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by the author of What School Should Have Taught You: 75 Skills You’ll Actually Use in Life
My electric bill was stupid high last month. I mean stupid high. Somehow, I used less electricity than I did last year for the very same month, and yet the price of electricity had magically risen enough that I paid more on this year’s statement. It’s not like I’m walking around my house, leaving the fridge door open, either. I’m being as cautious with my electricity usage as possible, and the bill is still higher.
Apparently, I’m not alone in this. Family members I have talked to about this have reported the same, with some of them saying the price of their energy bill has actually risen 30% since last year, resulting in significantly higher bills. They, too, have reported using less electricity than they did last year as well. And it appears as if this is the trend across America, at the moment.
It was in September 2022 that we were being warned in parts of the country that electric bills could potentially rise 60+% this winter, and now that we’re in it, the predictions are looking to be correct. Some people in Colorado have already seen a 50% hike in the cost of their electric bills this January as a result of rising natural gas and electric prices. Florida, Maine, BAW-stin (you have to pronounce it like that) – they’re all paying higher electric prices, and just about everywhere you look, people are reporting similar problems.
You’ve undoubtedly seen similar price hikes in your own monthly electric bill.
But to add fuel to the fire, it doesn’t appear as if these electric bills are going to get lower anytime soon. We’re not even into the depths of winter yet. Remember that. You are going to spend more for electricity over the next couple of months simply because of the weather, and from where I’m standing, it does appear as if the price of electricity is only going to increase per kilowatt hour over the course of these next few months as well.
We’ve already discussed how the price of fuel is going to be a source of contention over this upcoming year, and if you use propane to heat your home, you’re going to see price increases there as well. (Haha, glad I bought that new coat.)
And the point I want to make here is that you really need to focus on being frugal where you can be frugal at the moment. There are absolutely parts of life where you can’t afford to cut corners and where buying quality is the way to go. But you and I both know that there are other areas of life where we can trim off the excess fat, so to speak. Check out some of the ways that you can lower your electricity usage. Figure out some of the ways that you can cut costs on your grocery bills. Audit your budget so you can figure out what you can trim and actively look for ways that you can increase your monthly income. These are all things that just about everyone can do and they’ll help you to make it through the monetary woes of 2023.
This is one of the benefits of regularly checking in here at The Frugalite.
There are regular posts discussing things you can do to boost your earnings or cut back on your spending on just about every topic imaginable.
As you look at your budget at the end of this month and wonder what on earth is happening to your bank account, remember this site because there are volumes of information here that can help you to figure out the next steps.
This morning, I’m reading Daisy’s excellent post on saving money on your electricity bill, and it’s gotten me to thinking about fixing the weather stripping on my doors and windows. I hadn’t really put much thought into doing that before, and finding ways to save money is something that I write about here on a weekly basis. There’s a lot of information here, is what I’m saying, and it will get you thinking about things that you had either not thought about before or had let slip your mind.
So do what you can to figure out how you can best protect your budget through this upcoming year.
Prices are going to go up for everything, and like a teenage boy in love, your stupid electric bill is only going to grow stupider. But if you’re regularly checking The Frugalite, you’ll find novel solutions to everyday problems that will help you to deal with this wallet pain.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some weather stripping I need to attend to.
What do you think about this? Are you seeing similar electric bill price hikes? How was your bill for December? How are you coping? Let us know what you’re doing in the comment section.
About Aden
Aden Tate is a regular contributor to TheOrganicPrepper.com and TheFrugalite.com. Aden runs a micro-farm where he raises dairy goats, a pig, honeybees, meat chickens, laying chickens, tomatoes, mushrooms, and greens. Aden has four published books, What School Should Have Taught You, The Faithful Prepper, An Arm and a Leg, The Prepper’s Guide to Post-Disaster Communications, and Zombie Choices. You can find his podcast, The Last American, on Preppers’ Broadcasting Network.
