As I recall, it's usually early October, at some point, when i have to turn the heat on. It's been awfully warm here lately, so i have high hopes of perhaps setting a new record for living without heat. Care to join me??
Zillow informed me today that my house is worth $415,000, which sounds absolutely ridiculous. From the casual observance of the real estate ads in my local paper, I might get $350K. At the peak of the market, I had it listed for $429,900, so I'm sure its value has dropped more than $15,000.
Unhappily, i got my homeowner's insurance bill the other day. I've never made a claim, but each year it steadily increases by about $30 or so. It's $856 now. I hate the big bills.
In addiiton to not turning on the heat, i have also determined that i shall not buy any more clothes for the rest of the year. It's just 3 more months, and it's not that i'm a big clothes shopper or anything, but each month, there seems to be about $50 or $60 spent on clothing somehow.
My friend R. came over early this a.m. to fit me in his busy schedule so that he could finally finish helping me assemble a cabinet i bought from Home Decorators Catalog last spring. I thought i'd save a few dollars by buying a put-it-together--yourself deal, but then we found it was missing some essential cambolts. The piece was made in China so that's where they had to get the extra cambolts from. I don't know why they couldn't have taken the missing pieces from another box so as not to make the customer waite, then replace thoses cambolts when the part came in from China, but no, they made me wait about 4 months until finally after complaining to customer service for the 5th time, he offered to give me $25 credit if i agreed to get the cambolts myself at Home Depot. Well, geez, if i had known they carried cambolts, i would have suggested that myself much earlier. As it turned out, HD didn't have the right size, but i did find them at Lowes for $15, so i came out $10 ahead.
Here's the cabinet:
What you probably don't know (unless you're Chinese) is that the Chinese lettering is upside down. I realized that after peering closely at the picture of the cabinet in the catalog. Who knew? Anyway, what a sense of accomplishment that this thing is finally put together. As I figured out what to put in it (it's in my dining room) i also put aside some books for my next tag sale. Anytime i can cull clutter, i feel good.) Either that or if i feel lazy i'll just haul them all to the library for their book sale.
I also spent some time shredding several years worth of old paystubs.
Last night when i got home from work, around 6:20 pm, i stepped out the front door to get in about a half hour of mowing before it turned dark. Before i could walk down the stairs, a buck sauntered into the yard. Apparently he didn't see me. Not wanting to startle him, I just froze and watched, and was amazed when he started walking right toward me, sampling my plants as he went! Clearly, he still didn't see me, which was amazing, becus tho i was frozen, i still had to breathe, and i mean, he was about 5 feet away from me. I was feeling a little nervous and afraid that if i moved now it would REALLY startle him and he might get hurt or stumble running away. So i made a soft, clucking noise to alert him i was THERE. He looked at me sideways and kept eating. He had a tag in his ear and i wondered if he was semi-tame or something. I backed up slowly toward my front door, aware that his rack could make contact with my skin. Eventually, he wandered off. Phew. Close encounters of the deer kind.
Oh, if you'd like to see the website i write for, check out www.creditfyi.com. We're live now! There's probably a lot of content there you'd be interested in if you're here.
It's discouraging to see that I've lost (on paper only) $52,573 since the start of the year in the stock market. I try not to think about it. It's all long-term money, so I'll try to be patient and wait for the market to recover.
1st Annual Let's See How Long We Can Keep the Heat Turned Off Contest
October 1st, 2008 at 04:01 pm
October 1st, 2008 at 05:01 pm
I don't know about the heat. September was 10-20 degrees hotter than usual. (May was cool). So, at this rate, I can make it to December, easy.
I am sure usually we have some heat days in October (though few). & I am thinking it is likely we will make it to November this year with no heat. We'll see... Let the contest begin!
October 1st, 2008 at 05:50 pm
October 1st, 2008 at 06:33 pm
I came home today, put on three storm windows, but left my jacket on all day. DD came home from school all sniffly, and it was down to 60degrees in the house, so I relented and put the heat on.
But I'm cheering for the rest of you
October 1st, 2008 at 07:09 pm
Guess it depends where you live. I can assure you that my highest heating bill is DOUBLE my highest air conditioning bill.
I/we are holding off turning on the heat. And it is supposed to be in the low to mid 40's tonight and thru the weekend. (nightime temps)
October 1st, 2008 at 07:23 pm
October 1st, 2008 at 07:28 pm
October 1st, 2008 at 08:12 pm
October 1st, 2008 at 10:29 pm
And the cabinet is gorgeous.
No heat or ac today, I'm in!
October 2nd, 2008 at 05:40 am
October 2nd, 2008 at 06:25 am
October 2nd, 2008 at 07:50 am
My grandmother had a chifforobe that had handles in the shape of Chinese characters. It wasn't until I started studying Japanese that we realized the characters were put on sideways.
October 2nd, 2008 at 08:58 am
Actually, I'm glad for the cooler weather. The kind where you can open windows instead of turning on the AC.
October 2nd, 2008 at 09:15 am
Not even close to needing heat yet.
October 2nd, 2008 at 09:37 am
Count me in.
October 2nd, 2008 at 10:00 am
October 2nd, 2008 at 07:11 pm
October 3rd, 2008 at 02:09 pm
On the heat challenge I shall gladly take you up on that, I haven't even shut the windows yet
October 3rd, 2008 at 07:13 pm
October 7th, 2008 at 04:35 pm
October 7th, 2008 at 06:57 pm
I like the challenge idea though.
October 8th, 2008 at 06:32 am
My indoor temps have been 55 all this past week and it's damn cold. But others here who announced they expected to go without heat til November inspired me and i said to myself, what the h****, if they can do it, i should be able to as well!
October 8th, 2008 at 09:49 am
Fern - I'm glad you are holding in there. You inspired a lot of us I think. Its about 62 in my house right now which isn't too too bad. I'm still hoping to last at least until Oct. 30th. But I'd like to go as far into November as possible.
October 9th, 2008 at 12:27 am
toyguy: i put a jumper on. :P
October 9th, 2008 at 11:25 am
October 9th, 2008 at 01:03 pm
October 9th, 2008 at 09:27 pm
October 9th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
October 10th, 2008 at 05:52 am
October 13th, 2008 at 07:14 pm
October 26th, 2008 at 02:11 pm
October 26th, 2008 at 06:50 pm
October 27th, 2008 at 06:31 am
October 27th, 2008 at 08:27 am
October 27th, 2008 at 11:15 am
October 28th, 2008 at 07:53 am
October 30th, 2008 at 05:36 am
October 30th, 2008 at 07:26 am