Winter, Bills, and Savings

Yesterday we got our $200. check from Governor Hochul to help pay our electric bills over the winter. Yup, it says that wording on it. Every person who filed taxes got some amount of a check depending on whether you were married or not and you qualified with your income. It makes no sense to me. A single person most likely didn’t qualify because their income was too high. They still have to heat their homes just like the rest of us. We got $100. for each of us. You think it is a bribe because she is up for election and she has been the one to raise all our bills because of her green energy program? Would she do that? Perhaps it was really based on how many votes were in the household. Just saying!

I got our electric and gas bill today for the past 29 days. It was $ 168.79. We used 410 kwh’s of electric and 32 ccf’s of natural gas. Not too bad considering we had company so extra showers were being taken. Out heat has pretty much been on the entire billing month too. Last year’s bill was $164.84 for 425 kwh’s and a little less ccf’s. So this bill was only $ 3.95 more. I suppose I could pay it with the $ 200. check. But we budget for such expenses so we already have the money to pay it. Since we have another check to deposit at the bank for $21.98, I will just deposit the $200. one also into our savings accounts.

This is going to be a savings winter. We will be concentrating hard on doing that. Not only do we want to keep our electric and gas bill down but we want to save every penny we can. It is the best time of the year for us to do that because we stay inside more often. We also don’t have landscaping and fertilizer bills nor do we have sprinkler system maintenance bills or high water bills which cost quite a bit of money for the spring and summer. We have already paid our snow plow guy for the winter. With the price of gasoline, I expected that that bill would go up quite a bit. But he only raised it by $25. for the entire season. $ 525. for the winter plowing is a bargain especially here on the Buffalo area. Plus he does a great job even coming back multiple times during the day when it is snowing all day.

We have a few birthdays coming up and Christmas which will cost for gifts but that money has already been set aside.

We are pretty well stocked for meals for the winter. About the only meat I will buy for dinners are turkeys, whole chickens, and any beef that I deem a rock bottom price. BTW, I saw Butterball turkeys for $ .97 a lb. and Shadybrook turkeys for $ .84 a lb. on sale here at Walmart. So I will get a couple once I know what other store prices are. I don’t expect the beef prices to go down very often. I will also buy bacon and sausage on loss leader when I need it to cook for most of our Sunday breakfasts here with family. Kalamata’s will have to be a special treat and will not happen often. It costs us about $100. including tip for breakfast now for the 4 of us.

Not this coming weekend but the following weekend, our son will get the snow tires down from the ceiling so that Hubby can get them changed over at the garage we use. He will also help us put away the patio furniture. I am also hoping he will have time to change out all of our smoke alarm batteries too before he goes home to watch the Buffalo Bills game. He does so much for us and we are grateful.

BTW, I think I just had my last dental appointment at the expensive dentist. My denture is still under warranty until the end of February. My next appointment won’t be until April. I will start with the new dentist then. Hubby will be starting next month. However, I told them on this last appt. no X-rays or fluoride. Those things will be covered under the new plan at the new dentist. They would have cost me over $200. last week. The new dentist is close to my home so there will be a big gasoline savings too.

That’s it for today. Organizing work is calling my name. I will do that after I make eggs on toast for breakfast.

How are you going to save this winter?