I was super impressed that our heat/gas bill was only $6. LOL. But it was actually really $16 with a $10 credit still left over - lord knows why.

Our electric bill has been insanely low since we had a second child, but coincided with a new washer/dryer. We bought for energy efficiency and let's say I Was really impressed. But realistic since we on average do 1 load a day with cloth diapers and all. BUT they stopped billing us for 3 months, came out and replaced the meter (obviously some problems) and bill went up markedly. We wonder if we were just under-charged all this time. BUT we have a separate gas and electric company. So last month our gas bill was -$10 because they have us a $40 credit with no explanation (just said adjustment). & this $6 bill shows we used 1/2 as much gas as the same time period last year. ???? So why is our gas going way down while our electric goes up? Were they backwards? LOL. Kind of weird...

But anyway, the main reason I post this because I am SO sick of people assuming big house equals wasteful. Gah. Dh and I discussed it. We use gas for hot water (4 people to bathe), stove (we do tend to cook almost every night), gas dryer (laundry almost every day), and of course heat - which we haven't touched in about 2 months. So all I have to say is wasteful my butt. Beat my $16 gas bill. & yes the house is always between 68 and 80. I think we suffered a couple of days in the 80-85 degree range because they were odd days - last week. But basically my point is taking energy efficient measures goes a long way. We are more likely to conserve bath water and laundry energy than suffer the discomfort of a cold or hot house though, but it is all compromises here and there. Obviously there is more to the bigger picture here. The house itself is built extremely energy efficient so there is little need to run the air or heat about 1/2 of the year. So while certain relatives and friends are wagging their tongues behind our backs (I hear from the grapevine from those who do know how low are bills really are) they have no idea what they are talking about. Just because they are content to pay $500 gas/electric bills doesn't mean we are paying $1k/month because our house is bigger. No way! LOL. This month our combined gas and electric, before credits, was $50. & that is pretty average. It is funny the assumptions out there. I guess I just find it ironic that people could be so wasteful and spend $500/month (I know the gas/electric companies are gouging, but they are using a lot of energy all the same - much more than us). That they could be so wasteful and point the finger at people who are much more conservative in the end. It is really weird I guess... & I guess an important lesson to be careful what you assume. & for the record, I am not assuming anything, they are always complaining about their high bills - LOL.

Anyway, since we had such a crazy expensive month, it is nice to have a $6 gas bill - it helps - phew. Hopefully things will settle down because yeah we will have a couple of $100 electric bills in the summer - the heat gets pretty intense here, and the a/c will be working overtime. I'll take all the negative and $6 bills I can get - woohoo.