How did I save money today?

[Supervisor42]

Y'all are gonna love this. You already know I'm mean right
Last year during winter had one power bill over $500 then got it down to about $480-something. I went through everything with a meter and determined it was the heater. It was nearly 20 years old and not efficient (what I was told). The landlords refused to "fix" or replace it because technically it was still working It's now only blowing cool to tepid air. The good news is since last year, I purchased a small plug-in whole house heater. It doesn't do a great job at heating the main portion of the house (maybe 700 ft2) but keeps the monstrosity from kicking on. We also have a small kerosene heater we turn on in the evenings to help. Since the big heater isn't working I put in a maintenance request. Someone is coming out tomorrow to look at it. If you are the praying sort - might I ask? I would really love to have an efficient heater. Furthermore, I received our power bill today. The temp difference from last year is 1 degree. Our usage and bill was less than half than it was last year same time. Also, for what it's worth: keep the heat at 63-64 during the night and day when we are at work and 67-68 when we are home in the evenings - and yep that's what costed over $500 last year.
Sorry that this borders on the rant line, but I'm glad to have half the power bill and praying for an efficient solution

We may be having another 'magic-month' with our power bill!
Normal is about $200. Month before last was $153, last month $146.
That was for 1290 kwhrs. End of period is 12-07 and I checked the meter today....
We haven't even broken 1000 kwhrs yet!

 

[havasu]

We found Christmas cards at the 99 cent store. Not bad, 16 cards and envelopes for under a buck!

 

[LadyLocust]

We may be having another 'magic-month' with our power bill!
Normal is about $200. Month before last was $153, last month $146.
That was for 1290 kwhrs. End of period is 12-07 and I checked the meter today....
We haven't even broken 1000 kwhrs yet!

Ours was $138 for Nov which is up from the milder months- expectedly but at least not over $300 already. Ours is the kWh when the thing kicks on.

 

[Bacpacker]

Ours was $104

 

[Magus]

I'm eating soup this month.
Bright side, I've lost 5 Lbs since Thanksgiving.

 

[lonewolf]

I lost 7lbs in the last couple of months, had to buy new trousers 1 size smaller as mine didnt fit any more.

 

[Magus]

I need suspenders myself. maybe bib overalls?

 

[lonewolf]

I havent seen bib overalls for years.

 

[Pearl]

I havent seen bib overalls for years.

Be glad! Its not unusual here in Texas to see guys wearing them with no shirt! Not the good looking guys, the ones who really need to cover up!

 

[lonewolf]

its something carpenters used to wear here.

 

[Mountain trapper]

I havent seen bib overalls for years.

I wear insulated Carhartt bibs all winter. And I'm not even a hillbilly. They're very common around here. Both grand kids have bib overalls too.

 

[Amish Heart]

The english guys wear the Carhartt ones around here, too. I don't see the Green Acres type ones around here, though. That'd be Ben.

 

[lonewolf]

"English guys"??

 

[Amish Heart]

I live in an Amish town. If you are not Amish, you are called English.
So, I am considered English, because I'm not Amish. I'm Mennonite.

 

[lonewolf]

I live in an Amish town. If you are not Amish, you are called English.
So, I am considered English, because I'm not Amish. I'm Mennonite.

I see, I thought that might be the case.
I'm born and Bred patriotic Englishman myself. I wonder what the Amish would call me.

 

[Mountain trapper]

The insulated bibs are the only thing that will keep me warm when I'm on the tractor plowing snow for 8 - 12 hours or out on the trap line. They're kind of like slipping on a sleeping bag, only with legs.

 

[Amish Heart]

They might say that you're a real English. Or England English. It's interesting when someone from Germany or Switzerland comes here and wants to speak. The dialect is Pennsylvanian Dietch (German, but not Dutch, as some think). And the written part of it looks very "Old School", like the script used in Germany in the early 1900's. It's taught as the written form in the school here, so it looks funny as an alphabet border on the school house room wall. It's everyones first language here, but the kids pick up english pretty fast. The kids that were over last night visiting...the 2nd grader can speak english fluently, the almost 5 year old, little Brenda, is iffy. But she was talking to me last night. My mom didn't learn english till she went to school in first grade. Our son visits frequently and speaks German German (the real stuff) and only a few words are the same.

 

[Tim Horton]

I live in an Amish town. If you are not Amish, you are called English.
So, I am considered English, because I'm not Amish. I'm Mennonite..
== ==
Interesting in that when I lived near the south shore of Lake Superior there were Amish, modern Mennonite and horse and buggy Mennonite...

Where I lived in western Canada the best I could tell were modern Mennonite and Doukhobors.. The Doukhobors being a sort of Russian origin modern Mennonite, near as I can tell.. There were also a number of people of Swiss family origin in this particular area.. They all seemed to speak some common words, but different conversational variations of German language.. I grew up in an area with a lot of the populations origin being immigrants called Volksdeutsche... Meaning roughly Germans from Russia..

 

[Magus]

Be glad! Its not unusual here in Texas to see guys wearing them with no shirt! Not the good looking guys, the ones who really need to cover up!

Like me. LOL

 

[Neb]

The english guys wear the Carhartt ones around here, too. I don't see the Green Acres type ones around here, though. That'd be Ben.

