Going for Not Broke

A few days ago, I posted about our heating-and-air unit being on its last leg. The technician who came out thought that our electric panel had issues that made a new unit impossible until we had some major electrical work done. Well, an electrician came out to our house a few days ago and determined that our electricity is, in fact, up to code. As it turns out, our electric panel was just mislabeled. We will still have to shell out a few thousand dollars for the new heating-and-air unit, which won't be fun, but at least the whole project will not be as expensive as we had feared.

I've mentioned several times that one thing I'd like to start doing is unplugging the computer when I'm not using it. It's a habit I've been hoping to get into for months now, because I really think it would make a noticeable difference in our electric bill. Well, I go through spells where I remember. But quite often, I don't. And then, there are the times when  I get distracted while I'm working at the computer, so I walk away from it, leaving it on because I intend to come right back to it but don't. At these times, the computer winds up not only being plugged in when not in use, but even on and running. The monitor will fade out, but the computer is still drawing power. My husband, on the other hand, remembers to shut it down and cut the power to it most of the time he uses it. That makes me smile.

Being cold is a weak spot for me. When I was a little girl, my mom and dad kept the air conditioner set high in summer and the heater set low in winter. I can remember my sister and me sitting on our bedroom floor, stretching our shirts down over our legs to get a little extra warmth. (In retrospect, we probably would've been better off putting our robes on over our clothes, but it didn't ever occur to us to do so.) Years later when I had my own place, I cranked up the heater whenever I got cold. And make no mistake, I got -- and still get -- cold often. I kept the thermostat set at 81 degrees in winter because that was where I was most comfortable. And boy, did I pay for it when my electricity bill came. Nowadays, my husband and I keep it set around 67 degrees in winter. That's mostly his doing. If I lived alone, I don't think I'd be willing to pay the bill that comes with an 81-degree setting again, but I'd likely still have it set above 70, and I'm no...

Our shower faucet has had a drip over the past few months; it's been slow enough that I didn't really think it would have much of an impact, if any, on our water bill at all. But before it got worse, my husband took it apart and stopped the drip. Our water bill this month is down nearly $5 from the months before. Turns out those tiny drips really do add up.

Our plan has been to cut the cable, but we put it off until after the final season of "The Closer" was complete. Well, that show the season ended, along with "Major Crimes," the new show that TNT started to replace it, and our cable was still connected. Just this morning, though, my husband made the call to get our cable disconnected. There definitely will be shows we'll miss -- "Haven" and "The Walking Dead" are among them -- but we won't miss the monthly payment. Not even a little bit.

After a few months of year-over-year declines in our electric bill, it went up again. Once again, I've fallen out of the habit of cutting power to the home computers when we're not using them. I don't know what to do to make it routine, just like turning off the light at night or getting a cup of water for my bedside table. Hopefully, I can. I don't know how much doing so really trims from our power bill, but I know it's still better to cut where I can.

On Thursday last week, I made a hasty trip through Walmart to pick up items I can't buy at Aldi when I noticed a sign that said using a Walmart card at the Murphy Oil gas stations could net a 15 cents a gallon savings. Because I was breezing through the store on my way to drop my daughter off at daycare before I had to head to work, I just made a mental note to do a little more looking into it later. Well, I finally had the chance. The 15 cents a gallon saving lasts through Christmas Eve, and it's good only on a Walmart prepaid debit card or credit card. If the 15 cents a gallon were permanent, I'd consider getting the prepaid debit card. Because it's only temporary though, I've decided to try loading up Walmart gift cards instead, which gives a 10 cents a gallon savings at Murphy stations through Dec. 24. Hopefully, I'll make the time to fit it into my schedule because my car doesn't get the greatest gas mileage, and 10 cents a gallon could come in ha...

