Call me a dork.

I have reading all about this balanced billing for utilities and thinking, eh, what's the point?

But anyway, I guess maybe my bias was that I like getting the $10/$20 bills here and there. The higher end bills I expect and anticipate, but I think I enjoy those little bills too much. Our gas bill is often $10 in the summer and our electric bill is often $20 in the winter.

But we got the big July electric bill and with the a/c it wasn't pretty. Since I am budgeting my paycheck down to the penny it seems, I think it probably would help with the budget. If I think about it, all of our bills are pretty fixed except for the gas/electric. Gas varies, but it kind of sucks as a triple whammy when you get the auto gas, electric, and water bills in August - just nasty all around - gas prices is high, water usage is up so the lawn doesn't fry, and the A/C works hard to protect us from the 100 degree heat.

So it is one thing to do to lessen the load in August. The water we are just in the process of switching to metered, but it only varies at most $20 here and there. Our electric and gas bill can vary by $130 from month to month.

It's funny to me how the better we are with our money the more those little fluctuations seem to matter. Bizarre... I guess since we weren't investing our money as efficiently as before. & it is far easier to budget with set amounts...

So I guess I am converted.

I checked and it looks like both our electric and gas company offer programs. I looked in Quicken and our average gas bill over the last year was $35 and our average electric bill was $45. I think we can swing $80/month... (I think in the lowest months we tend to pay $50 combined so it doesn't sound bad at all).

I looked at our budget for the month and if I just pay our minimums for the rest of the year (balance transfers) and transfer nothing over to savings, we will meet our efund goal. So I am going with that. It's around $300/month to efund (by paying balance transfers out of checking and letting the savings grow since we'll owe less back in the end). & around $100/month in interest. (Plus I got $100/month going to investments). I expect enough christmas and OT money to cover my next IRS installment. We'll see. But if we're only at $11k on 12/31, the world won't end either. I think being above the $10k mark just feels darn good. We had dropped to $5k for a few months and I just did not like it.

I still need to sell some things around the house. As well as freecycle really. Could use a little cash. I think all the bills are covered but I feel like I have no money to go to the ATM. It's not the worst... The less cash I have the less I spend it.

I was talking to my mom and her electric bill was about $400. They just got a/c in the last couple of years. I say buy a new house. She said with the house paid off she'll take the utility bill. It really sucks though, but having an older house can REALLY be a financial drain if you ask me. That's my bias I guess. They are obviously better off staying put with the house paid and all... (The property taxes would slay them if they made a lateral move - would be more than my mortgage). But I mean it is smaller than our house and they just get GOUGED. I know it is amazing how running a 4-person household with more space can be so much cheaper when it comes to utilities. Technology has come a long way. Maybe there is some hope for the environment. We have been here 5 years. Sometimes I wonder how long before all the stuff we have here becomes obsolete and we have to upgrade. But it was really part of our plan that we didn't want to spend a lot on repairs and upgrades early in our home-owning lives. & the electric bill is one of the perks of going new!