Off the Wagon
My not-going-to-worry-about-frugality-post-partum bills have started to arrive and they’re giving me a good idea of how much we had been saving. Our water bill went from 13 to 32 dollars, and our electricity bill rose from 137 to 212 dollars.
Mom2fur said,
May 24, 2006 @ 3:18 pm
Well, now you can have fun getting back on the frugal track again, LOL! Those bills might just have gone up anyway. Our local power company shocked everyone (pun not intended) with a 25% surcharge. I kid you not–my electricity bill hit almost $500 one month. Needless to say…I’m constantly turning off lights and other power wasters.
Jenn said,
May 24, 2006 @ 6:05 pm
Well, it isn’t how you’d like it to happen, but it has helped you see that all the things you were doing DO help. And you can console yourself by thinking about all the money you have saved over the years.
And with a newborn in the house, I think you should cut yourself some slack. . .
Marilyn said,
May 26, 2006 @ 10:55 am
Mom2fur, I can beat you. We’re getting a 72% increase on electrical rates on July 1. In 1999, our BRILLIANT, overwhelmingly Democratic state legislature voted to deregulate electricity in Maryland BUT at the insistence of the then-governor (also a Democrat), they capped electrical rates until 7/1/06 and, better yet, capped them at 1993 rates! Now the same Democrats are trying to say that the increase is the fault of the power company and our Republican governor, who was in the U.S. Congress at the time. He’s up for re-election and they are terrified he will be re-elected (you should see how they’ve jerry-rigged the voting this year - early voting, yes, but only is precincts that they selected that are overwhelmingly Democrat, that kind of thing). A plan was passed by the Public Service Commission to allow for a phase-in of the new rate over 3 years if you wanted it. The Mayor of Baltimore, who is also running for governor this year, has filed a lawsuite that has so far prevented the power company from doing any advertising to let people know about the plan. I presume that come July 1 he’ll come out and claim that the power company didn’t let people in on the plan - well, yeah, you jerk, you prevented it! Fun, fun, fun!
Terri, you’ll get back on the frugality bandwagon, don’t worry. Infants have a way of disrupting everything for a bit; however, you’re committed to this lifestyle so you’ll be back to it. If you think about what you still do, you’ll be amazed to realize how many of the money-saving things you do are so ingrained that you don’t even think about them - it’s just natural now.
P.S. For my first paragraph, I apologize if I insulted any Democrats. I know Republicans have their shenanigans in other states; it just happens that Democrats have been in power for so long in Maryland that they are the ones who are pulling the dirty tricks here.