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Going over expenses and...

December 31st, 2006 at 09:17 pm

I see a few places we can cut back.

We have the cheapest cell phone service we can get with T-mobile but I think when we have the money I'll go back to pre-paid with Trac-fone and get the double minutes card. We like not having a bill to deal with and in the long run that saved us quite a bit. We'll more than likely have the satellite TV turned off. If it's a choice between that and the ISP, we'll take the ISP as it's important to the business and the satellite TV is not.

The electric bill is always so high but I don't know what to do to lessen it. This house isn't as well insulated as it needs to be but until we have the cash to add insulation we have to deal with it as is. We only use the heat when it's really cold and lately it's been fairly warm so we haven't used it much. I've come across quite a few people who maintain that they've lowered their electric bill by eliminating or decreasing phantom load. I've read up on this and it does appear that unplugging some appliances when they're not being used can save up to 26% on the electric bill but I can't get DH believe it or to go along with it. I really would like to just try it for a month and see if it makes much of a difference. I'll try talking to him about it again and see if he'll agree to a 30 to 60 day trial. I wonder if doing the phantom load test would have him rethinking it. Hmm, something to ponder...

The water bill is too high, also. It's never as cheap as I'd like but it's been higher than normal for the last couple of months. I'm going to start sending the boys into the bathroom with the kitchen timer and tell them they have 10 minutes. When that timer goes off, the water needs to be turned off and they then have 5 minutes to dry off, dress, and get out of the bathroom. Two of the three that are often here will stay in there for 45 minutes to an hour!

So, one for the next month is to decrease the electric and water consumption.

Our electric bill for November was $171.60, 2292 KWH used

For December it was $140.16, 1803 KWH used

Our most recent water bill, due on the 10th, is $56.02, 6800 gallons used

I should be able to improve both of those. We'll see.

Posted in Goals and Objectives, General Expenses | 5 Comments »

5 Responses to “Going over expenses and...”

  1. janH Says:
    December 31st, 2006 at 09:41 pm 1167601296
    1167601296

    Good luck with your goals! I hear you on the teen/young adult showers. Hubby is bad enough, but when the kids come in for a visit, our water bill goes up a bunch!

  2. sarah Says:
    December 31st, 2006 at 10:23 pm 1167603794
    1167603794

    Have you considered insulating paint.

  3. denisentexas Says:
    December 31st, 2006 at 10:26 pm 1167603990
    1167603990

    I didn't know there was such a thing as insulating paint. I'll ask my man person about that and see what he thinks. He's the pro at such things! Thanks for the suggestion!

  4. living_in_oz Says:
    December 31st, 2006 at 10:48 pm 1167605315
    1167605315

    DH and I ditched our cell phone plan last year and went with Tracfone's. We will NEVER go back to a monthly cell phone bill! Tracfone's have saved us so much money it's not funny! Since we know we're losing minutes with every call, we keep phone calls to a mininum and don't use our cell's to "chat".

    One of the best financial decisions we ever made~

  5. Broken Arrow Says:
    January 1st, 2007 at 02:21 am 1167618096
    1167618096

    Yeah, if I ever lose my current cellphone, I'd to switch over to Tracphone myself. I rarely ever use my cellphone, but when I do, they are all relatively important to me.

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