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Yeah, It's Been Really Hot Outside ...

But I was still hoping that our electricity bill would drop a little this month. Our billed amount, however, is $129 and some change, higher than last month's $114.

To try to keep this in perspective, though, I scrolled back through my older bills. Last year for the same time period, we were billed $144 for our electricity, $15 more than our current bill. As a matter of fact, I can see that we've had a year-over-year improvement for every month since February, which is when I started trying to focus on paying less.

Maybe the changes we've been trying to make have been helping more than I realize. It's not as much as I had hoped, but that means we're still better off than if we'd made no changes at all.

Just recap for new readers what those changes are, my husband and I have:

  • Unplugged the landline phone, which was cordless and required an electrical charger.
  • Unplugged the answering machine. Without a landline phone, this was no longer necessary.
  • Switched out our TV for an Energy Star rated one.
  • Unplugged my bedside clock. My husband already had one, so having two was kind of silly.
  • Unplugged the laptop when it doesn't need to be charged. (We had just been keeping it plugged in all the time unless we were taking it with us somewhere.)
  • Turned off the power switch to the desktop computer when it isn't in use.
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