The Energy Bill

In my daily journey with being frugal, there is one area that my family and I have failed at miserably, the energy bill.  Where we live, the electric and gas bill are combined into one bill.  We have chosen to participate in "reliabill" for the gas segment of our bill.   With this part of the bill, we pay for gas futures, meaning that we may either pay more or less then everyone else for gas.  But, we know exactly what we will pay every month.  We will have no surprises at the end of a budget cycle, an unexpected surprise that happened to us several years ago.  The electric half of the bill is not budgeted and does give a reliabill option.   We received our bill yesterday and the electric bill was high, very high.  It has been high for months and I have chosen to ignore it.  

Ignoring this bill seems foolish and not very frugal.  Now that I am writing a blog on my journey with frugality, it seems like the perfect time to tackle the electric bill.  So, for the next month, I plan on putting the same energy (no pun intended) into lowering the electric bill that I put into coupon clipping, meal planning and researching free activities.  My family will probably hate it, and possibly ignore it.  However, I have a plan in place to encourage their full participation.  When I was a kid, my dad was constantly on my case about turning off the lights, TV, stereo, etc.  We drove each other crazy in this ongoing struggle.  In the end, every time I left a light on, I had to give him a nickel.  I plan on implementing this same technique with my family.  Of course, the price has gone up.  I was giving him a nickel in the mid 80's, I think it is safe to say that I can increase the price to a dime.  Maybe, I can even get my husband on board.

Look for pictures of the "electricity bank" I am going to make to make this a family effort.  That is all for now.