Okay, I have mentioned SEVERAL times that I keep my house at 58. People think I'm nuts, but it saves money and we dress in layers. Well, for November, our gas bill was $76. Our December bill came...$206!!! They gave us a huge rate increase in NJ and it is killing me! We didn't use hardly any more gas in Dec. than in Nov. It's unbelieveable! I'm not lowering the heat anymore, but I guess now I've got to find even MORE areas to save money in since keeping the heat low isn't going to be helpful anymore.

Yeah, I feel your pain Amy. I don't want to see the bill this month--it was $250 last month :(

Do you have gas appliances?

Oh Amy I'm so sorry to hear that. I for sure don't want to see our heating bill either. They've already asked for another hike in prices here.

Michelle, Gas everything!

Ours was outta control too. :(

Amy and others,
Have you thought about looking into different sources of heat? I know that we installed our pellet stove and it has saved us so much money!!!

Oh I am so sorry your gas is so high....you all have been trying so hard...that stinks:(

What exactly is a pellet stove, Debbie? What are the safety issues invloved?? where can they be purchased? How has it helped your utilities costs? dramatically? I am concidering finding alternatives too, as our last bill was over 300; almost 400 (for this past month with another family living with us.). It has been crazy here, once it simmers down some, i am hoping that the costs will go back down some too.

Amy, I'm glad I'm not the only one. I had budgeted for $90.00 and the bill came through for $120.00! It makes me wonder if sitting here freezing is really worth it!

I WANT SPRING!!!! WAAAHHHH! :cry:

Originally posted by mrsengeseth
What exactly is a pellet stove, Debbie? What are the safety issues invloved?? where can they be purchased? How has it helped your utilities costs? dramatically? I am concidering finding alternatives too, as our last bill was over 300; almost 400 (for this past month with another family living with us.). It has been crazy here, once it simmers down some, i am hoping that the costs will go back down some too.

Melissa,
A pellet stove is like a wood burning stove, but you burn wood pellets (the pellets look like rabbit food). As long as it is properly installed and vented, they pose no real threat. They are much safer than a fireplace or a wood stove because they burn more cleanly and don't build up much creasote. Our pellets cost us about $140 a ton and we burn between 2-3 tons a heating season. You can buy these things through stove and heating shops.

Here is an older one for sale on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2371604650&category=20564

and one from Lowes:
http://www.lowes.com/lkn?action=productList&catalogId=M040290

Our heating bills were up in the $300 range a month years ago before we bought our first pellet stove. We are now on our second stove and it has a nice thermostat feature that only calls for heat and runs the stove when the heat is needed. We paid about $1000 for ours on sale and it has since paid for itself over and over again. Our electric now runs about $80 at the highest during the winter (unless of course we have to use it to heat if the pleet stove breaks down).

Danielle, one way to know whether your saving or not is to look at how much gas units you used last year at this time to how much you've used this time. Ours shows up right on our bill and it shows usage and billing units. You can get a pretty accurate picture that way unless you've had extremely cold weather this year.

For us, the reason ours usually goes up is because they've put up a gas hike (which they have now applied to do again.)

Debbie, I just called the guy here who sells them. For us, a pellet stove would cost $2500.00 - 3000.00 for a 1500 sq. ft house and the pellets cost $3.99 per bag BUT you have to purchase 60 at a time.

A wood stove would be far better for us.

Debbie, can I ask the square footage of your home?

By any chance did they estimate your bill? They estimate ours every other month - I HATE that! - and the first time we had some cold days here of course that was the month it was estimated and they billed us as if we'd run the heat constantly (we didn't even have to turn it on! :rolleyes: ).

If you have a gas water heater, remember that running your dishwasher and washer will affect that (I do as much laundry using cold water as possible) and also the length of your showers and any baths will affect it as well because the gas is heating all that water.

Originally posted by homesteadmamma
Debbie, can I ask the square footage of your home?

Maybe 1200 if I'm lucky!:D It's an older manufactured home, so it's a basic box divided up into rooms.

I'm so sorry to hear so many of you have such an increase in gaz bill!:eek: It's terrible! And sometimes it's not like you have the choice, you need to heat your home, after all...

Goodluck, Amy in finding new ways to save money. Maybe you'll find a little something that make a big difference in your budget in a positive way! :)

Oh my! I would be wondering the same thing...if sitting there freezing is really worth it? BUT then you have to think, if you didn't have the heat turned down, what would your bill have been?

I wouldn't want to freeze, so mine would be up to 68 at least.

Originally posted by AmyBoz
Michelle, Gas everything!

Us too...and on top of that I have a $120 electric bill. Ugh. I sometimes miss the days of apt. living--we rented a few apts with utilities included. Those were the days ;)

Will they send someone out to your house to check for areas where maybe air is escaping or give you any tips on ways to save? Our power company will send someone out to walk through the house and show you things that can be done to reduce costs and thye do it for free, esp. if they think you may be ready to change to a different power source.

:hugz: everyone!! That just stinks!!! :bang: Hang in there!

We are all electric and so far I am down from last year, but check with me later, it may catch up. UGH!

I am sorry for all the High Heat Bills that you all have gotten for this Winter....

Thanks Debbie! I am gonna talk to dh about this. We have a fireplace, but cannot use it because our neighbor has an endangered tree that hangs over our chimney. We can't trim back the tree, and if our chimney catches it on fire with a spark we are in even more trouble!! there are two endangered trees in our general area. One hanging over the chimney, the second one is in our yard, infested with ickies and we can't chop it down.

The city of Pasadena just did this a few months back. We get our bills every other month, then to make matters worse, that time they had it a month lare so the bills were three months. That bill was over 500.00 electricity, water and trash!

still hurts to think about that~!

Ours was outlandish as well.....:(

I know that so many of you have already answered this but I just wanted to add that we live in an apartment and we live in Sacramento, CA...we chose not to have our wall heater pilot light lit by the gas company in order for us to reduce our heating costs. It has really helped but at times I, too, wonder whether or not freezing is worth it, kwim? I am really glad that so many of you are sharing your woes in this area because there have been so many times when I thought we were completely alone in these struggles...thanks again for sharing!