The news has announced that the electric company had a plan okayed to add about $4 per month to each electric bill for the next fifteen years. This is to recoup about 300 million spent on hurricane repairs. Since they managed to get most of this whole area up and running in about three weeks, I totally agree with it. I knew they must have spent a fortune. On trips home, we'd see convoys of electric guys traveling from place to place. These guys were from all over. They had a tough and probably a miserable job in all the heat. For days on end. One of Hubby's old plants had lost 10,000 poles alone. So I decided not to worry about it. Until I got to thinking of whether I should just absorb it or try to do something about it. I think I can eliminate $4 worth of electricity a month. Then, I wanted to do more than that. Not just break even, but challenge myself to do more. Maybe $10 a month total in the utilities. I have electric, gas, and water. The gas in this house is only the heating system and water heater. And, realistically, I have to remember we are in the heat of the summertime here. The electric will probably not go down easily. So, I recalled several threads for frugal utilities and decided to start implementing them.

1. Shorter showers. If I am really tense from my disorders, I often take a longer shower to relax. I can take a shorter shower and take a quarter of a pill and get the same results. Start using a timer to see just how long I take. That will save on water. I usually have extra pills from my prescription so I don't see any problems there.

2. Unplugging items. I thought I had made progress there, but when I went around the house, I found many things still plugged in. So I unplugged all but the living room tv/vcr/dvd thing because I hate reprogramming that thing and the computer and the cordless phone. I just unplugged the dryer while not in use since I was standing by the washer loading it and realized I could unplug the laundry stuff. Sheesh. Then, I unplugged the microwave. I did leave the lamps in the bedroom because I am not gynmastically able to reach that plug every day.

3. Lights off. I thought I was doing well here until I walked into the bedroom and saw the bathroom light still on. I need to concentrate!

4. Unplug the deep freeze. I finally got it done. I cleaned out the small freezer in the fridge and restocked from the remaining deep freeze items. Yay!

I think that coordination with all the utilities will be the deciding thing. I don't think the air conditioning is going to go down until, say October, so I am going to try to do a multi approach method. All to save $10 a month. I suppose a lot of it is psychological. I want to save more money.....