Lowering Your Gas Bill

Before I had my wonderful son, my husband and I kept our house at 59 degrees while we were home and 55-57 degrees while we were at work or sleeping.  Yes, we were a little crazy, and yes, we did turn up the heat when people came over, but we didn’t like to.  Having heating bills under $100 in the winter was a tall order, but that was our goal, so we put on comfy (warm) clothes to lounge in. 

Sometimes I do go a little crazy with the budget. One time we got an outrageous heat bill (probably $190) for one month.  I couldn’t take it!  I immediately had breathing issues when I saw the bill.  I called my dad and asked “Dad, how high does the heat have to be so the pipes don’t freeze?”  He said 45 degrees, but come on that is LOW folks!  So I put the heat at 50! For two weeks we wore thick sweats, warm socks, robes, winter hats and gloves.  After two weeks we had had enough of being chilled to the bone and decided to go up to 55.  When the next bill came, we had a credit!  They had estimated our gas bill for that high month and we didn’t see another one for 3 months.  The moral of the story, you should never have to have your heat at 50 degrees, it is really chilly! J Also, always check to see if your bills are “Actuals” or “Estimated”.    

I strongly advise against the budget plan that some companies offer, it does not really allow you to see how adjusting your usage affects your bill.  You can budget by the time of year, in the summer you will have higher electric bills (if you use your air-conditioning), and in the winter you will have higher heat bills.  You can also take the last twelve bills, add them up and divide by twelve to get a better number for your budget. 

If you have kids, lowering your heat is not really an option.  You can try lowering your heat 2-3 degrees at a time and see how your kids fair (depending on their ages.)  So if you keep your house at 70 try lowering it to 67 or 68.  Every little bit helps the budget. 

Go around your house and run your hand along the edges of all your windows and doors to check for cool air.  Try putting plastic on your windows, opening your blinds to let the sun heat your house as much as possible, put a new seal on your door(s), caulk your windows, and/or put a door draft on the bottom of your door.  I know some of the options may not win you any home decorator awards, but they will help lower the gas bill. 

Watch your hot water usage, the more hot water you use, the more gas you burn! 

Instead of using your gas dryer (or electric, to cut your electric bill) to dry every load, try hanging clothes outside if it is nice, or if you have an area in the house to put a clothes line (basement) this will save you a few bucks!  I love clothes after they have been air dried outside! There is nothing like them! J   

If you don’t want to hang your clothes, start pulling out dry clothes every few minutes out of the dryer.  By constantly decreasing the clothes in the dryer you are insuring that those jeans may actually only take one dry cycle, or possibly less!  Lastly, and my husband is a huge culprit of this, fold the clothes immediately and avoid the “freshen-up” cycle.

If you have a gas stove (or electric, to cut your electric bill) and/or oven, try to condense your baking and cooking as much as possible.  You have to eat, so don’t go nuts here. When cooking dinner, try to have things that cook at the same temperature, to avoid having the oven on for a longer period of time than you actually need.  Also, if you can bake a meal ahead do it!  If you don’t mind day old bake potatoes and you have a casserole that cooks at 350 for an hour-- BAM two meals for the price of one!  Your own little “buy one get one free” deal!  Just the other day I was baking my husband’s birthday cake on the top rack, and on the bottom rack I had some sweet potatoes for my son.  Remember, the more you have to put your oven on the more gas you burn just getting it to temperature.  Most importantly, don’t forget to turn it off! Yes, I speak from personal experience. I actually did this just this past week. Luckily, it was only 20-30 minutes after pulling out my meal. J

When you are done cooking and have turned off the oven (never use the oven to heat your house), crack it open to let the heat out.  Hey you already paid for it, might as well not waste it! If you have little ones, make sure to block the area, and use common sense with this trick!

If you are cooking for one or two, or just cooking something small, look into investing in a toaster oven so you don’t have to turn on your big oven as much.  We did this with our garlic bread a lot (up until our robber “friend” broke it when he so kindly broke through our kitchen window)!   We will be investing in another one shortly, or it will be on my birthday list, because they do save you money.

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