14 thoughts on “My Stupid Electric Bill: Surviving the New Economy”
Interesting article.. So, if you have always been a cheapie, like me, or your mom yelled at you to “turn off the lights” when you leave the room, you probably still do that. HERE IS ANOTHER THOUGHT.. I was charged .25 cents, by my mom, everytime I left a light on.. and yes, I do that to my kids… have made very little money.. thankfully! I would also recommend the following… ceiling fans throughout the house, if at all possible.. GET RID of those ceiling lights.. get a fan. Heat rises, and cold air sinks. Running a celing fan on low, takes virtually no energy, and recirculates the air, so it doesn’t just go through the ceiling, into your crappy insulated attic (r-31 is fantastic by the way!), and out the roof. Same for helping in the summer. Here is another tip… if you live in a snowy area, or even a heavy frost on the roof, see HOW LONG IT TAKES for your roof, to loose the snow.. Does it just disappear in some sections? ALL? Can you see a shadow tress footprint? (ie lines up the roof?), and/0r ice dams? Check out your neighbors roof.. Just because its sunny and under 33, does not mean your roof should be bare after snow, or frost.. If any of these apply, serious get that attic properly insulated… Most home attics are crappy, even with new construction… One of the best money saving things you can do.. INSULATE… walls and attic..
If you go out on a frosty morning before the sun is hitting the roof you’ll be able to see any “hot spots” where heat is seeping through the roof and melting the frost. These are the areas that will need more insulation. The eaves of the roof are good reference point too, as they’re just as cold underneath as on top. If the eves are frosty and the rest of the roof isn’t, your insulation needs help!
True; most attics in new construction are insulated just enough “to meet code.” Adding another layer on top of what’s there will ALWAYS help!
My electric bill went up SIXTY PERCENT at around the middle of last year. Was it weather? No. Was it a failure of a major power plant? No. It was “manufactured” by our nanny “governor” in order to FORCE people to “go green.” This is a great way to do it, Nanny Newsom. Raise electric rates and then FORCE people into electric cars! I could go on all day!
Here are a few things I’ve done to offset “the nanny:”
First off, I went LED for almost every light in the house. Unlike those STUPID “Compact Fluorescent” “Obama bulbs,” LED bulbs actually work BETTER than your old “Edison bulbs.” The light is bright and crisp, and the bulbs stay cool. A 100-watt equivalent LED bulb draws about 9 watts! And the light is GOOD!!! In comparison, a 100-watt equivalent “Obama bulb” delivers AWFUL light, gets hot, doesn’t last as long, and has to warm up when turned on. You can even get LED “fluorescent tubes” for many fluorescent fixtures. Switching over to these will save you MANY, MANY Kilowatt-hours of consumption over the month!!! The cost of these bulbs has come down to almost the same price as Edison bulbs. Beyond that, SHUT OFF THE LIGHTS IF YOU”RE NOT USING THEM!!!
I installed a smart thermostat that’s net-enabled. Not only does it allow me to control the HAVAC from ANYWHERE, it also keeps a history of how long the system runs each day. This gives me insight as to how any changes I’ve made elsewhere in the house affect the run time of the HVAC. The HVAC system is a BIG power draw, especially when the A/C is running. I have a pretty efficient system and it STILL draws 3000 WATTS when running! Also, if I’m sitting in the living room and am comfortable and the HVAC comes on, I just reach for my phone and shut it off.
I installed a whole-house fan. Mine happens to be made by Quiet Cool. I have nothing to do with Quiet Cool, but I will recommend installing one. Yes, it’s EXPENSIVE up front; about $1200.00, but you will save you A LOT of money if it’s used right. Your state may even give you a rebate on its purchase. The whole-house fan draws air from the inside of the house and exhausts it into the attic where it eventually exhausts through the roof vents. This cools the house twofold. I run it early in the day and late in the evening with windows open throughout the house. This allows the fan to draw cool air into the house. The exhausted air then forces the hot air in the attic out the roof vents, cooling the attic. Then I close the place up tight for the day or night. This saves HOURS of run time on the HVAC! Like I said, the A/C draws 3000 watts. The fan, which will ventilate the whole house, draws 400 watts on the HI setting; less than 1/6th of what the A/C draws! A side benefit of a whole-house fan is that it replaces all the stale air in your house with fresh outside air! That fan was some of the best “green” dollars I’ve spent!
