by Tricia
Our electric bill arrived and I was whisked away to my childhood. Bills coming in the mail was never a joyous occasion growing up. My dad would see the total and start saying things like, “Why is this bill so high?” “What, do you think we have stock in the electric company?”
Our bill this month was for $91.00! That is the highest electric bill we have EVER had. My mouth dropped when I saw it, and all I could say is “Oh my…”
My husband was in the other room, and he yelled, “What…what…” He thought something was terribly wrong. To me, it was. I wanted to start saying things like my dad used to say way back when. I didn’t understand his words then, but I sure do now!
All I could muster saying was that our electic bill was over $91.00. As I sit here writing, I am still amazed. My husband was the voice of reason and said that perhaps the cost for the electricity has gone up and that’s why our bill is so high. A quick look at the bill shows that we used over 100 kilowatt hours more than the same period last year!
Can we pay $91/month for electricity? Technically, we could probably handle it. Do I want to? Heck no!!
So far, we were planning on doing the following:
1.) Shutting off power strips and unplugging things when not in use. Some electronic items draw power when they are turned off and that adds up.
2.) Drying clothes by hanging them and using our electric dryer very little.
3.) Buying those energy efficient bulbs.
We’ve started doing all three. A few days ago, we went out and purchased some spiral compact fluorescent bulbs (<- affiliate link) from our local department store. The ones we purchased were by General Electric and it ran $9.99 for 3 of them. We purchased 9 total which took care of almost all of the lights in our house. These bulbs are guaranteed to last 5 years and they only use 15 watts to output a greater amount of light than a 60 watt bulb. So far, we are very impressed. We used to have 4 60 watt bulbs in our kitchen. With the new bulbs we only need two. Our living room is brighter and it has a nicer light. Before, we were using the cheapest bulbs possible. We are saving money on electricity AND we have better lighting in the home. It wasn't easy to spend $30.00 on bulbs, but I believe over the next 5 years we will save that much and more. In fact, on the packaging they say you will save $36 per bulb. That will be a savings of $324 over 5 years. No, it's not immediate savings but I will look at the purchase like an investment 😉 That's three things that should help us save money on our electric costs. But, there are a few other things we can do. They are more "last resort" type of things, and after seeing our bill - we are going to do them. 1.) No fans running at night. I am hooked on having a fan on when I sleep and it has rubbed off on my son as well. It's time to break that habit. I'm not excited about it, but I don't like our $91 bill! My husband is thrilled with this news because he likes silence at night. I'm going cold turkey, but I will wean my son off of the fan and will try a radio in it's place. 2.) Purchase more power strips. Our VCR/sound system is plugged in at a hard to reach area (behind the couch). With purchasing a power strip, we can bring the plugs out where they can be easily turned off at night. There are a few other hard to reach plugs as well. 3.) Get rid of unnecessary things drawing power. We have an old freezer in our basement that we don't really use. We rarely buy enough frozen foods to fill up the freezer in our fridge. So, I will unplug the old freezer. I also have two alarm clocks for our room; it's time to go to one. I will have to get myself up when the one goes off (this should be easier now because my husband and I are both getting more sleep since he isn't working nights). Part of me is excited to see how low we can get our electric bill. I view it as a little side challenge since our debt reduction progress is slowing down a bit 🙂