Sunday, February 1, 2009

Husband screaming for us to go GREEN.


We got some lovely bills over the past few week. An especially large gas bill about made my husband go nuts. It was for $288. We are not on the budget and in the summer our gas bills are like $30.00. We thought last months bill was bad..it was around $160.

But since we are on a budgeting system with our money we need to change this. We have had some really cold weather this year with record low temps, so I am sure that is part of it. Our furnace is only 2 years old and we have a digital thermostat. It is set at 70 during the day, but drops to 65 at night. We have new windows in our home as well. Except the basement. We also have a door that leads into our garage that is quite flimsy and I am sure we are losing heat through it as well as under it. It should be an insulated metal door, but it is an interior door. We have insulation in our attic, but could use more.

But all of these fixes take a good bit of money. Rather than pouring any more money into the house we are going to go the conservative route. We are lowering our thermostat to 68 during the day. We have told the kids to layer up. We have wood floors and I swear they make our house feel colder than if we had carpet down. We are limiting the showers and really getting skimpy on the amount of water in our tubs. Things must really smell before the get dumped in the washing pile. We are really trying to conserve electricity as well. My husband constantly walks around the house and tries to unplug anything not being used. Kind of funny to see him on this go green kick.

The other thing he decided to do was to call the gas company and get us on the budget. I think they set it a bit high but it should lower eventually. They are making our monthly bills go to $134.00 This will definitely help, but I will miss the $34 bills that we had last summer.

So do you budget or just pay what is owed?

4 comments:

  1. I just found your blog and am excited, I too am trying to become debt free, I will follow your blog for inspiration. I could use it!

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  2. I just moved a couple of months ago. At the old house, I was on a budget, but since the move I am paying the true amount. I can't decide whether to get on the budget this year and forgo the low summer bills, or to have the cost spread out evenly. I think that the gas company would estimate my budget too high.

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  3. Thanks Mary, I hope I can be an inspiration. Our debts should take a nice nose dive when we get our tax refund. I can't wait to get to a point where I can scream I am CREDIT CARD DEBT FREE! That alone will feel good!

    RTC--they told us that if we pay the 288 the budget would be like 110. But I know that every 6 months they adjust it...so we will pay it for now knowing it will likely drop. I have medical bills that I don't care to owe on (our lovely deductibles) so in order to deal with those this move will be necessary.

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  4. we just pay it - but what I do is my own budget... in lieu of paying them $120 during the summer when I could pay $30 (just like you) we take and budget $100 for summer & set aside the extra $70 that goes into an account so that we can have it when we need it in the winter. But you have to do whatever really works for you. good luck!

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