Buy yourself a “Kill-A-Watt,” or something of the like. This is a meter that you plug into the wall, and then plug in a lamp, motor, or whatever, to measure the device’s power consumption. The Kill-A-Watt will run you around $30.00. It’ll measure the line voltage, amperage draw of whatever you plug into it, up to 15 amps, Wattage draw, and kilowatt-hours. The meter is SUPER simple to use, and will give you an idea of the “vampire loads” of the stuff you have plugged into the wall. You’d be surprised how much juice is being drawn to power things that are “shut off!”
I installed Kasa net-enabled “smart” wall switches and plug-in “smart” outlets throughout the house. These run through a free app which allows me to control them from anywhere, and connect to your home WiFi. They also let me schedule on and off times on my exterior lights. The app uses an “astronomical clock,” meaning that sunset/sunrise times are adjusted every day to account for lengthening or shortening days. You can program the lights to go on at sunset and off at sunrise, or to come on at X-minutes before or after sunset and turn off at X-minutes before or after sunrise. I had another “smart system in place before Kasa; something called “Wink.” I DO NOT recommend this setup! The plugs and switches are expensive, and have to got through an internet bridge to be net-enabled. On top of that, Wink charges $5.00 per month for the privilege of using your own stuff! Uh… NO.
Beware of those screw-in “dusk-to-dawn” adapters for your outside lightbulbs. I started out looking for some of those but found them to draw around 30 WATTS just for themselves!!! That’s 30 watts, 24/7, for every one of those things! And ironically, they would be controlling LED bulbs that draw between 9 and 17 watts! In comparison, one of those Kasa smart outlets and wall switches draw so little they doesn’t even register on the Kill-A-Watt!
Also beware of those fancy outlet strips with wattage or amperage displays on them or other “functionality.” I had one under my desk. I plugged it into my Kill-A-Watt and found its “vampire load” was 27 watts with NOTHING plugged into it! This doesn’t sound like much, but four or five of these kinds of things will add up to the equivalent of a REFRIGERATOR running 24/7!!! …And refrigerators don’t run 24/7… They cycle on and off…
See if you can do “Time-Of-Use Metering.” Unlike tiered metering, TOU metering charges you more for peak usage times and less for off-peak or “super-off-peak” times. Then, do what you can to run as much stuff at the cheapest times. My super-off-peak time is from 9:00pm to 8:00am. That’s when the dishwasher, washer, drier, and the like get run. If you have an electric car, this is also the cheapest time to charge it. A “Class 1” electric car charger draws around 1500 watts for several hours to charge the car. That’s like running an electric space heater on HI all night long!!!
Again, I could go on all day. And if you think you see a pattern here, you’re right. When your nanny politicians insist you “go green,” count on your “green going…” It is what it is though. Push back wherever you can, and adapt where you must…
Never get smart anything… read the contract for you electric meter.. you are giving up control of your home to power company…
They have and will turn down your energy consumption for the good of the grid.
Your electric car is a massive scam do the math and you will find the lies on every part of it from enviromental to slave kid labour.
Kasa net wifi networks or other things using wifi /ir/bluetooth or rf can be copied you can buy a flipper zero on amazon for under 300 and can open all the smart gear and credicard rfid …
Alot of emf signals in your home make it a low grade microwave cutting down on wireless is a big help to long term health let alone shielding your home or a single room.
New scanners can scan your home for all active rfid chips the store does not disable them just delete from inventory. That means they know what you have inside without opening the doors.
You dont have to be a luddite but really be aware what you are giving up for convenience.