After much consideration, my husband and I have decided not to renew our Sam's Club card this year. When we first got it, we used it a lot, but not so much any more. I've been reluctant to get rid of our Sam's membership, though, because we could still fill up our gas tanks cheaper there. At least, that's what I thought. A couple of months ago, my husband and I both needed gas in our vehicles. I was on my way to drop our daughter off at day care, and he had to get to work early. We drove to our local Sam's -- which, by the way, is not en route to either the day care or where we work -- to get gas, and as we pulled into the lot, we knew we had chosen poorly. The line at each pump was super long. As we idled our engines waiting our turns, it occurred to me that the savings on fuel is not all that great. Gas at Sam's was 5 cents cheaper a gallon that day than it was at another station I passed. Because my car takes 16 gallons of gas, that means gas was only 80 ...

We recently received our latest electric bill, and unlike last month,  our year-over-year comparison doesn't look so good. Last year, we were bill $145 and some change for mid-July through mid-August. This year, we were billed $151. The good news is that our usage is down by nearly 100 kwh, so that means that this uptick in our electric bill is likely due to a rate hike (I can never figure out how we're billed). However, little by little over the past month, I've gotten away from turning off the power switch to the desktop computer and unplugging the laptop when we're not using it. If I can make these actions a habit, hopefully our year-over-year bills will be lower, regardless of what the utility company does.

As I mentioned in last Friday's post , our electric bill has been less than it was a year ago since February.  After reading about it, my husband asked if the difference each month was about the same, so I got curious about the same thing and what the overall total difference is: February 2011: $167.67 February 2012: $154.66 Difference: $13.01 March 2011: $110.34 March 2012: $105.50 Difference: $4.84 April 2011: $99.56 April 2012: $65.46 Difference: $34.10 May 2011: $125.07 May 2012: $71.08 Difference: $53.99 June 2011: $128.07 June 2012: $113.97 Difference: $14.10 July 2011: $144.71 July 2012: $129.16 Difference: $15.58 Year-over-year difference so far: $135.62. I realize that the bulk of the difference could be attributed to a number of variable -- the weather this year compared to last, the rate the electric company is charging us, etc. But, because it is consistently lower, I think the changes we've made do factor in some. I feel good!

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. Switc...

I can't hardly wait to see my phone bill next month. Because a technician had to come out to our house to make the adjustment to our Internet, we'll probably have a rather outlandish service fee for this month, but next month ... well, I'm very much looking forward to it. Not only will it be under $75 for the first time in years, it will even be under $50. The cost of the service is usually $48. For the first year, though, it will be only $25. Of course, once all of the taxes and surcharges and whatever else they add in are accounted for, I'm sure the bill will be a lot closer to $35 than to $25, but either way, it's still better than $110.

As I've been planning for months, I finally called my phone company, dropped the landline and boosted our Internet speed. Unlike my previous calls to the phone company, the woman I talked to never once tried to talk me out of dropping my phone service or selling me a "cheaper option." I did, however, spend more than 30 minutes on hold waiting for a customer service rep, which was starting to wear my patience thin, but if it results in overall savings, I can take it.

I've finally decided to pull the plug on my landline phone. As I mentioned in a post back in February, I've toyed with the idea for quite some time. But now, we've decided to finally take action. Right now, our Internet connection is through the phone company, which has held me back from making the change. But we've decided to move our Internet to the cable and just get rid of the landline. The Internet itself will cost more through the cable company, but overall, it will still be a savings. Our cable bill will go up $60, but we'll eliminate the $110 monthly bill from the phone company.

Every so often, my electricity provider sends me a letter saying I should sign up for its guaranteed bill program. With this option, customers pay the same amount every month based on an average of their past usage. The amount the customers pay is the guaranteed to be the same for 12 months, regardless of whether our electricity usage or the rate increases. Right now, we do something similar. We pay an average, but it fluctuates based on the previous 12 months. For instance, in June, we'll pay an average based on usage from last June through May. In July, the amount we pay will be based on our usage from last July through this June. There is a lot less fluctuation from month to month than we'd have if we paid only for what we use every month, but we still have some. The benefit of the guaranteed program is that, should our usage or rate increase to beyond what we're scheduled to pay, we never owe the difference. At the end of the 12 months, the utility company considers...

