My Debt Reduction Blog » Utilities http://www.mydrblog.com/blog Our road down debt reduction to elimination, and living without a budget Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:47:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 en So much for utility bill relief this October http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/10/07/so-much-for-utility-bill-relief-this-october/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/10/07/so-much-for-utility-bill-relief-this-october/#comments Sun, 07 Oct 2007 19:09:26 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/10/07/so-much-for-utility-bill-relief-this-october/ Historically for us, October gives us our lowest need for utility usage. The temperatures are cool enough so we don’t need to run the A/C and warm enough so we don’t need to kick on the furnace. Well this October has certainly been an exception. Today alone we are expected to hit 89 degree’s and we’ve been in the mid to high eighties for the last week and a half. That is way above normal for Southeast Wisconsin. According to the forcast, we can expect Monday to also be in the eighties, then we are expected to get some relief with temps returning to normal. Tuesday should be in the high sixties and the rest of the week only getting to the high fifties. Those will be much welcomed!

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]]> http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/10/07/so-much-for-utility-bill-relief-this-october/feed/ Fighting the urge to use the air conditioner http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/09/09/fighting-the-urge-to-use-the-air-conditioner/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/09/09/fighting-the-urge-to-use-the-air-conditioner/#comments Sun, 09 Sep 2007 21:07:42 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/09/09/fighting-the-urge-to-use-the-air-conditioner/ We haven’t ran the a/c all day and my normal threshold is an interior house temperature of 78 degrees before I will turn it on. Right now at 4:53pm in the afternoon the middle of my house is at 78 degrees and I’m fighting the urges to close up the house and turn on the a/c. We have a cold front coming and I believe we are at the hottest we will get right now. There is a nice breeze outside and if we could just get that in our house we’d drop it 5 - 7 degrees in here. Get in here wind! Save me money!

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]]> http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/09/09/fighting-the-urge-to-use-the-air-conditioner/feed/ Water bill was higher than expected http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/09/06/water-bill-was-higher-than-expected/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/09/06/water-bill-was-higher-than-expected/#comments Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:16:55 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/09/06/water-bill-was-higher-than-expected/ For water usage, we get billed every two months and the bill usually averages $95-$100. Just over two months ago I installed a new toilet which uses much less water, and I was wondering if I would notice a difference on our next bill. Well, we just got the next bill and the total was $110. Certainly a bit higher than average but not too bad. But I’m guessing the reason it’s higher is the fact that I’m trying to grow new grass in area’s of my yard and I did a lot of watering. So the real test will be the next billing cycle as I don’t plan on doing anymore watering.

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]]> http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/09/06/water-bill-was-higher-than-expected/feed/ Would you cancel phone service to save $44 a month? http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/31/would-you-cancel-phone-service-to-save-44-a-month/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/31/would-you-cancel-phone-service-to-save-44-a-month/#comments Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:43:03 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/31/would-you-cancel-phone-service-to-save-44-a-month/ Earlier this year we decided that we would cancel our home phone service, which we hardly ever use, and that would reduce our monthly expenses by over $43. We decided we would wait til the school year was over and then over the summer figure out everywhere that has our home number and update them with cell numbers. Well we never did that and the school year is about to kick off again so I’m debated holding off again. But in all honesty we just don’t use our home phone and the savings could help expedite debt reduction. So I don’t know what to do.

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]]> http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/31/would-you-cancel-phone-service-to-save-44-a-month/feed/ Anyone know how to calculate energy use in to dollars? http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/12/anyone-know-how-to-calculate-energy-use-in-to-dollars/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/12/anyone-know-how-to-calculate-energy-use-in-to-dollars/#comments Mon, 13 Aug 2007 01:22:14 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/12/anyone-know-how-to-calculate-energy-use-in-to-dollars/ As an IT geek, I run a home network that consists of 3 servers that run 24/7. I’m in the process of looking for ways to reduce my energy consumption which ultimately reduce my bill. So I’m trying to figure out what it’s costing me to run this equipment every month. Many years ago, I purchased a Watts Up Pro Power Analyzer in an effort to see why my utility bills were so high. So, last week, I started running all the power for my 24/7 computer/network setup through the analyzer and it tells me that approximately 250 is constantly being pulled and energy costs me .089/kwh. Now the analyzer has the ability to put in my current rate and give me a monthly estimate, which I did, and it claims that this setup is costing me about $18 a month. That amount does not seem right. Can anyone help me more accurately determine what this setup is costing, or is it pretty close to the number the analyzer says?

