Money Matters
ashleybunny8
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
saving energy/water
DH and I are buying our first house (closing today!!), and I was wondering what are some ways to make our electricity and water bills on the cheaper/low side? Right now we are in a 2/2 condo and pay at most $150/mo in the summer months for heating/air. I am not sure how much we pay for water... We are moving into a 3/2 home with a big yard, so I am really worried about how much our water bill will be once we start maintaining that huge yard..
If this makes any difference: we live in FL where summers can get up to 100* easily.
Thanks in advance!
Re: saving energy/water
One easy thing you can do to conserve water is to replace your showerheads (or at least the one you will be using most) with a low-flow one.
It may not be as big of a deal on the water as you think it may be. We have a minimum water bill- if we use under 6k gallons (which we almost always do) we pay a $45 dollar bill. Anything we go over that, we are charged extra for. This normally only happens when we have company or we are having to water the lawn a lot because we aren't getting any rain. Even then I think our bill has only been $60 once.
You can call your water company to find out their billing policy. Also, shop around for electric companies if you have a choice. Here in Texas we have many different options, honestly we switch companies every couple years to make sure we are taking advantage of the cheapest rates. Get a fixed rate if you can (always 10 cents per KWH) as opposed to a variable rate if they offer them in your area. That way they don't jack up the rates on you over the summer when usage is high.
Do larger loads of laundry and wash mostly on cold water (hot/warm water coems from the water heater,w hich takes electricity to heat up).
Don't let sinks run while you brush your teeth.
Turn off electronics when not actively being used.
Keep heat set to about 69 or lower and keep AC set to 75 or so.
Contact the utility companies and ask them for the average costs of the utilities for the past 12 months at your specific address. They should be able to give you this.
I was going to make the same suggestion. We did this when we moved however we found that our heating costs are much less than what the previous resident paid. We were told the electric was over $200 a month and up to $250 one month for the prior year, and we have never paid more than $125 and our bill averages $100 in the winter. I can only conclude that the previous residents must have kept the heat set very warm, as we keep it at 68 in the winter. If you tend to prefer your place extra warm in winter and extra cool in summer it would be prudent to add a bit of padding to the numbers the utility company gives. It is still very useful to call and ask around.