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In our neck of the woods, winters are a bit rough. We get over 200 inches of snow (sometimes over 300!) a winter and the temps are often in the single digits. That means our heating bills are often higher than I’d like so we try to do what we can to get them down a bit. Here’s our gameplan:
Turn the Heat Down – I have read from multiple places that it is recommended that your thermostat should be set at 68° F. Our goal will be to have it at 63° F during the day when my husband and I are home and my son is at school. Some say that lowering the termostat by 1° F can reduce the amount of energy you use to heat your home by one to three percent. Since we are lowering it by five degrees, we’ll hopefully save a bit more. When my son gets home, it will increase to 66° F degrees.
Use Our Programmable Thermostat – Anytime you ask people for something that you can do to save on heating costs, installing a programmable thermostat is one of the first things mentioned. We purchased one last year and it helped a lot. Before the programmable thermostat, I would manually turn down the heat at night and quite a few times I’d go to bed and forget to turn it down. Having it automatically switch is very nice.
Clean Our Furnace Filter Monthly – I never think about that darn filter downstairs. But this winter, we are going to mark change dates on the calendar so we make sure it is changed. A clean furnace filter results in a happy, efficient furnace.
Keep Doors Closed – Thanks to our in-laws, we have some nice new doors to get us through this winter. Last year was horrible! I mean, I was sticking plastic bags in the door to try to keep the draft out (thanks again to the reader who gave me that tip!). Our doors are now very air tight. But we still should limit how much they are opened.
Use Plastic on Windows – Our downstairs windows are newer and great for keeping the cold out. We are fortunate there. Upstairs, though, the windows are quite old and very drafty. We have to use plastic on them or we’d feel the cold draft while sleeping. To save on the costs, I usually purchase plastic (the kind you tape up and then use a blowdryer to shrink) for the windows at the end of the season for the next winter. I can often get the plastic we need for our windows for $1.25 that way. Unfortunately, at the end of last season I forgot to grab more plastic because I thought we still had some left. But we don’t. This winter I had to pay full cost which ran $14.
Caulk Around Windows – Because we were involved in installing our new doors this summer, I was able to see how doors are put in. I see how much potential there is for drafts to come in around the trim if the door trim area is not properly insulated. Looking around our windows, there is a little bit of a gap around the trim and the wall and I will caulk around the windows and eliminate those gaps.
Dress Warmer – In college, we had a neighbor that would run around his apartment in winter in only a pair of shorts. His heat was cranked up to 80 degrees. I wish I would have asked how much he was paying for the heat; I’m sure it was a lot. For us, we are going to dress warmer in the house during our waking hours. That means wearing pants and long sleeved shirts and sweaters.
Use Blankets – I have our heat programmed to start decreasing for the night at 8:00 pm. My son goes to bed at 8:00 pm and although mom and dad stay up for a few hours after that, we will have to use a blanket if we are sitting there watching TV or working on the computer. We have about four little throw blankets that we’ve accumulated throughout the years that we can use for this purpose. Usually it isn’t that bad because our home keeps heat in surprisingly well.
Use Flannel Sheets – Some people swear by an electric blanket. Me? It makes me very uncomfortable to even think of sleeping with one. Instead, I bring out my cozy flannel sheets. They keep me nice and toasty.
Use the Ceiling Fan – We have one ceiling fan in our house in the kitchen. It’s natural to think of using it in the summer for cooling. But something I didn’t know too much about was that you should use it in the winter as well. The heat in your home rises, so if you have your ceiling fan on it will help circulate the heat and you will feel warmer. For it to work properly, set your fan on low and have it draw the air up instead of down.
Pay Attention to Windows – During the day, we are going to let the sun shine in and take advantage of the nice placement of our home. They were very smart back then (I just found out my home is definitely over 100 years old!). At night we will shut the curtains to keep the cold night air away. I wish I could thank those that built our house and set it the direction they did.
With the rising gas costs this winter, it will be interesting to see if our average bill will be lower than last year. It would make my day if we didn’t have any month over $150 this winter (last winter, our highest monthly bill was $178). I know doing the above will help, but exactly how much is up in the air. I will be paying very close attention to how much gas we end up using and near the end of the winter I’ll post a graph showing this year versus last year.
I think the beauty of blogs is that they help to capture a certain time frame in someone’s life. I’ve never really kept a diary in my life (too afraid my mom would find it!) so now I have something that I can go back and read about how much things have changed. One such area that has changed is our emergency fund.
Back when I started blogging, I was stubborn and nothing was going to get in the way of us paying off some debt! I couldn’t justify having an emergency fund back in April of 2006. If something came up, I planned on using our credit cards.