Home data center. Doesn't everyone have one?

Watts Up? Pro reading

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]]> http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/12/anyone-know-how-to-calculate-energy-use-in-to-dollars/feed/ My Average Utility Bill Over The Last Two Years http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/09/my-average-utility-bill-over-the-last-two-years/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/09/my-average-utility-bill-over-the-last-two-years/#comments Fri, 10 Aug 2007 01:47:25 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/09/my-average-utility-bill-over-the-last-two-years/ While looking over my recent gas & electric bill on my utility companies website, I found a lot of interesting information about my usage. What was real nice was the ability to export the data in to a comma separated value file which I allowed me to create a spreadsheet in OpenOffice and run calculations giving me even more information. The best info I got was knowing what my average utility bill was over the last two years, which happens to be $210.88. That total will help me when we start creating our budget.

Utility Totals Over The Last 2 Years

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]]> http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/09/my-average-utility-bill-over-the-last-two-years/feed/ Got my gas & electric bill today http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/09/got-my-gas-electric-bill-today/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/09/got-my-gas-electric-bill-today/#comments Thu, 09 Aug 2007 21:21:33 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/09/got-my-gas-electric-bill-today/ For as much as we have been running the A/C over the last month, was mildly surprised with my utility bill this month. I honestly was expecting it to be over $300, but it came in at $247. That is a bit of a relief and will make bill paying a little more tolerable as well. Since we don’t yet have a budget and my utility bill has a lot of fluctuation, I’m never really prepared for it, so the smaller it is, the happier I am.

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]]> http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/09/got-my-gas-electric-bill-today/feed/ Lots of rain last night == good http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/07/lots-of-rain-last-night-good/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/07/lots-of-rain-last-night-good/#comments Tue, 07 Aug 2007 12:57:35 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/07/lots-of-rain-last-night-good/ Weather wise we’ve been hot and dry for the last few weeks and as someone who is trying to grow grass in various areas of the yard, I’ve been having to do a lot of watering. We got a good soaking last night with more rain in the forecast today then again on Thursday, I will be able to take a break from using my water.

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]]> http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/07/lots-of-rain-last-night-good/feed/ Anyone else nervous about their upcoming electric bill? http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/06/anyone-else-nervous-about-their-upcoming-electric-bill/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/06/anyone-else-nervous-about-their-upcoming-electric-bill/#comments Mon, 06 Aug 2007 23:54:53 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/06/anyone-else-nervous-about-their-upcoming-electric-bill/ The weather around my neck of the woods has been unpleasant for a few weeks now, plus we were home all day for about a week and a half while we were on vacation. Because of all of that, the air conditioner has been getting a substantial amount of use. And with light and moderate use, my electric bill is usually frightening, but that’s a topic for another entry, so this month with such high usage I’m expecting the bill to be somewhat of a shocker. Sometimes I wish I had better tolerance for warm weather. But on the other side of the coin we don’t run the furnace as much in winter as most people do.

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]]> http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/08/06/anyone-else-nervous-about-their-upcoming-electric-bill/feed/ New toilet - Will I notice a savings? http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/07/01/new-toilet-will-i-notice-a-savings/ http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/07/01/new-toilet-will-i-notice-a-savings/#comments Sun, 01 Jul 2007 22:32:54 +0000 Chad http://www.mydrblog.com/blog/2007/07/01/new-toilet-will-i-notice-a-savings/ A few weeks ago, I installed a new toilet, not for any reason other than the old one had a leak somewhere and I could never really find out where. Since the new toilet has been installed, there hasn’t been a single issue, so I know replacing was the right choice. Recently, I was wondering if replacing it might have a financial benefit as well. This toilet uses only a fraction of the water that the previous one did(and flushes way better), and with 5 people in the house, it gets a lot of use. Just yesterday, I got my water bill, which we get every 2 months, and it was the typical $100. The toilet has been in use only a couple of weeks, so I’ll be really curious what the next one will be.

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