We're conspiring together to make Husband more frugal, Electric Company and I. He got a call from Mother-In-Law today that shook his whole world-view to the core and caused him to call me at work. "Mom and Dad's electric bill went up $20 for the month and Aunt's went up $30." Weird, because there wasn't a rate hike and our bill didn't go up too much. What was going on?
Upon closer inspection of our bill, Husband noticed that Electric Company was re-figuring everyone's "spread it out evenly over the year" bills. We pay roughly the same amount throughout the year, no matter how much electricity we use. Electric Company guesstimates and evens out your bills--except they must not be too good at guesstimating. Our bill will go up next month--about $45. Ouch!
On the other hand, I'm pleased to report that there may be some changes around here--changes I fully support but never believed I'd be able to talk Husband into. Not only are almost all our lightbulbs either LED or CFL, but they're not on as much as they were yesterday. I'm a fan of the "one person, one bulb (or at the very least, one fixture)" rule whereas Husband seems to like to keep all the switches in the "on" position. Also? We're not leaving things plugged in anymore. Yay! He's changing all his power strip settings to be able to cut electricity-suckers (like the Xbox) off the power source completely when they aren't in use.
And here's the thing I never saw coming...Husband advocating using the drying rack instead of the dryer. Wha? I used to do this ALL THE TIME. I mean, to the point where I would use every chair in my apartment as a drying rack if I was doing multiple loads of laundry. Now, everything goes in the dryer--even if I don't want it too. (I'm lucky, I guess. He washes clothes.) I mean, one of my favorite things in the world is a clothesline. I may not be very conservative or liberal, politically speaking, but I'm a huge supporter of the right to have a clothesline in spite of what your covenants say. (I call my parent's covenants "comunants." Hmm, that doesn't look as good written out as it sounds. Ok, say it to yourself.) Husband generally ignored me outright every time I mentioned putting up a clothesline. He also never understood why I put anything on the drying rack at all.
Do you think I'll be able to argue that keeping the fan on all night is a waste of electricity? Will this new-found electricity conservation ethic hold until the summer when it's time to turn on the air conditioner? Only time will tell. But just in case I start to lose these battles, Electric Company hopes to hike rates some more.
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Breakfast: Toast, peanut butter, apple butter 27 cents
Snack: orange 17 cents
Lunch: polenta and green beans 50 cents
Snack: pudding cup 36 cents
Dinner: chili and crackers with cheese and salami 48 cents + 44 cents
I forgot I ate some Thin Mints too! 31 cents
Total: $2.53
Total: Blerg. I don't feel like adding this all up today. It's cheap. I'll figure it up tomorrow and update this post.
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