Seven months later, I was lured into into the online savings account arena and I deposited $100 into Virtual Bank and received a $20 bonus. I was going to stop there with our emergency fund.
Then January 2007 rolled around. We finally were able to afford health insurance and the payments were around $350/month payable every two months. That meant we had a $700 payment every two months. That’s a big chunk of our income and it was difficult to budget for at first. To help make sure we could always meet our insurance payments, I decided to increase our emergency fund balance to $350.
Just a month later, I got a little crazy. I was going to save $2,500 in our emergency fund. We got close to that goal, but a series of events depleted it to around $700.
Not too long ago, I deposited a little over $50 to our savings account to put the balance at $1,000. That is where it still is today and it will sit there until we absolutely have to use it.
Where will our emergency fund go from here?
That is a really tough choice. On one hand, I really want to reach the halfway mark with our credit card debt ($18,807). We are $893 away from reaching that mark. On the other hand, if we will be moving in the near future, we need to have some money saved up.
I think for the moment, we will not send extra money towards our debt. Instead, we will aim to increase our emergency fund to $1,500. Once that is reached, we’ll figure out where to go from there. Our emergency fund will continue to evolve.
Quick update: I paid a regular monthly payment towards our credit card debt and it now stands at $19,700. It’s not going down as fast as it once was, but it is still going down. It does help that all of our regular payments are now going towards the principal.
Here’s a few articles that caught my eye this week:
We only have the very basic cable at $16/month so we don’t get channels like A&E. There’s a show on there called Big Spender. Larry Winget is the star and he helps people to quit spending their life away. I haven’t been able to watch the show, but Beachgirl has been recapping the shows. As a sidenote, I decided to check out some of the video clips of the show and from what I saw…I’m pretty impressed with Larry. Too bad we don’t have A&E 
Nickel is now a deadbeat according to a collection agency. If you remember, I had problems actually getting a bill for my miscarriage. If they pulled what was pulled on Nickel…I would have been livid. Luckily, I paid my bill and all was well.
Alicia Dunams (the author of “Goal Digger – Lessons I Learned From the Rich Men I Dated) stopped by my review of her book and the giveaway, and has decided to give away 5 more copies of her book on her site! How cool is that!
Here’s the info:
MORE BOOK GIVEAWAYS…
Alicia Dunams here. Author of Goal Digger.
I will give away 5 signed copies of my book, Goal Digger: Lessons Learned from the Rich Men I Dated to five random commenters.
Go to http://richgirlguide.com, register and leave your comments on YOUR SECRETS TO SUCCESS.
…tell me your secrets to success? How are you creating the life you desire? How are you turning your passion into profit? How are you achieving your goals?
The deadline to enter is 11:00pm PST on Friday, October 26, 2007. I will announce the names no later than Monday, October 29, 2007 as well as email the 5 random commenters. At that time, the commenters will need to email me back to confirm their US address. Only one comment per person please.
Go to http://goaldigger.com for more info on the Goal Digger: Lessons Learned from the Rich Men I Dated.
A while ago, I was contacted by Alicia Dunams. She’s the author of “Goal Digger – Lessons Learned from the Rich Men I Dated” (aff. link) and she was wondering if I would be interested in reading her book. The first thing I noticed was the word play in the title. Instead of “Gold Digger” (which my husband thought was the name of the book until I explained to him otherwise – LOL) it is “Goal Digger.”
Alicia defines “Goal Digger” as a woman who:
- desires wealth in all areas of life
- seeks the secrets of the millionaire mind
- has the smarts, optimism, integrity, and passion to do it herself
It seems simple when you look at it in writing. But I think we all realize that if it was that simple…we’d all be filthy rich.
First and foremost, Alicia’s book reads like you are listening to a girlfriend tell a story. She affectionately refers to the rich men she has dated with names such as Mr. Rich and Mr. Smooth.
I bet you are thinking, “OMG – She is a gold digger. She wanted to marry a rich man!” That’s what I thought too until I read the beginning of the book. Alicia reveals that in the beginning, she did want to marry a millionaire. Along the way, though, she decided that she wanted to be one herself. She has various little Millionaire Memos throughout the book and this one sums up her attitude, “Why marry a millionaire when you could just think like one. Better yet, you could be your own millionaire.”
In a nutshell, “Goal Digger” details the things she learned from these rich men – things that helped her to become financially successful. So the book ends up being part memoir and part self-help book. There are even exercises that you can go through to help get you thinking like a millionaire.
One section I really enjoyed was the power of words, also known as the abracadabra principle. As a blogger and an avid reader of blogs, I know how powerful words are. The goal is to try to remove those negative words in life (like “I can’t” or “never”) and replace them with positive and powerful words. Some positive thinking can go a long way.
