It's that time of year...you know the time when the electric companies stick it to you big time. We were no different. It's crazy how far up our electric bill went this past couple of months. We had an energy audit and it's amazing how we changed everything they told us to and our bill still went sky high. I don't like to complain about companies because I believe that for the most part they are doing what they can. However, I really do not see how my electric bill could go up so high when we drastically lowered our energy usage.
We moved here in October of 2011. For 6 months our bill was pretty close to $200 a month and that was with us not really monitoring our usage too closely. Then in May we went on vacation for nearly a week. When we left I turned off all the breakers so we wouldn't get charged for usage while we were gone. Even with us being gone our bill went up to $335. I called and had an energy audit done. They told us not use anything electrical between the hours of 2pm and 7pm because the rates are doubled during that time. I did just that. The only thing we turned on during that time was the TV and I even limited it to just one TV. We followed the recommendations they gave us and the next month our bill went up to $387. I was a little miffed, but what do you do? So, I went a little crazy with the using NOTHING during the day. I washed clothes and dishes late at night and we grilled out a lot so we wouldn't use the oven. I even pushed up the thermostat higher than I like so that we would save that extra energy. I unplugged appliances that we don't use and taught the kids that the lights do not come on at all during the day. I know for a fact that we drastically reduced our energy usage and then yesterday we got our bill for last month - $445. That's crazy.
It's times like this that I have to remind myself that we're fortunate to have electricity and we're also fortunate that we can pay the bill. There are many out there who cannot.
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