"Determined"

I labeled this post "Determined" for an important reason. I was and still am determined to bring my utility bill down. I feel we pay entirely too much on our utility bills and there had to be something we, as a family effort, could do about it.

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I first had to make sure this would be something the whole family would be able to do and do consistently. I didn’t want to overwhelm any of us with a drastic change that would not last long.

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Secondly, I called the water department and the electric system. I inquired about how to determine the gallons of water used and the amount of electricity used daily, weekly, and monthly. The folks at both places were more than willing to help me figure out ways of saving. They were full of helpful advice on checking to make sure I am not wasting water in various places.

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Next, I started reading my water meter daily. Actually, I read my meter before and after I done anything in the house that used water. I read it before and after showers, laundry, dishes, supper, ect. Thanks to Beverly at the water department I finally figured out how to read my meter correctly. I determined what used the most water and ways of cutting back. Instead of constantly running the water to rinse dishes, I filled a small tub about half way to rinse the dishes in. I am saving about 20 gallons on each sink full of dishes. Instead of my little boy taking a shower, he now takes a bath. Believe me, he could stay in the shower quiet some time and none of us would even realize he’d been in so long.

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I then focused on my power bill. I automatically knew several ways in which I could save in that area. But, there were things that I had to think about before I started this endeavor. When I was growing up, we had no dryer. I was the eldest of three and had the chore of hanging out clothes. I don’t think there was ever a time that I went to the clothesline and failed to tell myself, “I will never have a clothesline. I will have a dryer. I hate doing laundry. Why don’t they just buy a dryer? I will have a dryer…I will have a dryer… I will have a dryer…” Needless to say, I failed to realize that the reason we had no dryer is because it was the main way of running ones electric bill to an outrageous price for absolutely no reason. I am beyond that now. I still love the ways clothes smell when fresh from the dryer. However, I am also beyond that. I do not use my dryer anymore. I do still have it, but I don’t put it to use. It sits in my laundry room as a folding table and I enjoy saving money by using it as a table instead of a dryer. It has also challenged me to keep my laundry done up daily instead of having a couple laundry days a week. My clothesline is actually draped from pole to pole in the carport, one on each side. I don’t have much space, so that is the reason I must do one load of laundry each day. I do hang my clothes in my room on a rack to keep the freshness of the fabric softener in them.
Surprisingly, as an adult, I love to do laundry. I also love saving my family money.

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Finally, I realized that my a/c could possible be turned up a few degrees and we’d probably never notice. We do have ceiling fans and that is the way we’ve been staying cool. I turned the a/c up to about 79 to 80 degrees. We have only had a few sweltering day that I wished I had left the thermostat alone. However, since my windows are usually up and the doors are normally open there is always a nice breeze blowing through the house. It reminds me of my Nanny’s house when I was small.

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Are you are ready for me to tell you how much money we saved on our bills? Our power bill went from $193.00 last month to $137.00 this month. That’s a savings of $56.00 in only 3 ½ weeks. I could have saved a few more dollars if I had started a week earlier. Our water bill has gone from $80.00 to $58.00. That’s a savings of $22.00. I do plan to keep on and save even more next month.

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I didn’t mentioned the savings we are getting on our phone bill by disconnecting the caller id, the internet by lowering our package, and Direct TV by having it disconnected. I also raised our deductible on our homeowners insurance from $500.00 to $1000.00 and that gave us a savings of $70.00 a month. We have a total monthly savings of $268.00. Now that’s a great job!! I love my sweet hubby and I enjoy making his hard earned money go much further. Oh, we won’t even talk about the money I saved by canning and freezing a ton of produce this summer. That’s for another post.

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Gotta get goin’!!

I don’t want ya’ll (my internet friends) to cause me to get behind on my chores.

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Blessings,

Amanda