Blogging Away Debt

Welcome Readers from the New York Times Editorial!

Hi there, and welcome to those stopping by from the editorial in Today’s New York Times that was spurred by the article from John Leland a few weeks ago titled, “Debtors Search for Discipline Through Blogs.”

I thought I would take a moment to welcome you and to repond to the Editorial.

My general feeling about my credit card debt is that we alone are responsible for it because we were living beyond our means. However, some of their practices (like the Editorial suggested) are downright shady. The universal default clause is a horrible practice and I am so glad that Citibank did away with it!

Our credit cards gave us plenty of rope to accumulate $37,000 worth of credit card debt with credit lines that were more than our yearly income! Again, I do take responsibility for our use, but if you think about some of the practices that credit card companies employ to keep you in debt and keep you paying interest…it is saddening to say the least.

I am one voice on this blog, but what I am finding out is that there are so many others out there struggling just as we are. I have learned that I am definitely not alone with our debt burden and prior financial mistakes. And that is what my blog is about – I am working to make things right and get our financial house in order.

I have a year’s worth of posting on here so feel free to browse around. A good place to start is by going to my archives on the right hand side of my blog.

Or, if you are busy at the moment and might want to come back later or keep updated on how we are doing, you can Subscribe to my feed in a feed reader or you can Subscribe to receive a daily email for all of the prior day’s posts.

Thanks for stopping by 🙂

Were We Able to Reduce our Electric Bill?

by Tricia

Our electric bill for last month was a whopping $91. That was the highest bill we have ever had. First thought was that the price of our electricity raised, but that wasn’t the cause. It was our usage that had increased. I was not happy with that bill at all and we made some changes to try to get it reduced.

We spent $30 and installed CFL light bulbs in our home. I unplugged the freezer that we really do not use. I turn off my computer powerstrip when I am not working. I unplug the microwave when not in use (and I drive my husband crazy with doing it LOL). I did attempt to stop using our fans at night to sleep, but that didn’t work. I think I am going to try to buy some timers when they go on sale. All in all, the changes we made should have made our electric bill go down.

It didn’t 🙁

Our bill came the other day and it was $96! It is an actual reading too, so it’s not a matter of them estimating incorrectly. I am a little bummed.

Looking at the bill, we used about 100 KWH more than this period last year. Ouch. Thankfully my electric company gives a few more stats that are of interest.

Average daily temp this year: 5
Average daily temp last year: 25
Percent Colder: 44
Avg KWH/Day this year: 21.6
Avg KWH/Day last year: 18.4

So it has been quite a bit colder this year than last year. I’m not sure if that would equate to using almost 100 KWH more in energy, though. We have natural gas heat, but our blower uses electricity. Also, there was about a week of bitter cold temperatures where I used a small space heater sporadically in my office. My office does not have a heating vent so it was very cold in there. I tried to hold off as long as I could, but when you can’t type because your fingers are cold that’s not good.

I may try doing a few more things like getting a few more powerstrips if they go on sale (so we can turn everything off when not in use) and of course the timers for our fans. Other than that, I’m not sure there is much more we can do. I’m sure our computers are taking a bit of juice but my husband and I both need them for work and of course this blog.

I guess we will see what next month brings.