Bub and I are very energy conscious. I’d like to say it’s because we want to do good things for the environment, but it’s really more selfish than that. We want to do good things for our wallets.
We have a lot of rules in the house about lights being left on, water running etc. We have rules like the classic toilet rule thumb: “if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down”. Our hydro bill (electric and water) generally sits around $80/month. So imagine my surprise when in July its $123, in August its $153 and in Sept its $177!!!! It’s all due to our water consumption and the related fees. One line for water on our bill was $17 in May and in September that same line was $77!!!!! Most people would blame this on the fact that its summer and watering the grass etc, but we haven’t really had to do that this year because it’s been so rainy.
I called today to make sure the readings were accurate and they assure me that they are. The woman said that if we haven’t been watering the grass then it’s something in our house (a running toilet etc). So now, we have to pay a plumber to come in and see what the hell is happening. It’s pretty much too late for the next bill so I’m sure it will be super high too and then we’ll have to pay the plumbing bill. We so cannot afford this right now. Our budget is so down to the penny it’s crazy and the extra this month was to pay for our dog to be spayed at the end of next week. I’m seriously on the verge of tears because I’ve just had enough and money is totally freaking me out.
I really wish we had not bought the house and I can’t believe that I’m saying that since buying a house was all I could think about for 4 years. At the time it seemed to make so much sense, but now that I’m back at school and money is super tight, I miss my little $800/month apartment with no property tax, no maintenance, no natural gas bill etc. If I had used the same budget plan when we lived at the apartment that I use now, we would be debt free!!! I can’t believe the disposable income we used to have now that I look back. Incredible.
The more I think about it the more I’m convinced that when the market is back up, we should sell the house (provided we can at least get what we owe on it, which I’m 99% sure we could get at least a little more) and go back to renting a little apartment while I finish school and get some debt paid off. We may not have a choice but to do this since I just learned that some of the classes I have to take for my degree are only offered during the day (so much for being accommodating to my schedule like the program promised to be). This will mean quitting my job at some point and we cannot live in that house off of MH’s income alone. We are just scraping by with two incomes and mine is higher.
I feel like I’m failing… like I’m sinking, in more areas of my life than one. I’m lost and I just can’t find a way out.
No comments:
Post a Comment