Happy cold, windy, rainy, possibly snow in the higher elevations SUNDAY!

anjemon

lolo883 said:

It was a good day to be a Lions fan! We don't get many. But holy cow, can I try out to be kicker?

It was a good day to kick Viking butt!

I didn't watch too much because I was holding a new baby (New nephew!!!) but from what I heard on the tv it was good day for you guys... and a terrible day for us!

hellosweetie1015

We haven't turned on the heat yet. Today we were in the eighties, and our last cold snap only dropped us into the 40s. I'm ready for good cold blanket weather. But y'all can keep your snow.

I'm also woefully jealous of all your football teams. I mean, I don't really care much about NFL, but Auburn got their asses handed to them yesterday and it made me glum. FI and I are both sports-related pouters, apparently, haha.

kat1114

I had my hair and makeup trial today and my shower. All of them went perfectly! My bridesmaid that planned the party did an amazing job with everything. And my NFL team won. It was a great Sunday!

beethery

FI has been putting the heat on at night. We discussed getting the attic insulated and our firewood/oil plans. I am pleased with the outcome, even if it means my dad and I will probably be creating the attic access door ourselves.

paperpusher

We've had the heat going since September. H will shut it off on his way out the door for work since he leaves after me, and I turn it back on when I get home from work since I get home before him.

Couple weeks ago we had all of the windows in the house upgraded to double pane. They were all single pane original to the house when it was built in the 30s. I think it's helping already because normally the furnace would kick on so much more.

I will truly see if it was worth it when I see the gas bill. From October 2013 to April 2014 we had $250-$300 gas bills every month. I had to hang curtains in every door way to try and retain some heat.

jenna8984

@lyndausvi I'm too cheap for heat as well. My friends refuse to come over in the winter because we keep it at 62 while we're awake in the evening and let it drop to 57 while we're sleeping at night, and completely off while we're at work. People think that is really insane but honestly with sweatshirts and double thick comforters it's really quite fine. And I'm a whiny cry-baby bitch when it comes to being cold (I did not use my A/C when I lived in AZ because I like heat that much). But as much as I love being warm, I love saving money even more. hahah

pinkcow13

Sugargirl1019 said:

lyndausvi said:

JCbride2015 said:

lyndausvi said:

JCbride2015 said:

pinkcow13 said:

Jells ,, I hope you are doing better! And I hope you are resting your feet, Lynda! Right now I'm watching ID. Earlier, FI and I watched the Jets game from a VIP suite his job offered him. It was so much fun and I had a lot of beer :I'm debating get cooking or just ordering takeout.

@PinkCow13 You're kidding, right?  Fi was at the Jets game today!

DH is a Jets fan.    I have to say it's tough being a Jets wife.  They suck so bad.

I'm an Eagles fan.   We are up there in being frustrated fans, but no where near the way Jets fans are.

Fi is actually a Giants fan, but one of our friends had an extra free ticket, so he went just to hang out with the guys.  He said it was embarrassingly terrible.

Well FI can't be too happy with his team performance right now either   :-p

Oh God, BOTH of his teams.  Yankees had a terrible season and the Giants are sucking, too.  good thing he's not overly invested in sports.  He's not one of those guys who pouts when his team loses.  Except the day each year when the Yankees are mathematically eliminated/ lose and are eliminated out of the postseason.  Then he pouts, drinks a beer, and gets over it.

----------------------------------------------------------- But how bout dem COWBOYS?!?!

I totally ended up passing out at some point after writing this lol. Yea, @JCbride2015 we ended up going to the game! Damn, I can't believe he caught one of the t-shirts! I never catch anything at games lol.

Yea, it's rough for FI. He is both a Jets AND a Mets fan. That's a double blow right there. I'm personally a Yankees fan, and I guess a Jets fan by default because of FI. Although I do love the Seahawks. The game was still a ton of fun, though, since we got to watch it from a suite with free drinks and food. Terrible game, though.

lyndausvi

paperpusher said:

We've had the heat going since September. H will shut it off on his way out the door for work since he leaves after me, and I turn it back on when I get home from work since I get home before him. Couple weeks ago we had all of the windows in the house upgraded to double pane. They were all single pane original to the house when it was built in the 30s. I think it's helping already because normally the furnace would kick on so much more. I will truly see if it was worth it when I see the gas bill. From October 2013 to April 2014 we had $250-$300 gas bills every month. I had to hang curtains in every door way to try and retain some heat.

Our gas bill is on a budget year round program.   It was left over from the last tenant.  This month's usage bill was $12.50, but our actual bill was $25. The difference will be applied in the months we consume more.    It does adjust month to month. Started at $35 (feb) , down to $25 (Oct).    But we should not have a huge spike from month to month.

Sure the gas company holds my money during the summer, but it is just an easier way for me to budget.  Especially since this is my first winter.  I have no idea what the rates or usage will be.   I do have it tracked, so when we hit a year I might go back to normal billing.  We will see.