Yup!

That would be me. Only the heat of summer demands cargo shorts with suspenders.

Bibs are a sure fire cure for " plumbers crack".

Ben

 

[LadyLocust]

So far it appears to be working: the landlord won’t do anything about the prehistoric furnace since it is technically “still working.” . I got an electric whole house heater. It isn’t enough to really heat the house but does pretty well at maintaining it once it’s up to temperature. So I kick the monster on to get the house warmed up and have the little heater going to keep the temperature up. We also have a little space heater in the back bathroom since we aren’t fond of frozen pipes. So two “space heaters” going a lot and using the furnace sparingly has saved us about $183 for the month of December. Last Dec our bill was over $500 . I’ve never had power bills like that.

 

[FarmOR]

I recently sold my three point tractor mounted log splitter. It served well the past fifteen years, but dad bought a new one. I was against it, reasoning that he could use my splitter any time he wanted and that you can buy a whole lotta wood ready to burn for the two grand he spent? He bought it anyway.

I've borrowed his and been quite impressed. It's about the same power, but the cycle time is much faster and it's got better engineering design that make it much more convenient. But it is big and cumbersome to move without a pickup or four wheeler on the hitch. So with my updated experience with the machinery I'm shopping for an "in between" machine.

I'm also thinking about selling a bit of ready to burn firewood on the side since I'm giving up on the small bales business. I'll have the extra time and certainly extra energy and have always had a strange affinity for processing firewood?

 

[Magpie]

My husband was given vouchers for a local hotel, so we took the kids out to dinner yesterday, as we don't do a lot for the youngest birthday. It was lovely; no washing up and 40 of vouchers left for husband and I for our anniversary.
When I stopped to get milk, the supermarket was selling off trays of parsnips (about 5/6 in a tray) for 10 cents each, so I bought two and made a load of soup. Went online and bought a few posh birthday gifts I wouldn't normally buy, (candles and fancy notebooks & pens) for birthday gifts during the year- they were 50% off and I had saved up points so I had another €15 to put to it, two boxes of Christmas cards also.

 

[Tommyice]

January was going to be my "no spend/low spend" month as a challenge. Two days in and I utterly failed already. LOL

Purchased some yarns for weaving--10/2 cotton and rayon ric-rac in multiple colors. They are at a deep, deep discount because they are mill ends. That is how I'm justifying it. The cotton saved me over $44 than if I purchased it at my usual provider when they have a sale. I'm also working at creating an Etsy shop for my weaving.

 

[Mountain trapper]

I recently sold my three point tractor mounted log splitter. It served well the past fifteen years, but dad bought a new one. I was against it, reasoning that he could use my splitter any time he wanted and that you can buy a whole lotta wood ready to burn for the two grand he spent? He bought it anyway.

I've borrowed his and been quite impressed. It's about the same power, but the cycle time is much faster and it's got better engineering design that make it much more convenient. But it is big and cumbersome to move without a pickup or four wheeler on the hitch. So with my updated experience with the machinery I'm shopping for an "in between" machine.

I'm also thinking about selling a bit of ready to burn firewood on the side since I'm giving up on the small bales business. I'll have the extra time and certainly extra energy and have always had a strange affinity for processing firewood?

Not to mention the wear and tear on your tractor. I love my 30 ton splitter. I move it around with my ATV.

 

[winds-of-change]

I stayed home.

 

[Tootsie]

I didn’t ’save’ money today, but I learned something that will save money. A local rep for health insurance today told me that whenever you go for testing, lab work, or any medical thing to ask for a sliding fee program EVEN if you have insurance. That is, if you have a copay or deductible or no insurance, most places can bring the bill down just by asking. Key thing, you have to ask as it isn’t volunteered. I haven’t tested it yet. Sure could have helped in the past, but still may come in handy. I am making appointments now, and will get back with results.

 

[Amish Heart]

Everyone in our town does that. Most don't have insurance, and we all go to the bigger town for medical. I do have insurance, but with a huge annual deductible, but the insurance company gets the bill down first, then applies it to my deductible, so I end up paying the reduced amount because I go to the docs infrequently and never make the deductible. Around here, people ask for the cash discount, and then the sliding scale. My $5K emergency room bill a few years ago when I had pneumonia was taken down to $650.00.

 

[FarmOR]

A lot of people are reluctant to negotiate? It's cultural? And individual.

Whenever I start the argument with myself that I don't need to bother, or I'll be embarrassed by cheap skating, I try to remember my hay customers that I am doing it for. Hard working folks that don't get easy money.

If I can do something as simple as start conversation to negotiate and pass that savings on to my customers, then it's worth the risk of embarrassment?

 

[Magpie]

I saved over 100 by finding some college books second-hand - tbh I was looking at second-hand ones anyway, but they were still expensive. So I went on a site I thought only had clothes, Vinted, which is in the UK, and found them, and had them sent to a relative to keep the shipping down. Also filled two baskets on websites with on-sale stuff- gifts for birthdays etc, then left them. I'll go on again in a few days, and will decide if they were really good choices or not. One was a perfume sort of site; expensive at the best of times.
I did notice that places I used to go after Christmas to pick up huge bargains were empty of any; not sure if people are getting in early, or are the shops ordering less.