Reducing our Heating as well as Air Conditioning budget is strenuous
When the household budget gets tight, I have to make strenuous choices.
It was nice being able to go out for a meal once in a while, but diners are so extravagant these afternoons that was the first thing to be eliminated.
I haven’t gone out to eat in several months, which is a bummer until I realized that option saved me multiple hundred dollars! Since I am not going out, it means I am driving my car less often. This saves a lot of money on gas and upkeep. I’m considering selling the car, to save money on insurance payments. The hardest option to make was reducing my dependence on a/c, so that I could save money on energy costs. The weather has been so hot, I loathe the plan of shutting off the central a/c even for a few hours, but it seems I have no choice, but one change I made was to cover all the windows in my dining room and living room with heavy blankets to reduce the heating exchange through the windows. As the A/C runs, much of that cooling is lost because of the heat exchange in the glass. When I cover up the windows tightly it reduces that exchange, and traps the cooling air inside. I also shut off the air vents into the lavatory and family room, to reduce the floor space being cooled by the system. Of course, the means that when the air conditioner is running I have to stay inside those multiple rooms, because the rest of the house is no longer being air conditioned, however let’s hope it helps.