Still chilly? Hang a blanket over the window for extra insulation!"

"Freezing pipes? Grab a hair dryer! Legit. Can't tell you how many cold mornings I spent in the basement warming the pipes with a hairdryer lol. May not be the most energy effective but at least we didn't have to run out and buy anything new. Hairdryer was free and available!"

"After you're done baking something, leave the oven door open to allow the residual heat into your home. It's not advised to do this with the oven on and you should never attempt to heat your home with a stove or cooking device."

"Roll blankets or towels and set them at the bottom of doors to reduce drafts (on exterior doors and between rooms that you're not in/trying not to fully heat)."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

"During the day, try to keep everyone to one room that's the most heated. Do activities that help keep warm (like jumping jack or push up contests. Probably the only time my mom intentionally riled up three kids). If needed, sleep in the same room. Mom made this fun by saying we were 'camping in the living room'. We'd grab every blanket in the house and all cuddle up together on the living room rug. Easier to heat one room and more warm bodies to cuddle!"

"When there's nowhere else to turn, ask for help. If you're backed against a wall, reach out to someone or community programs. Everyone deserves warmth and safety. There's absolutely no shame in keeping yourself and/or your family safe."

Love, Dad

Fellow Michiganders and frugal readers offered their advice on how to heat a home during the winter:

"I like to keep a big pan of water on to boil periodically. Helps add heat and moisture when the house gets dry." - alohamora19

"If you can't afford the film for windows, buy painter's plastic from Menards, Lowe's, or Home Depot. Per foot it's cheaper and you can get several winter's with in a single purchase. Use painter's tape, blue papery tape, to hold the plastic up right ripping the paint off your walls. Still be careful removing it, don't just yank it. If you have unused exterior doors seal them completely with plastic and tape." - mesoterra

"On the coldest days I like to walk around and figure out where drafts are coming in. I found one on our sliding door last year and yesterday found a gap between the mantle/wall that seemed to be allowing cold air in. A little bit of foam or replacing seals can make a huge difference and it's a permanent improvement." - HonestOtterTravel

"You can also place a tent on top of your mattress and sleep inside. It stays quite warm. No-frills tents are relatively inexpensive." - SomethingHasGotToGiv

What creatures have eight legs, nine brains, and dozens of fun and fascinating facts about them? Octopuses, of course. (Wait, is octopuses or octopi? Octopodes, perhaps?)

However interesting we think our suction-cupped, cephalopodic friends are, we're probably selling them short. That's the contention of Sarah, a comedic content creator on TikTok who's been sharing everything she's learned about octopuses, because they're far more bizarre than we might think.

"However impressed or fascinated you are by octopuses, it's honestly probably not enough," she says. "We are severely underreacting to octopuses collectively."

Once you see her video, it's clear she's not wrong.

Octopuses are fascinating and I DO want to hold a tiny guy if possible just putting that out in to the universe 😬🐙#creatorsearchinsights #octopus #weirdanimals #animalfacts #didyouknow

With a hilariously understated sense of humor, Sarah shares facts like the idea that octopuses don't have tentacles, as many of us have been led to believe, but arms instead. Tentacles have suckers only at the end, while an octopus's arms have them from top to bottom.

"They decorate their front yards with shells and other shiny things they find in the ocean," Sarah says, adding, "I wonder if they judge other octopuses for how they decorate their front yard. Like, is there an octopus HOA?"

Sarah points out that The Beatles' song "Octopus's Garden" was inspired by this delightful fact.

Many of us know that octopuses are smart, but we may not know that they have a brain in each arm in addition to the brain in their heads, which is shaped like a donut. They can solve mazes and complete tricky tasks. And if their beak can fit through a hole, so can their whole body.

"So a fully grown giant Pacific octopus, which can literally be 30 feet long, can fit through a hole the size of a lemon," says Sarah. "And I don't care for that, particularly. I would never say that to an octopus's face because, evidently, they can recognize us, which I find unsettling. Note to self: Do not be mean to an octopus."

Because each arm has its own brain, it can operate independently, complete with its own sensory system.

Each of those arms has its own brain?Photo credit: Canva

"I feel like they're smarter than us," Sarah says. "Are we confident they're not smarter than us? For instance, they will prank their prey. You know the joke where like old men will tap you on one shoulder, but surprise, they're at the other shoulder? Octopus do that. If they're hunting a shrimp, they'll tap it on the faraway shoulder so the shrimp runs directly into them. Like, 'gotcha!' I don't want octopus to do gotcha."

On a positive note, Sarah shows some examples of exquisitely colorful octopuses, though some of the most "fancy and beautiful" ones are also highly venomous.

That may have been the end of Sarah's video, but she wasn't finished. There's a part two that features blanket octopuses, the female superheroes of the sea. And that's not even the wildest part:

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