Now the power bill has been pretty consistent at $90 (which was higher then in the last 2 places we lived).  Both in the winter (we have gas heat) and the summer (occasional a/c).    Last month I started completely shutting down my office on the weekends.  All the power strips get turned off).  This month's bill was only $63.     That has motivated me to now shut down the power strips at the end of the day.  My office is not heated, so I have to use a space heater.  I'm hoping shutting down the power strips everyday will help offset the space heater cost.

I'm not too cheap to heat or cool the house, but I do like to find other ways to save money when it comes to electric.

SmileDamnit

Ugh. The Xcel is one of our biggest monthly bills, and we're fairly conservative with the temp in our house. It's not a huge house (~ 2200 sqft), but the ceilings are high and there are a ton of windows so it can get hot/cold during peak seasons. I think our highest bill was pushing $300 last February when it was so.freaking.cold. I fear we're in for another frigid winter so not looking forward to a repeat of last year. 

wrigleyville

paperpusher said:

We've had the heat going since September. H will shut it off on his way out the door for work since he leaves after me, and I turn it back on when I get home from work since I get home before him. Couple weeks ago we had all of the windows in the house upgraded to double pane. They were all single pane original to the house when it was built in the 30s. I think it's helping already because normally the furnace would kick on so much more. I will truly see if it was worth it when I see the gas bill. From October 2013 to April 2014 we had $250-$300 gas bills every month. I had to hang curtains in every door way to try and retain some heat.

This describes our house to a T. Unfortunately, we can't upgrade the windows since we're renting. Not only are they single-pane, they don't have the "seal" along the edges like modern windows. They're just wooden windows in a wooden frame with absolutely nothing to keep drafts out. They have those rope/pulley things at the top.

We put plastic over them, and we have those thick, insulated curtains to help with any residual drafts. (They also help keep the heat out in the summer.) We wear socks and bathrobes with our flannel pajamas and keep the heat set at 64.

Despite all of that, our bills in January and February were around $330. Thank you, polar vortex.

I subscribed to the budget plan to help out. We pay more in the summer, but it'll be worth it to know exactly how much we'll owe this winter instead of waiting for that surprise.

Jells2dot0

We're the opposite! Our hefty electric bills are in the summer. With me being home all day this year, our electric bill was around $450-$500/month from June-September. I'm very much looking forward to the mild AZ winter to offset some of those charges.

kat1114

Jells2dot0 said:

We're the opposite! Our hefty electric bills are in the summer. With me being home all day this year, our electric bill was around $450-$500/month from June-September. I'm very much looking forward to the mild AZ winter to offset some of those charges.

Yes! Ours aren't as bad, but they spike up $200-250 in the summer. The rest of the year, our bill is usually about $50-75 depending on the weather.

lyndausvi

St Thomas was $300+ year round for a 800 sq ft condo.  The a/c was only run when we were at home.  Which on average was only 8-10 hours a day. Unless it was just me, as I didn't use the a/c as often as DH.

  That was a few years ago.  It's gone up since we left.    The average kwph was over 50 cents.    Average in the US is like 10 or 12.

theartistformerlyknownas

kat1114 said:

Jells2dot0 said:

We're the opposite! Our hefty electric bills are in the summer. With me being home all day this year, our electric bill was around $450-$500/month from June-September. I'm very much looking forward to the mild AZ winter to offset some of those charges.

Yes! Ours aren't as bad, but they spike up $200-250 in the summer. The rest of the year, our bill is usually about $50-75 depending on the weather.

Our house is so poorly insulated (50's brick and plaster) that we can't heat or cool it very efficiently, so we have high bills and still dissatisfying temperatures. No matter how much we run the heat in the winter, we can't get our house above about 64. And no matter how much we run the AC, we can only lower it to about 77. Beyond those temps, they just run and run and the needle doesn't move.

beethery

lolo883 said:

kat1114 said:

Jells2dot0 said:

We're the opposite! Our hefty electric bills are in the summer. With me being home all day this year, our electric bill was around $450-$500/month from June-September. I'm very much looking forward to the mild AZ winter to offset some of those charges.

Yes! Ours aren't as bad, but they spike up $200-250 in the summer. The rest of the year, our bill is usually about $50-75 depending on the weather.

Our house is so poorly insulated (50's brick and plaster) that we can't heat or cool it very efficiently, so we have high bills and still dissatisfying temperatures. No matter how much we run the heat in the winter, we can't get our house above about 64. And no matter how much we run the AC, we can only lower it to about 77. Beyond those temps, they just run and run and the needle doesn't move.

My house was built in '87 and it's like that. Hopefully with the roof insulation and the better woodstove this year we can get it right. Last winter was MISERABLE.

gladyscf

I will get a second full time job just to pay the heat bill if I have to. I HATE being cold. 

We are lucky though. The house we're renting has one of those outside wood burning stoves that heats water and that is what heats our house. The landlord provides the wood too. All we have to do is put it in the stove. We also have LP. The great part of all this is that the hot water runs through our water heater so we never run out of hot water all winter as long as the stove is going. Of course with this last year being so cold and the spike in LP prices, we did run some electric heaters to help.

No, I don't know why I continue to live in Wisconsin either.