reduce my bills

It’s insanely hot outside and I’ve resorted to turning on the AC. Having AC to begin with is kind of a guilt trip for me. Turning it on was really hard, but at this point I have to do it. To get the most comfort for my electricity $ I am inviting friends over every day. If I’m going to cool my whole house at least I can let more people enjoy it.

Now that I’m pretty sure my job is stable and all, I’m thinking about what to do with the money I pulled out of investments when I was laid off. It was serving as an enhanced emergency (in case of unemployment pay the mortgage) fund. I’m thinking I could use it to pay off my student loans! That would majorly reduce my bill-load. Or maybe invest it or continue to save it in hopes of eventually refinancing my house, that could save me even more in the long run, but it probably a few years off at best. Or I could just throw it into retirement, which doesn’t help my current month-to-month situation at all. Or I could put it into repairs on my house and get it fixed up to be rentable sooner rather than later so I can move to an apartment and rent the house out and MAYBE save a little each month.

Big decisions! Can’t decide. I can’t find an online calculator with any of these options, let alone comparing them all. Why does financial advice ignore mid-range loans. All the examples seem to be a 4% mortgage or a 22% credit card as if there was nothing in between.

I got a furnace and heat pump! I can’t wait to get bills for February and March to start seeing the results.

Also I got a shower timer and am shocked by how difficult it is for me to take a 4 minute shower. I think that part of my long shower habit is related to my cold house. When the 1/2 of your body that isn’t under the hot water has goose bumps, its that much harder to turn the water off. Now that I have a furnace I can have heat in the am, so that should help.

It feels so decadent to have the heat on.

Turns out that my gas bill went up because rates went up (and it is winter). I’ve actually used and average of 10% less gas per day this December than last year, despite having 8 days at home that I would normally be at work.

• The recommended settings for programmable thermostats (warm mornings & evenings, cold days & nights) just don’t fit my lifestyle so I’ve changed it. As an efficiency professional _{hehe I can’t believe I can say that} I highly recommend them for people who have a typical schedule, home in the morning and in the evenings and most of the weekends. I however can’t use heat in the mornings and am only home in the evenings and weekends about half the time because I spend a lot of time at my boyfriend’s place or out with friends. So I’ve changed my settings to cold (62) for night, day & evening and colder (58) for mornings due to my hot water situation. Then when I am home I will turn it up and because it’s programmable it turns back off automatically.
• When I do turn it on I never go above 66. Actually I usually just go to 65 and if I’m still chilled there I go to 66. I have 2 super warm wool sweaters that I wear over my clothes around the house.
• I installed a low flow shower head which has made a notable cut in my summertime gas use and I actually haven’t had nearly the hot water issues since I got it.

Improving steps:
Get a shower timer!
Get a furnace!

The gas bill just shot up.
Will try to keep it at 62 through the remainder of the snow-in… starting tomorrow ;)

I think I can finally afford a new furnace which I think will help!

I finally quit the gym! They make it nearly impossible to quit, so I actually didn’t really quit, but I was pro-active in making sure they don’t automatically renew me. And its a good thing I called today too, as it would have automatically renewed on the 21st!

I’m going to cancel netflix and my gym membership.

That hurts. Especially the gym. Hopefully I’ll find a new job before the rainy season and can start up again somewhere else. In the mean time I’ll start getting serious about bike riding.

Now that my bowling league is finished I’m saving $52/month plus the cost of eating out every Monday. Not exactly a bill, but spending less money for sure.

I’m thinking about canceling my TV.
I rarely ever watch it. And lately neither ABC or CBS come in clear enough to watch, so I’m down to only 3 channels that I ever even look at.
I only have limited basic cable, so I’m only saving $8/month by canceling. That’s not much savings. But every little bit helps. Right? Its not worth $8 to watch the Simpsons and Family guy a couple times a month, is it?
No. OK. I think I just convinced myself. I better call now before I change my mind again.

I just shaved $27 off my monthly health insurance premiums. Nice.

If I stay even moderately healthy, the difference in coverage level won’t even come into play.