Efforts at frugal living-Part II [View all]

[Kaleva]

The ex has left for a job in Chicago so I'm back at the big house to live. 2700 square foot home on 5 lots.

The heating system is a two stage high efficient LP gas furnace.

The water heater is an electric heat pump so it extracts the heat from the air in the basement to heat the water.

I mow the lawn with a Great States reel mower. A job that kicks my ass and of which I have to spread out over 2-3 days.

I cancelled the cable tv here and am going to reactivate my Netflix account soon. Maybe later today. Would much rather pay $7.99 then $47 a month.

The washing machine is a Frigidaire front loader and the water bill is $51 a month pretty much regardless how much water I use. So I'm not saving shower water to use to flush the toilet anymore. The dryer is electric but I have a clothes rack here which I'll use to hang dry most of the laundry except for sheets and other big items.

I put the 3 big screen TVs and my laptop on power strips so I can shut them all off easily when not in use. I also unplug the toaster and coffee pot.

Purchased a 125 cc Kymco scooter and that's my primary means of transportation now. At least till it gets too cold to ride! I get about 70-80 miles to the gallon and that is nice!

It cost about $1500 to heat this house last winter but I ought to be spending less then that this winter as I set the thermostat to a lower temp then my ex could tolerate. 55 degrees at night, if I'm gone for much of the day or I'm busy enough to keep warm and about 65 during the day when I'm home doing not much of anything should be fine.

Got some wood pallets from the former father-in-law and I'm going to use them to make a compost bin. Will do that tomorrow.

I have plenty of shelf space and a chest freezer in the basement so I ought to be able to preserve and store quite a bit of garden produce.