I Got Another Utility Bill

Our August natural gas and electricity bill came on Monday. I was very nervous about this bill because so many people online were telling about how their bill had almost doubled.

I was thrilled when I got it. The total was $126.80 for 29 days. We used 5 ccf’s of natural gas which was cooking and 594 kwh for electricity which was for everything else.

Our August 2021 bill was $ 125.01. That month we used 775 KWH and 3 ccf’s of natural gas.

So our current bill was $ 1.79 higher than last years. But not bad considering how rates and supply and delivery have gone up.

As you can see we kept our kwh’s way down but ccf’s were a lot higher. But for this time of year 5 ccf’s are not bad. I believe I used the stove top more often. I will try to get that down this month.

These are the things we have been doing to keep our usage down:

Our A/C is set at 75. On the days that are cooler, we turn it off.

We only run the dishwasher and washing machine with very full loads. I use cold water for washing clothes except if I have a really dirty load. Then I use warm. I only use the regular wash on the dishwasher. The cycle is shorter.

We wear our outer clothes for about 2 days if they don’t get soiled. Being retired we don’t get very dirty.

We use LED bulbs inside and outside our home.

I dry our clothes by hanging them for the most part. I do use the dryer for towels and sheets. In the dryer, I use wool balls to cut the drying time down.

We try to use our grill and small appliances for our meals. If we use the crock pot, I put it outside on the patio so as to not heat up our home.

In the summer, we grill outside and make sandwiches and salads a lot.

I get all of my meat for the week out of our chest freezer on Sundays and put it in the refrigerator. That way the freezer only gets opened once for weekly meals. When I open the refrigerator, I quickly get out what I need. I don’t keep the door open browsing.

I turn off and unplug my computer when I am not using it. We only have the TV on when we are watching it. If we leave the room, it gets turned off. We don’t leave it on for noise.

My chest freezer saves us more energy than an upright. I have to defrost mine but it saves more energy than a frost free one.

We have a thermostat set automatically so that we can lower the heat at night in the winter an hour before we go to bed. Then it goes back up at a set time in the morning.

We do not use any lights or lamps during daylight hours.

We keep our energy saving shades down on sunny windows in the summer and we open them to let the sun in during the winter.

We have kept our heat on at 72 during the winter but this year I plan on lowering that number. Hubby will just have to layer up.

When we cook on top of the stove, we keep covers on pots and pans. Things cook faster especially when boiling water and it keeps the stove top cleaner.

We put a little water in the sink to wash veggies and fruits. We do the same with any pots or pans that we are washing. We never waste hot water by just letting it run down the sink. If I need to warm up water, I catch it in a bowl or pot to water our garden or flowers.

We turn off the water, after we wet the brush while brushing our teeth. Hubby turns it off while he is shaving.

The water softener is set to only run twice a week.

I catch water in a bucket when warming up shower water. We use it to clean with or flush a toilet.

I know there are many other things we do but I am drawing a blank right now so I will end it here.

What do you do to save on your utility bills?