First, sleep in, stay in bed and read a good book for a while, get up- take a leisurely shower, meet a friend for brunch and then do some serious shopping together, ending the day with some coffee/tea and a sweet dessert at a cute little cafe. Wow. Now I really want to do that!
Ok, now back to reality. Remember this glorious picture?
I'm glad I took this picture because very soon our fireplace won't look like this. We're hoping to get a woodstove to put in there sometime this week! Why? Because we need to find a way to heat our house this winter which won't make us bankrupt. Seriously, I'm not exaggerating.
Let's take a moment to look at the numbers. The past 2 years we've used our tax return to pre-buy oil for the winter. This plan has worked out really well for us. Not so this year. In fact, the company we've been using is closing up shop because they can't get their customers to pay them and they're losing too much money. This year, we used both tax returns to pay the mortgage while Hubs was out of work. Plus, let's compare: last year we ordered about 3.75 tanks full of oil with our pre-buy and actually didn't use it all because we also used our fireplace and little woodstove in our basement for heat. This year, for the same amount of money we'd get a whopping 1.8 tanks full of oil. Are you kidding me? This is a ton of money to put down for pre-buy and if you can't do that, it's a ton of money extra each month to pay as you go.
So here's our alternative method. Get a woodstove in the dining room, use it during the day and use oil at nighttime. We'll still have to get some oil but we're going to try to use the woodstove as our main source of heat. We still have wood leftover in our garage from last year and we're looking at getting more wood ASAP.
Why so soon? Because people are preparing early around here and you've got to get it now before the prices jump dramatically or they run out of stock which has already happened in some places.
Here's a little story: Hubs was talking to a friend who decided to buy a pellet stove and use that this winter. Great idea, right? Well, he can't find pellets anywhere. He called Home Depot and they were all out but said they had a new shipment coming in and to try then. So he called them the day the shipment was supposed to arrive at 10am. He was told, people were waiting in the parking lot at 4 am that morning waiting to get in when the store opened. So yeah, they were all out already.
Our winter was so bad last year, people are not taking any chances. Hey, maybe if enough people use alternative methods for heat, oil prices will actually go down! Wouldn't that be marvelous?!?
How are you heating your home this winter?
5 comments:
you are smart to think about that now. we had a woodstove growing up, and it was great. it got us through many years of ice storms and power outages :)
another alternative...move out to cali by me and then you won't have to worry about cold winters :)
we should do a homeschooling cross the country field trip. how fun would that be?? (:
woodstoves-as you may remember my parents have one in their kitchen and I loved it. There's nothing like the warmth from one of those on a snowy day.
we'll have to rearrange the furniture in our dining room when that thing's going since we're homeschooling in here too.
I feel your pain! We use natural gas and um the bills were enough for a second home a couple of years ago. Why? Well, we have a big house and then have to heat Brian's work truck so his paint and chem. won't melt. I ask myself why the heck do I live where it's cold!!!???!!! Love your suggestion Velvet :) Wish I could sell this place for what it's worth, but no such luck in this horrible MI economy :(
with lots of blankets and warm sweaters!
anything to help keep my gas bill low!
propane at $500 a monthh. yes, we are getting a woodstove. p.s. that's with a brand new boiler and keeping it at 60 degrees(gasp) on the thermostat. blankets and sweaters are a must!!
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