waste.not.

Before now, I've only been responsible for paying utilities for one year of my life- the year I lived in an apartment with andrea and nadine. I couldn't even swear to it that we had to pay for anything other than the phone. I think heat and hot water were included in the rent, and maybe we just paid for electricity. In any case, it was a long time ago. In the six weeks that I've lived in the new place, I've become fanatic about not wasting energy, and not for the environmental reasons (though it would sound nicer if that was the case), but for the financial ones. Our first electricity bill was for $7.01. That included one week where no one lived here (we were moving stuff in and painting though), and one week where I was here by myself, with no tv. Our first real bill was $60.11- 315kwh. We're good about turning lights off, but the competitive side of me wants to get it even lower next time. I got some of those crazy looking energy light bulbs at costco a month or so ago (they had an instant rebate which made a pack of 8 cost $1.50), and instead of waiting for the current bulbs to die, we went around replacing the ones we use regularly. We leave one lamp on in the hall when it's dark out, but turn everything else off when we leave the room. I've considered turning the hall light off too (which we do at night when everyone's home and asleep), but then it gets tricky going from one room to the next in the pitch dark. So I guess we'll just keep being vigilant, and wait and see how much difference the energy light bulbs save. As for the gas....maybe we'll turn the heat on if it gets really cold in february. Otherwise it's sticking to showers and cooking.