War on utilities

[homesteadmamma]

I'm so tired of our utilities going up.

Natural gas went up 10.9%
Water is going up again in a couple months
Electricity has another increase coming in the next several months

I've decided to do war!!!! I refuse to give these large companies more money. Having decided to do that I plan on:

~getting our rainbarrels ready. Its suppose to rain on the weekend. That water can be used for watering the plants and garden. I also use it for washing the dark clothes in. This summer I plan on making full use of rain. Its free!!

~natural gas - our heat is turned off and will remain off until late fall. I also plan on having dh turn our hot water temp down a couple degrees. Its too high right now. We are also looking at every area in our home where we have heat loss. We plan on making our bathroom window much smaller and insulating the space where the old windows are now. We will replace the smaller window with an dual pane window.

~electricity - I'm changing our light bulbs to the more efficient ones. This month if you buy 2, our electric company gives you 4 free. I missed this last time they offered this, this time I won't. Again, I'm looking at every area that we waste electricity in.

Its WAR in our home on these utility companies.

Anyone else disgusted on your utility rates and deciding to do war?

[jlxian]

You are really gung ho! Good for you, CJ!

I hate forking the money over to the utility companies too -- we only have electricity that we pay every month, but I fill the propane tank about 2x a year. Our propane heats our water, and goes to the furnace and our kitchen stove. I just hate thinking of hot water going down the drain and I NAG NAG NAG my kids to keep their showers short. I've also started trying to be more efficient with the kitchen stove using lids on pans and once the boiling begins turning the heat down to just high enough to keep the boiling up but not full blast flame.

We should turn the heat down on our hot water tank because it is very high -- everyone who visits us complains about how hot our water is.......

And the furnace doesn't get used except in the very cold weather -- the woodstove is our primary heat source.

As for electricity, I'm a mad woman about turning off lights. And we have been switching over to the more efficient light bulbs for the lights that are on the most -- no deals on them from our elec company though. The a/c will get used only on really hot days -- if I can do anything about it anyway!

I've made feeble attempts to insulate and weatherstrip our old house --- and feeble is the right word. This is an area we could stand to do a lot of work in.

[Darlene]

I'm fed up too. That's why we put a fireplace insert into our fireplace & why we worked so hard for the wood we have all set for next year. With the kids going off on their own I can save on oil and electric as they aren't always as diligent as Jack & I are at keeping usage down.
Good luck in your quest CJ.

[TwirlingRainbowSky]

Well I would declare war but I don't know what else to do. Our town is raising the water rates. We have to pay for a new water tower and the old one they are getting rid of is not even paid for yet. I paid the last month's bill today and it was $70.85. We pay $1 every month for mr. I found out that mr stands for meter rent. Then they have a base rate. Then we pay for water and for sewer we pay what the water was. I am not filling up a swimming pool or watering the lawn. Just basic household things like dishes, laundry, bathing,

[debbiepittman]

They are up a lot here, too. While we are not storing up rain water (not that much to be had here), we are doing some things such as keeping lights off, keeping heat and a/c off unless really necessary, changing temps on icebox and water heater, etc.

I always use water from the kids pool to water the garden when I empty the pool for clean water.

Debbie