Unless you can wait for the roads to be cleared every time it snows, you should have good winter tires, preferably on their own wheels for easy installation. You can buy a package from Tire Rack ready to install. Even if you don’t buy from them, their web site has a lot of review information on tires.
With a rear-wheel-drive car, you should add weight to the trunk, keeping it over the axle as much as possible. If you’re using sandbags and you’re particular about keeping your car clean, note that some of the bags will leak a bit of sand over time, so you might want to put them in a second bag of some sort. If the sandbags slide around in your trunk, get one of those rubber gripper mats meant to be put under rugs on hardwood floors. Also be sure to get a full tank of gas before a snowstorm, partly for the extra weight and partly to stay warm if you get stuck somewhere.
If you have any steep hills in your area, getting up them may be a challenge. You need to build up some speed at the bottom of the hill (only if you can do so safely, of course) and then try to keep moving steadily up the hill. You may end up spinning your wheels all the way up, but that’s normal. (Don’t spin them too fast, though.) If you have a stability control system that stops the wheels from spinning, you may need to turn that off temporarily, assuming you can still keep your car safely in your lane. If you get stuck partway up, that’s where the real fun begins, as you’ll probably need to back down, sliding much of the way, when no other traffic is around.
You may not have much experience with your ABS brakes. Don’t let up on the pedal when they kick in.
Always leave extra room between you and the car in front of you, even if the roads seem to be pretty clear. If you come up to a slippery spot, you may need every inch of that extra room to avoid a crash. If the car behind you is tailgating you, leave even more room.
Be aware that bridges are often much more slippery than the rest of the road because they’re colder. Curved bridges are especially dangerous.
Pay more attention to cars approaching on side roads at intersections, especially if they’re going downhill. It’s not uncommon for someone to slide through an intersection into your path, so it helps if you’ve already anticipated that.
The toughest part for a novice winter driver is judging the appropriate speed for the conditions. The generic advice to slow down is really quite vague. In some conditions, like fresh snow on a flat wide-open road, you might go pretty close to the speed limit. In other conditions, like ice on a curve, you might barely go at a crawl. This is something you’ll just have to learn with time.
Make sure you have winter washer fluid in the system, not summer washer fluid.
Make sure you have boots, a hat, and gloves in the car. You might have to walk somewhere if you get stuck.