Your smart thermostat DOES NOT give up your control of your HVAC. You can give the power company PERMISSION to take control of that device, but they can’t just TAKE IT. Sure, “they” may be able to hack in, but there’s that firewall. If they get though that, I disconnect the T’stat from the WiFi. Game over. Sure, I lose some functionality, but I’m still trucking.
The electric car; mine is a gas/electric Chevy Volt. I bought it ten years old. The batteries were made in TEXAS. It’ll run on battery for about forty miles on battery and will then switch over to a small gas engine that powers the electric drive. No “range anxiety” here. I wouldn’t have it any other way. It costs me about $1.50 to charge the car at night. I drive it to work and put it on one of the company’s chargers. Another $1.50 and I’ve got enough battery to drive home; 75 miles, round trip. Even on gas, the nearly 4.000 lb car gets 35 MPG. Gas was at around $5.00/gallon most of last year. That would have been over $10.00 per day for gas, compared to $3.00 driving on electric. Even now, with gas hovering at over $4.00 per gallon my commute on gas would be over $8.00 per day. … Do the math… The computer you’re typing on was probably put together using slave/kid labor. So was your phone. And yet, no one will stand up and protest it, or the fact that our country does almost ZERO manufacturing anymore. Why? Because people want their stuff cheap. So, if you want to put your money where your mouth is, shut off and discontinue using ANYTHING that has “MADE IN CHINA” on it. For the record, I DETEST the push to FORCE people to “drive electric.” What type of car you drive should be YOUR CHOICE based on WHAT’S BEST FOR YOU! My Volt works for me. So does my Ford F-250 crewcab longbed turbodiesel! So does my gas stove. Different tools for different jobs.
The Kasa devices; OK, so someone gets into my Kasa devices. What can they do? Turn my lights on and off? That happens, and all I have to do is kill the WiFi. Same goes for the smart thermostat.
If you have WiFi in your house, you’re being pelted with RF in the Ghz range, whether you have one device on it or a hundred. You’re body is also absorbing RF in the Mhz and Khz ranges fro mover-the-air TV and radio. If you carry a cell phone you’re doing more to cook your ‘nads and your brain than ambient RF in your house is. The WiFi RF being generated by the WiFi router falls into the milliwatt range. That’s THOUSANDTHS of a watt. The connected devices are radiating even less. That’s SUPER-low power. Your cell phone can put out up to five watts if you’re in a fringe area.
Every generation has taken advantage of technology to save time, work, and money. I’m doing no different. My power’s been out for the last hour at my place. I’m still connected due to the whole house generator I installed a few years back… I rest my case…
As long as that globalist puppet fake president/democrat Joe Biden is in power any thing us peasants do to save on energy will be like spitting in to a hurricane. Destroying our energy independence so we can transition to some fantasy green economy running on wind and solar is just an idiotic lie. Things will only get worse as they try to force energy prices so high you cannot afford to drive your car, buy food or heat your home. But by then “You will own nothing and be happy!” says the chief globalist puppet master and head of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab
See
Biden praises high gas prices as part of ‘incredible transition’
By Callie Patteson May 23, 2022 4:10pm
https://nypost.com/2022/05/23/biden-praises-gas-prices-as-part-of-incredible-transition/
See
The Great Reset You’ll Own Nothing and Be Happy World Economic Forum Commercial WEF Advertisement AD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aztvWxRKqDQ
See
WEF Caught Scrubbing ‘You Will Own Nothing and Be Happy’ Post From Internet
June 9, 2022 Baxter Dmitry News, US 9
https://newspunch.com/wef-caught-scrubbing-you-will-own-nothing-and-be-happy-post-from-internet/
See
This guy has a real solution to a green economy.