On Friday, I posted about Energy Guide tags I’ve seen while TV shopping. They look like this: While I’m glad to be able to tell at a glance which TVs are likely to be more costly long-term, I’m puzzled. The estimated energy cost of this TV is only $19 annually, roughly $1.58 a month. Really? I have no doubt that the people who provide the estimate know their stuff, but I would’ve thought this -- or any other TV -- would drain a lot more juice annually than $19 worth. According to the tag, this estimate is based on five hours of viewing daily. At our house, the TV is on closer to seven hours a day. Maybe even eight, but let’s split it down the middle and say 7.5. Based on the above estimate and our TV usage, if we owned this TV, it would cost us about $28.50 a year, or $2.57 a month. Even if we have the TV on 10 hours a day, that would be only $38 a year and about $3.15 a month. In an effort to trim our energy usage, I recently pulled the plug -- permanently -- ...

As I mentioned in an earlier post , I’d like to purchase a lightweight, flat-panel TV to replace my heavy analog one before my daughter starts walking. All of the articles I’ve seen about TVs toppling over on small children have this new mom very nervous. I need to put aside money for the TV so that I don’t get tempted to charge. It’s possible that by the time I have the money saved, my little girl will likely already be walking. For now, as I wait for my savings account to grow, I’ve been researching TVs online so that when the time comes, I know what I’m buying and where I can get the best deal on it. Looking at TVs solely on a computer screen, however, doesn’t give me all the information I need to make a final decision. I’d like to get either a 32-inch and a 37-inch screen, but without an in-person view, I’m having trouble choosing between the two. I’m all for the smaller and likely less expensive TV, as long as it isn’t so small that I have to squint to see it from...

I don't know why I keep putting off getting our landline disconnected. Our bill this month was $105, and we didn't make a single long-distance call, and quite possibly didn't even make a local call. (We do receive calls on the home phone. Contacting everyone who currently calls our landline phone would be a little time consuming, but not impossible.) To be fair, $30 of the $105 total goes toward our Internet service, but even allowing for that, we're paying $70 a month for a service we no longer use. So why is it so hard for me to just pull the plug on the phone company? It still feels necessary, even though I can clearly see that it isn't. For more than a year, I've been telling myself that I should switch our Internet service to our cable provider. What we're paying for the Internet itself will go up about $10, and there may even be a $100 or so installation charge. However, eliminating the $105 we're paying to the phone company every month would m...

As I had hoped , the warm weather we've had over the past 30 days did indeed result in a drop in our electric bill. From mid-January to mid-February, our usage was 1,817 kilowatts, and from mid-February to mid-March, it was down to 1,119 kw. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. However, I'd like to do even better. Back in late February , I unplugged a few things -- my alarm clock and the laptop computer when not in use. (Although, in all honesty, I haven't been the best about remembering to unplug the laptop as soon as I get done with it. Hopefully, that becomes a habit soon.) I realize the savings from disconnecting two devices from their power source results in spare change at best, but each penny I don't spend on electricity can be spent elsewhere -- our bills, for instance. I've got a few more things in mind to unplug: The desktop computer/printer combo and the TV and DVD player in our bedroom. The desktop computer can easily be turned off with the power s...

I've been looking at new televisions lately. I want to get a flat panel, but not because I want to have the latest and best. It's a safety thing. This photo shows our current setup. I've read, though, quite a few articles, such as this one , that make me nervous about the risk of it toppling over onto my daughter should she bump into it once she begins walking. I still want to be financially smart about what I buy. I've read that plasma TVs use quite a bit of electricity. One of my co-workers told me the one he had put out enough heat that he couldn't stand to be in the same room with it. So, plasma screens are out. That leaves LCD and LED sets, which come in 720p and 1080p. I really don't care about HD. I don't think there is anything wrong with the resolution of the set my mom and dad had back in the 1970s. I could see it just fine. Therefore, a 720p set would be fine with me -- IF I knew that should television shows be broadcast in 1080p on...