We used gas buddy to find the cheapest fuel for the trucks.
I turned off the furnace 3 times and opened the doors to air out the house when it got up to 50 degrees. We now turn the furnace down 2 degrees when going to bed.
We went back over the budget to see if we could find any other place to cut back or cut out completely. We have $500 in medical going out above the cost of our health ins this month. Also I have truck and car tags to get.
I washed clothes in cold water using homemade laundry soap and hung either on drying rack or porch clothes line.
All Christmas lights was turned off Dec 31 at 11 pm. That is the day when our electric bill is read at 11:59 pm by computer. So the holiday lights are only on 1 bill instead of 3 like last year.
We changed 3 nightlights...still LED but light up the rooms better with 1 bulb instead of a dozen.
Hubby installed more air barrier. Still more to go. But we can really tell the difference in the house.
We ate from the pantry and didn't order anything on line or go shopping.
We spent time just resting over the holidays and talking about goals and plans and taking care of our health.
We wrote out what our 2020 goals were and I posted them on the wall at the calendar so we would see them daily.
We batted around thoughts on how to have fresh produce, produce for stocking and the costs of it all. We both understand we need some garden and Hubby now acknowledges he didn't think it would be that much work by putting it in ground where I wanted to stay with square foot gardening for the majority of it.
We also know we have to find a better place to store potatoes and winter squash as the area we used is still too warm (thanks to warmer winter) and we are starting to lose it 3 months before usually. I Will be canning a lot this week.
I washed out 3 plastic bags and the insert to a box of cold cereal that we bought at the discount store for 99 cents.
How did your first week of the new year go?
Blessed Be
2 days ago
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I noticed I have extra each month and I don't want to just fritter it away, so I'm making an effort to put away even more in savings. We're in our retirement now so no more goals in that area. But our son who is living on disability is driving a vehicle that is on borrowed time. Our grandson is putting himself through college and we want to slip him a few bucks on a regular basis to help out.
ReplyDeleteTrying to be careful that no food goes to waste, otherwise our expenses are pretty even. Our utility bills are awful in the summer as we live in the desert, but not to shocking in winter.
Our propane is horrible. I average it out to $300 a month.Electric average $125 the first year here.When I get Dec bill I will see but I think I got it down about $17 a month.EVEN though everything is LED.
ReplyDeleteGood strategies. The weather can really kink plans.
ReplyDeleteAre your utilities about average for your area?
ReplyDeleteActually both our propane provider and our electric company told us we are a third below the average and thought it was weird because the house wasn't as insulated as much as the other homes in the area.
DeleteWe only spent $40 on groceries but had not been to the store for 16 days. We seem to be going through one of those periods where things are wearing out and needing replaced. Thankfully we were able to replace the hose on our Dyson vac for only $20 and it is still going strong. Blow drier cord broke while I was using it this AM. I think I am lucky my hair did not start on fire! We have cut back and cut back until I don't think there is anymore to cut. When I paid bills for the month and did the budget for January I was able to move $500 in surplus funds to the money market account. That means it is there to stay unless there is a dire emergency.
ReplyDeleteI quit using dryer when my daughter caught her hair on fire.
DeleteYikes! This is the second close call for me! But, I have short hair that has to be blow dried.
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