Konstantin Kisin in a speech on
“This House Believes Woke Culture Has Gone Too Far”.
https://twitter.com/KonstantinKisin/status/1613830456243273730
Here are a few other observations. We observe a few weird things with our programmable thermostat it does not like the temperature we chose. Our general rule is when it is say 100 degrees outside during the Warm season we keep the house at 80 degrees here in Texas. Your will notice it is cooler like wise we keep the house near 68 during the cooler months. The thermostat switched and attempted to raise or lower the temperature.
I have seen the solar panels are now covered in a coating of dirt and grime. No rain causes a build up so I wonder if washing those panels off may help increase production levels. I am still trying to find out why thermal energy is not being developed as a source of energy.
https://www.enduroshield.com/en/solar/
Nano sealer for pv we have acre of it no way you can constantly clean it.
New product to enhance watts produced its being mass manufactured in spring 2023
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hyperstealth-has-all-45-claims-our-solar-panel-amplifier-guy-cramer
Let alone other stuff by hyperstealth.com super useful for preps.
I’d say your programmable thermostat is defective. Have had two (at different houses) since the early 90s with no issues. The one we have now is 16+ years old and keeps the temp at programmed settings. Same with the radiant floor.
For every consumer that experiences budget shock for an increase, there is at least one, possibly more that give it no thought. No different than areas where water is at a prime yet plenty water lawns, wash cars/tennis courts, and/or keep the fountain(s) flowing.
We use more electric in the winter months despite a wood stove/natural gas (furnace, water heater, stove, grill, dryer). And that is by choice. A few more buck for electric is cheaper than damage to the roof. Wildlife keeps the bugs at bay. Safe lighting means decreased chance of medical costs due to falls. Face it – when you live in the sticks, it gets dark during the winter.
Turn off the “learning” feature of your thermostat. That’s what’s manipulating your settings. I didn’t like that AI meddling either!
Indeed, dust buildup will lower the output of solar panels. That’s a real problem for us here in the Wild, Wild West. That’s something that the salesmen won’t tell you. They need to be cleaned to maintain output.
Geothermal energy; I’m with you on that…
https://www.enduroshield.com/en/solar/
Nano sealer for pv we have acre of it no way you can constantly clean it.
New product to enhance watts produced its being mass manufactured in spring 2023
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hyperstealth-has-all-45-claims-our-solar-panel-amplifier-guy-cramer
Let alone other stuff by hyperstealth.com super useful for preps.
Never get smart anything… read the contract for you electric meter.. you are giving up control of your home to power company…
They have and will turn down your energy consumption for the good of the grid.
Your electric car is a massive scam do the math and you will find the lies on every part of it from enviromental to slave kid labour.
Kasa net wifi networks or other things using wifi /ir/bluetooth or rf can be copied you can buy a flipper zero on amazon for under 300 and can open all the smart gear and credicard rfid …
Alot of emf signals in your home make it a low grade microwave cutting down on wireless is a big help to long term health let alone shielding your home or a single room.
New scanners can scan your home for all active rfid chips the store does not disable them just delete from inventory. That means they know what you have inside without opening the doors.
You dont have to be a luddite but really be aware what you are giving up for convenience.
This just happened to us. We lock our gate where we live. The Electric company called my wife and said they needed to get into the gate to REPLACE our smart meter? When I asked why…….They mentioned upgrades were being made, we said ours in working just fine. I know what they’re doing, they’ve reconfigured the meter for higher prices. I didn’t know until I started digging that is what’s going on. So, get ready for higher electric bills!!!
The power company doesn’t need to replace your meter to configure it for higher rates. All the meter does is record the number of Kilowatt Hours being used by your house. That info is sent from the smart meter to the power company right over its own power lines. Computation of rates takes place upstream in a computer somewhere at the company. Your suspicions about the power company’s nefarious actions may be borne out in some other sneaky “features” the new meter hosts, but rate changing isn’t one of them.
As for you trying to resist their changing your meter, it’s no use. The power company has an easement on your property from the meter itself out to the street. They can do what they want, and you can’t deny them access. Same goes for the water and gas utilities.