Arghh! Utility bill!
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Arghh! Utility bill!
| Thu, 01-26-2006 - 10:06pm |
Hi,
Yikes, I just got our utilty bill -- gas and electric -- it has tripled!!!! $179.00
Unbelievable. We heat the house with wood!! We were warned that the utility bill would go up because of Katrina, but this is just awful. I really don't know what else to do -- I am always on the folks in the house to turn off lights -- and I'm washing everything with cold water. What do I do now? My husband thinks we should get everyone little headlamps to wear. I don't know. This is just an awful lot for me to pay. Dang.
Any suggestions????
Megan
Yikes, I just got our utilty bill -- gas and electric -- it has tripled!!!! $179.00
Unbelievable. We heat the house with wood!! We were warned that the utility bill would go up because of Katrina, but this is just awful. I really don't know what else to do -- I am always on the folks in the house to turn off lights -- and I'm washing everything with cold water. What do I do now? My husband thinks we should get everyone little headlamps to wear. I don't know. This is just an awful lot for me to pay. Dang.
Any suggestions????
Megan

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Maybe you can contact your energy company and see if they have any suggestions. Or do an Internet search for $-saving tips.
I wish I could help! HUGS! I know this stinks for all of us, right now. Even my gas "budget" is double what it was a year ago.
~Aravis~
Oh, I just posted about how excited I am to get the bill down!! Now I feel bad! :-(
But seriously, I would LOVE to have a bill less than $200!! Our house is teeny and on a crawl -- last month our bill was almost $350!
The only suggestions I have are: Have you been unplugging unused appliances? Running the dryer only as long as absolutely necessary? Limiting time in the shower? Keeping the heat as low as possible? Those are the first things that I try to stay on top of.
I hope you can find a way to cut that bill back -- I know how much paying a big ol' chunk of money like that hurts!!
Amy K.
I am trying to get my DH to turn down the temperature on the hot water heater -- he keeps it too high. I need some magic wand to turn off lights when there is no one in the room!!
And -- how do I get the men in the house (grown son, cousin, husband) to use their bath towel more than once. I think drying towels is part of the problem (That and the too hot water.)
Megan
Here's a few things I do....you may do all of these or may not want to do any but here goes.....
1. I line dry 90% of my clothes even in winter. The previous owners kindly left a hanging bar in the basement laundry room but you could also rig one up. Hanging clothes on that and 1 additional clothes rack usually handles a load. You could also start doing this on your shower curtain if the clothes aren't too heavy.
2. I have a gym membership and shower there after a workout. Since I'm a SAHM and can time my showers this usually means I shower at home 1-2 times a week instead of every day. I also shower every other day unless I'm doing something particularly sweaty. Keeping the thermostat at 65 means that doesn't happen as often!
3. I turn the computer off at night and the whole TV/DVD player entertainment zone as well.
4. I'm trying to teach myself set times to do light checks. For example, right before we sit down for dinner is a great time to go through and turn off all the lights (since the rest of my family apparentely does not recognize that the switch also goes downward not just up).
5. We've switched the closet lights and some bedroom lights to florescents.
6. If you have space in your freezer/refrigerator filling it with water jugs will cause it to use less energy.
That's all I can think of off-hand. I also put plastic over the windows and have those silver hiking blankets in the office (windows around 3 sides of the room) but that's more for the heating thing.
taleyna
Thanks for the ideas. I think some of the problem is drying the clothes and the hot water heater being set too high. My husband says he will reset it tomorrow -- and maybe get a blanket for the hot water heater. I wonder if the dryer isn't a lot of the problem -- my husband says we might need a new one -- it takes way too long to dry things. But I think the line drying would work for us too -- plus a few minutes in the (hopefully working) dryer to soften things. This was just such a shock -- not used to these bills in Calif.
Megan
My Dh doesn't go for this idea all the time, but when he's traveling, my son and I do this a lot. Instead of my son going into his room to watch DVDs on his TV and Me going into my room to watch TV before bed, I pull out all our board games and stack them right up next to the dining room table. Then I light a lot of dollar store candles on the table, and make a fun snack, and the two of us have Game Night. The candles last a long time, and it gives us more than enough light to play games by. My son likes to imagine that our house is a big Cave, and that's why it's so dark, and he gets to go "exploring" with me and we pretend that we see bears and things in the rooms also. Granted, the "cave exploring" idea might not work if your children are older. My son is still a little guy and he seems to live in the world of imagination. :-D
Whether Dh is home or not, though, we do limit showers and baths. Not in frequency, but in time. For our son, we set a timer, and he has to get into the shower, wash himself, and get out by the time the timer dings. We do the same for ourselves. Reason being that, half asleep, and under the nice warm water, each of us could stay in the shower until the hot water was gone. LOL! :-D
Pat :-D
Hi Megan - here's an article that discusses some ideas about how to reduce utility bills:
http://www.accuratebuilding.com/publications/family_circle/home_energy_saving_guide_circle1984.pdf
Sounds like the water heater could definitely be one of the biggies!
Danni
cl-phocid, Debt Support Group
All my best,
Danni
You've gotten lots of great ideas! Another suggestion is to invest in a programmable thermostat if you would use it. We keep the temperature at 68 most of the time, but a little higher in the evenings (dh works in an office where the temp is always around 78, so his body just isn't used to the lower temps, and is very uncomfortable at 68). Then when we go to bed, it goes down to 60 (and we just bundle up). You can also set most programmable thermostats to circulate the air even when it's not heating, so warm area in one part of the house gets distributed through the whole house. I believe a new thermostat of this sort is less than $50.
Good luck! I wish I could say our bill is low, but we're actually fighting the utility company right now because we believe the recalibrated our meter wrong and overcharged us (immensely) last month. They are arguing with us about it, and I'm frankly pretty annoyed with them.
Anyway, hope something helps you!
Blessings,
Heather
The link is http://www.betterbudgeting.com/articles/money/savingonpower.htm.
I hope that you can find some ways to save. I know it doesn't help pay the bills, but there are a lot of people who are in your same predicament.
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