Decreasing My Natural Gas Bills Monthly

Good news! My natural gas bill just went down. YAY!!

When I moved into the house in June, one of the first things I had to do was get all of the utilities put into my name. My ex and I historically had used the budget plan for heat and because I'm living in a 200+ year old house in Michigan winters, I did the same. When I switched the heat over from his name to mine, I was disappointed to find that the monthly budgeted amount went up by quite a bit.* The customer service person I was speaking with said that natural gas prices were on the rise. With my service plan warranty, my monthly gas bill has been $146.95, which was about $15 - $20 more than what my ex was paying.

Apparently the gas company just did a 6 month correction. My new bill is $109.95. I now have $37.00 less to pay each month, which is another $37.00 closer to my $900 a month goal! Interestingly, this does not take into account the fact that I just had my furnace repaired and it is running far more efficiently. It is entirely possible that in six months I might see another correction for the better. It is funny, what happens when you become frugal - your gas bill goes down and you end up doing a little happy dance in your kitchen!

I have had some other thoughts on the budget plan and how to modify those monthly heating costs...

Part of that monthly cost is a service call warranty plan that is $12.95 a month. I have considered dropping the warranty plan, but I haven't because I am a landlord. I can't afford to have my heat out when I have a tenant. It did certainly came in handy recently, but I have to say, I really do hate warranty plans. I would prefer instead to have enough money in my emergency funds to cover it should there be a problem. Unfortunately, my emergency fund just isn't there yet, and frankly, it is still needed for other emergencies... like not making my $900 a month goal. Once I get it further built up and have enough stocked away, I am definitely doing away with the warranty!

I also have mixed feelings about using the budget plan. On one hand, I love the simplicity of it. Each month my budget is exactly the same - I know in advance how much that bill will be. Without it, I would easily have $300+ bills in the winter months. This way I can set my payments up with my automatic bill pay and I never have to worry about it - they just take care of themselves.

The downside though is that I am spending a lot more on heat in the summer than I should - essentially I am paying into an account, and they are the ones getting the interest! If I could, I would be more inclined to pay the same amount each month into my own account and pay the bills out of that, so I am the one getting the interest. The problem is that I don't know what to predict for heating costs yet. I don't have much in the way of historical data at this point, nor do I know what gas prices will be in the future. Perhaps once I have lived a full year or two in the house I will get a better feel for it.

I also have as one of my goals this year to winterize my home. Each month I am trying to do a couple of projects that will help with that - even in the summer. I hope that will also help on that all important bottom line as well. I keep the heat at 69 degrees in the morning between 6:30 and 9:00 a.m.. After that, it goes to 65 degrees until 5:00 p.m. when it warms up again to 69. At 11:15 it goes to 62 degrees. Personally, I would keep it a lot cooler if it were up to me, but again, because my furnace also heats the one bedroom apartment, I try to keep it at a comfortable temperature for her.

What about you? What do you do to keep your heating bills down? Where do you set your thermostat?



*We had attempted to sell the house from January to June. He had made a spreadsheet of his utility bills for the Realtor and I had a copy. At the time I was determined to keep my costs low, so I was disappointed that my bills would be higher right off the bat.

Photo by: Maroon Michelle