Friday, February 7, 2014

Weekly Spending Report 2.7.14, What do you keep your thermostat on?

It's a new month! I decided to be a little more specific in my money breakdown categories, so you can get and idea of where all the money is going, and what areas I am trying to target to spend less.
Just how little can a family of 4 in the Northeastern United States live on comfortably? I am set out to see!

I want to add also that we found out my son qualifies for reduced lunch at school. I am unsure whether or not we will use this benefit. Most of the time I pack my son's lunch anyway.

So here is the breakdown:

$900.00 - housing
$169.56- Electric - That is a doozy. In the summer I had it down to 100.00.
$584.00- Heating Oil - we have had an unusually cold winter and I had the tank filled. Ouch!
$20.00- Church
$121.05- Groceries
$49.50- Gasoline for Car
$20.00- Kid 1 School Fundraiser
$10.00-Take out
$41.90- The Honest Company Cleaning Bundle

Total for Week One:
 $1916. 11

Wow! The total for the first week is almost my total for all of last month. The Heating oil really did us in. I am hoping that that is it for the winter, but since out temperatures have been so low, who knows? We keep our thermostat set at 67*Fahrenheit during the day, and 65 at night. We used to keep it lower, but with the baby we have had to bump it up a little.
 In the summer, I set it at 80. We do not have central air conditioning but do have window boxes. This year I am thinking of only having the boxes in the bedrooms, and toughing it out for the rest of the house.

What temperature do you keep your house?

Have a great weekend!

Katie



6 comments:

  1. I keep my house at 67-68 while we're home and 65 when we're not. In summer, I set the thermostat at 75-76.

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    1. Hi! Thanks for sharing. Whereabouts are you located?

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  2. Katie, at least you can look at your list and see it is for essentials, not frivolous bling! I had to google a temperature conversion chart to answer you question. We keep our house at around 65f to 67f or a bit over in the evenings and mornings in winter, but I turn the heating off during the day when only I am at home. I do turn it on again if the temp goes under 60, although if I am running around vacuuming I sometimes don't notice! We turn our heating off at night, but the inside temp of the house never drops below 50f, and we keep very warm and toasty with a quilt underneath our bottom sheet, flannelette sheets, a blanket and a winter doona, then a comforter, with hot water bottles at bedtime. Of course, with a baby you need to keep the house much warmer, and also, it doesn't ever snow here. Sending you some warm vibes from our summer evening:)

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    1. You are lucky it doesn't get too cold, that is good for the bills! The temp around here has been around 15*F, I don't know how that converts to Celsius but it is cold.

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  3. If you can pack your son's lunch I would continue to do so. I spent a lot of time in the local school, including the cafeteria and can tell you the food isn't the best quality, it's not the healthiest meal they can eat, and the walk in freezer at our school we found the cafeteria workers had food on the floor, opened, that they would step over. Not exactly the most sanitary situation.

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    1. Hi Lois,
      The food is gross and I have mixed feelings about accepting aid. My son is also extremely picky and would not eat most of it anyway. I do let him occasionally get the pizza, because I feel that if I always say no that can cause rebellion in the other direction. That is gross about the open food on the floor!

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