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.
Got a call bright and early this morning from our garbage collection company saying that haven’t received a payment … since November. *boggle*
OK, they only bill once every three months, so that’s only two missing payments. But, yow! What’s going on? I’ve paid the bills online [via Chase], and they’re debiting the money from my account. [And I’ve been paying them without a problem this way for 3 years.] The payment history makes it look as if everything is fine. The only difference I can see, and I’m not even sure what it means yet, is that on all other payments that have gone out, they have links next to them that say “See” and “Send Inquiry” — and on the garbage bills, they just say “See.”
Hmm. Well, I’ve got a call out. Let’s see what happens.
Mapgirl had a post recently about surging electricity costs, and why they are likely to get even worse in the near future.
I mentioned in a comment that I have been on a slash and burn mission to reduce our electricity bill here, so even while the rates are going up, our bill has been going down. Only slightly compared to all of the cuts I’ve made, though, as I mentioned, it’s still better than a poke in the eye.
What have I done?
First: we don’t use the dryer anymore. Maybe once a month, but I can’t even remember the last time I’ve used it, so it’s now even less than that. Andrew put up three retractable clotheslines for me on the deck, under the awning, so I don’t have to worry about rain. If it’s too humid outside, I use those folding accordion-style drying racks in the house. In fact, during the winter when the heat is on, I use those up in the bedroom at night to help raise the humidity while we’re sleeping without having to power a humidifier.
Second: Minimizing heat and AC usage. I’m making judicious use of shades, windows, fans, turning the lights off, not using the oven as often [or using it first thing in the morning while it’s still cool], and dressing appropriately. And shaving the dogs when it gets hot.
Third: I’ve become a light and appliance nazi. I used to keep lights on all over the house because I am skittish and paranoid and don’t like walking into dark areas. And I like brightly lit rooms. But I’ve been slowly acclimating myself away from that. I’ve also been getting better at unplugging things that are not being used rather than keeping them in standby mode, but I could be better at this.
That’s all the low hanging fruit, but so far it’s really paid off for us. If the rates keep rising, I’ll have to start doing the slightly more difficult stuff.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I need to try to find a way to cut another 1/3 off our budget. I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to do this, since it doesn’t seem to be possible. I take some comfort in the fact that the extra money out of our budget is ESPP, and we’re basically doing a buy and then turnaround right away and sell for the 15%, but there’s a six month lag to get it back. And I don’t want to dip into savings during that time or significantly reduce new savings, either.
This weekend, I planned our menus for the next three weeks with an eye on both money and health. I could get our food budget down farther if we didn’t eat quite so much produce [especially in the middle of winter], but that’s a choice we don’t want to make. We’re in the planning stages for a vegetable garden in the back, but with a toddler and another little one due in late April, it’s going to be tough for me to get one started this year.
So, my grocery bill was 60 dollars this week, and that was including some unnecessary snacks, like ice cream and cones and yogurt raisins. So I think I did pretty darn good.
My next mini-task is to ensure that my husband remembers to take his packed lunch with him every day. Every time he forgets, that’s 7-10 dollars at the taco stand, or Audrey and I driving it out to him. Little notes seem to help, but not always.
So, after a good month or so of being really tight with money, I’ve spent more money in the last couple of days than the last 2 months. [Save for bills, of course.] Admittedly, it was stuff we had been planning to buy for some time, but actually pulling the trigger on most of it at one time felt weird. But this is good! This means that I’ve definitely turned that corner from buying things giving me a rush to buying things giving me the heebeejeebees.
A major part of this little mini-spree was getting hard plastic pantry containers for, well, just about everything. I’ve been battling a moth problem in the pantry for some time, and they were winning. These are some pretty tenacious Texas moths that have chewed through just about everything that I have wrapped or sealed my pantry items in. They chew through boxes, through freezer bags, thin plastic, you name it. I don’t think they’ll be able to chew through the containers that I bought today, though.
So Audrey and I spent the afternoon going through our pantry, chunking what’s already been infested and repackaging the rest. I now have a lot of empty space in the pantry. Heh.