Related to that section is one about saying, “What If.” According to Alicia, rich men don’t ask, “What if?” They ask, “Why not?” The big difference is that “What if?” implies a lot of fear. “Why not?” implies a lot of confidence. You will always have some fear, but the key is to shift your way of thinking to be more like a millionaire’s mind.
I always enjoy books that make me think and help me to realize a few things that I do that might be holding me back. This book did that. While reading it, I became very self-reflective and looked deeper into myself. A big problem that a few of you reading have pointed out is that I still have the mindset of a poor person. It’s not something that has been easy for me to change – it’s a work in progress.
If you are looking for a book that is entertaining, easy to read and will challenge you to think in new ways (and help you to think like a millionaire!), then you may want to read this book. I have learned quite a few things, but now it’s up to me to put them into action. Before I can do that, I need to mull over things for a while. This book definitely gave me a lot of food-for-thought.
For more about Alicia and her book, you can visit her site at GoalDigger.com. And, you can also sneak a peek at an interview I did over at her blog.
Now, here’s the part I always enjoy. I’m giving away the copy I received from Alicia!
To be considered, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post sharing the first thing that comes to mind when you read the word, “millionaire.”
The deadline to enter is 11:00pm EST on Monday, October 22, 2007. I will use random.org to select one random commenter. I will announce the name on here no later than Wednesday, October 24, 2007 as well as email the commenter. At that time the commenter will need to email me back to confirm their address (US addresses only, please). If I do not hear back from the commenter selected by midnight on Monday, October 29, 2007, I will randomly select another commenter. Your chances of having your comment selected will depend on the number of comments received and only one comment per person please.
So…what’s the first thing that you think of when you read the word, “millionaire?”
I look at my debt ticker on the right hand side a few times a day. I still can’t believe where it is today. Over $17,000 of our credit card debt is gone. It may sound a little sappy, but I am a sappy gal sometimes. When I really start thinking of how far we’ve come, I can’t help but get teary-eyed.
I owe our success so far to five simple words:
Spend Less Than You Earn
Sure, there are many “keys” to financial success that you will hear, but I really believe those five words sum it all up. Even if you make $1,000,000 a year you will still get into trouble if you spend more than you earn. It’s a very basic principle and one that is very simple when you think about it.
Prior to starting this blog, we had no concept of spending less than we earned. We were in the mindset that it was okay to purchase things on credit because we will pay it off later. I shake my head at some of the spending that comes to mind. If only we had grasped the concept of spending less than we earned way back when. But the past is the past and life is about learning from your mistakes.
Now that we embrace the concept of spending less than we earn and practice it, we have made a huge dent in our debt. It will also help us pay it all off. It can’t stop there, though. Even after the debt is paid off, we will still spend less than we earn and build up a substantial amount in our savings and build a nest egg so we can live comfortably in retirement.
That’s not all! There is the next generation to think about. Although I haven’t brought it up yet, my son will definitely know the concept of spending less than you earn by the time he leaves the nest. He may choose to not apply that concept (and learn it the hard way like we have), but I am going to do my best to make sure he understands it.
Oh, and I’ll show him this blog and he can see how much debt you can get into if you don’t practice the concept!
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About This Site
My Debt
- Original Debt: $97,293.06
- Paid: $1,927.89
- Remaining: $95,365.17
- Emergency Fund: $1100
- Broken Down
- Line of Credit 2: $0.00
- Line of Credit 1: $0.00
- Credit Card 1: $0.00
- Credit Card 2: $245.00
- Credit Card 3: $405.00
- Credit Card 6: $1,785.00
- Credit Card 7: $2,381.17
- Consolidation Loan: $11,000.00
- Credit Card 10: $14,519.00
- Auto Loan 1: $16,093.00
- Credit Card 11: $23,873.00
- Auto Loan 2: $25,064.00
Finance Blogging Buddies
- Beachgirl’s Budget Blog
- Becoming and Staying Debt Free
- Boston Gals Open Wallet
- Debt Free Hispanic
- Debt Kid
- Debt Reduction 101
- Dual Income No Kids
- Everybody Loves Your Money
- Financial Hack
- Free Money Finance
- From the Brink of Bankruptcy
- Generation X Finance
- GRACEful Retirement
- Grad Money Matters
- It’s Your Money
- Josephsangl.com
- Kick Debt’s Butt
- Lazy Man and Money
- Low Income Life
- Make Love Not Debt
- Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge
- Mighty Bargain Hunter
- Money, Matter and More Musings
- My 1st Million at 33
- No Credit Needed
- One Million and Beyond
- Personal Finance Advice
- pfblogs.org
