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The Dreaded Utility Bill

Do you remember last month when I told you that I thought for sure that our next utility bill would be over $300.? Well I am sorry to say that I was correct. We received our electric and gas bill yesterday. For 34 days of service, the bill was $ 302.41.

This month we used 584 KWH’s of electricity and 156 ccf’s of natural gas. The average daily temperature during those 34 days was 32 degrees.

Last year for the same February billing, we used 563 KWH’s and 162 ccf’s of natural gas. So we used 21 KWH’s more of electricity and 6 ccf’s less in natural gas this year. Our bill last year was for 29 days and the average temperature was 23 degrees.

It is a good thing that temperatures were warmer this year. My bill last year was $ 257.83 for a much colder time period. This year’s bill was $44.58 more than last year. Can you just imagine what it would have been if we hadn’t had a warm spell?

To be perfectly honest, I am getting tired of these bill increases. We keep our heat at 68 during the day now and 62 at night. We are not heating 2 of the bedrooms and none of the basement. We have cloth snakes in front of the outside doors. I use small appliances to cook. Lights are off during the daytime and on at night only in the room or rooms that we are in. All lights are LED’s. We no longer use an electric blanket. I clean with cold water except for dishes. I have been doing my much needed spring cleaning this week and part of last and using a bucket of cold water to wash floors, etc. Computers and TV’s are turned off when we are not using them. I really don’t know what else to do to keep this bill down as low as possible. It’s getting very irritating.

Today, Hubby and I are going to run some errands. We have an ice storm coming in this afternoon and we could get up to 1/4 to 1/2 inch of ice on trees and power lines. I am praying that we don’t lose power even though we pay an outrageous price for it. We don’t need to be without power for days.

We were supposed to have West for a few days this week because he is on winter break. However he is running a high fever so he is not coming. I am praying that he gets well soon.

Are you people frustrated with your power bills?

18 replies on “The Dreaded Utility Bill”

Hi Precious. Wow. The only thing I noticed about your bill was that this year was 5 more days than last year’s bill. But still a bummer. I know your rates are higher than ours. Guessing your “extra fees” like taxes are also. I will report when we get our bills.

Sorry West wasn’t able to come with his illness. Hubby ended up getting my stomach bug later last week. Be careful while you are out this morning. We just have rain here.

Hi Chris,

You are correct that it was 5 more days. But it was a lot warmer than last year a lot. Even if I account for those 5 days, this bill should not be this high.

I think I may have some kind of stomach bug too. Did not feel that well when I got up this morning.

We were careful. It wasn’t doing anything while Hubby and I were out this morning. Now it is snowing here for the past hour or so. Ice storm is supposed to come later. We are staying in right through the weekend because it is supposed to be lousy. I will post my Aldi’s haul tomorrow.

my electric bill came in lower and we both live in upstate NY. I’m not as far up as you though. I’m on the balanced budget plan. it’s $127 a month. over the summer, with less electric usage, I build up credit. then they use that credit towards the last bill of the year. at the end of the billing year I owed them around $202 or something like that. they used the credit I had built up so that my last bill came to only $70. for me, this is a more affordable way. I can’t afford sometimes to pay as we go. the balanced budgeting is good on my bottom line.

Hi Precious! Our bill was $286 this month, down from $340 something last month. We have both gas and electric from Central Hudson. Something I heard from my mom this weekend (she heard it on the news) — The CEO of Central Hudson was either fired or resigned because of all the customer complaints about the huge increase in bills. I know that the increases are all across the US but maybe something he did or did not do about it is the issue. Thankfully this has been a mild winter. We normally pay between $175 – $185 a month this time of year, but not so since the increases. There is a new CEO now so it will be interesting to see what happens.

Hi Mary,

That is fantastic that your bill decreased. Wow! I had not heard about that. However, this is what I just found in a Times Union article. It looks like there was a problem with a new billing system they put in place and the company knew about it and did nothing to rectify it. Here is the article: https://www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley/news/article/central-hudson-ceo-charles-freni-replaced-billing-17780969.php

Thank you for sharing.

Thank you so much for the link to that article. I have forwarded it to some of my family members who live nearby. Such corruption. I don’t know how they can be trusted again.

Our bill was outrageous this month – $585. We typically have 5 months out of the year where we pay for heat, and then 6 months where the house is an even climate, and one month where we pay for AC. We are in the expensive months right now.

I’m looking for a toaster oven, to help cut our gas usage. The teens often heat up something small in the oven, and a toaster oven would be much more cost effective. We have also lowered our heat to 65 degrees. While the weather would typically be starting to warm up in a week or so, it’s been really unpredictable this winter, so who knows.

Hi HP,

UGH! Your utility bill was awful. Heat is so expensive. Do you heat with electric or natural gas? I love my toaster oven. It has served us well. I hope the bills get better soon. I am with you wanting the heat off but that won’t happen here until April or May,

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