On the Utility Warpath

When I received my utility bill the other day, I almost had a heart attack. It went from about $150.00 last month to $218.00 this month. When I calmed down, I had to remind myself of the many reasons the bill had to be higher this time:

1. We have one more person living with us this summer. It goes without saying that when you add someone to your residence, your bill will increase.

2. It has been H O T these past few weeks. I don't think the high has dipped below 90 degrees all month.

3. Related to #2, we live in the UPSTAIRS of an older home. Heat rises; there is nothing we can do about that.

4. We just purchased a 5.5 cubic foot deep freezer. It is an older freezer and probably not the most energy-efficient. However, since we paid just $20 for it, I figure it is worth a try.

5. Because it is summer, someone is home nearly all the time. Therefore, the temperature has to stay in a comfortable range. When school starts, no one will be home for 8 hours a day, during which times the air will be set to run less often.

All that said, I am still ON THE WARPATH to lower utility costs. I am going to try some things to get that bill down...

A) I will no longer shave in the shower. When I need to shave, I will do it after my shower by sitting on the edge of the tub, filling a bowl with warm water, and using that water to wet my razor and legs instead of keeping the faucet running.

B) When I do the dishes, I will resist the temptation to run the hot water constantly while washing everything with my sponge wand. While this is more convenient, it wastes water. Instead, I will fill one sink with my soapy water and one with plain warm water for rinsing. I will dip the dishes in the rinse sink instead of turning on the faucet to rinse.

C) I will place a small bottle filled with water in the toilet tank. This will make the toilet use less water with each flush.

My hubby and my dad have nixed this idea. They say our toilet tank is already small and it won't flush properly if I do this.

D) I will wash all of my laundry in cold water except for extra dirty clothes or clothes with stains. I'm a little skeptical of this, but I know plenty of people who do this and they don't stink...so it will probably be okay.

I haven't been brave enough to try washing socks and undies, towels, or sheets in cold yet. We'll see...

E) I am going to try to leave the air on 76 instead of the usual 73 or 74. Instead of turning the thermostat down when we get hot, we will turn on the fan and wear lighter clothing.

This has been absolutely comfortable during the day, but a little hot at night, even with the fan.

F) Before bed every night, I am going to go around the house and turn off my power strips. There is no need for those things to be on all the time.

G) Whenever light bulbs burn out, they will be replaced with fluorescent bulbs (we have been doing this already).

H) I won't use the heated dry setting on the dishwasher.

I) I (read Seth) will change the AC/furnace filter once a month without fail.

J) I will keep gallon jugs of water (ice) in the above-fridge freezer to improve efficiency. There isn't much in it (yet) with the addition of our deep freeze.

K) I will keep lids on any pot I place on the stove whenever possible.

L) I will boil water in the microwave when possible.

I'm not doing really well with this method.

M) I will use the slow cooker instead of the oven whenever possible.

N) I will try to coordinate baking times when I am already using the oven. I can plan this stuff on my 2-week meal plan.

O) I will turn off the lights and TV when I leave a room (unless it's for 5 minutes or less, in which case it wouldn't really matter).

P) I will watch the weather and purposefully open the windows (and turn off the air) when the opportunities arise.

It's been too hot!

Q) I will vacuum the refrigerator coils (I have NEVER done this...).

Haven't gotten to this yet.

R) I will dry our regular clothing (shirts and pants) for 10 minutes and then hang it on hangers on the hanging bar over our washer and dryer. There's really no need to dry these all the way.

This is working fine, although sometimes the t-shirts are a little "crunchy".

S) I will actually pay attention to the itemized portion of our utility bill and place the cost of each on a graph so I can track usage.

Haven't done this yet.

T) We will turn off our computers at night and set the updates to run at some other time (hubby might argue with me on this).

I'm doing this, not sure if hubby is.

Well, I feel like I should finish the alphabet, but I can't think of anything else right now. This is a lot to tackle, so I may have to focus on just a few at a time. How about you finish it for me?

How do you save money on your utility bill?