The past two weeks were so busy; I decided to take a much needed “me day.” Between preparing for the visit with the kids and then working extra days, I can’t remember the last time I stayed home all day. Given the distances we drive to go places, sometimes it is just nice to stay at home!
Today I ordered our propane for the upcoming season. The current price is $1.319/gallon. We have two 1,000 gallon tanks. One tank is at roughly 18% and the other around 22%. They can fill these up to a max of 80% to allow for expansion. So, my guestimate is that with delivery fees and taxes, we are looking at roughly $1,700. We should know in a few days when they make their delivery! Yikes. On the bright side, we only fill up once a year. I’ll need to make up a small sign for the delivery driver to find the tanks as the woods are so thick around them, they are impossible to see. Good thing as (in my opinion) they are a bit of an eyesore!
I also ordered a load of wood. That will set us back $450. Winter comes early for us and lasts a long time, so it is nice to have a supplemental heat source to offset what we would otherwise spend on propane. If we can swing it financially, I’ll likely order a second load after I get the first one stacked. We try to keep a season ahead with our supply as it allows the wood to season longer. Orders must be coming in as it will be a week or so before I’d get our delivery.
Another thing I did was call about getting our chimney cleaned. The company we have used in the past is no longer accepting appointments. Great. I left a message and hope they call me back and make an exception since we have always been on their books. If not, I’ll be calling around for someone else. This should teach me to take care of this much earlier in the year!
I have our first snowball to our Visa scheduled for tomorrow. We will be reducing the balance by $400, bringing it down to $6,723.39. I’m happy to see it below $7,000. Looking at where we started ($55,749.69) we are nearing the $50,000 mark! Wow, that is a lot of debt wiped out…and this doesn’t include what we’ve paid down on our mortgage!
On another topic, the hummingbirds we feed and watch have been crazy this year. We have so many them, and several are even friendly enough to land on your fingers! The birds were doing this when the kids/grandkids were here as well, and they all got a big kick out of it. Next year, for sure, I’m going to add an additional feeder or two. I currently have two up, one in the front of the house and the other in the back. It’s a good thing hummingbird feed is cheap to make as I’ve needed to refill both feeders almost daily for the past couple of weeks. They sure are fun little birds to watch. Hubs calls them little lunatics. Lol
It has been raining on and off here, so a good day to sit back and watch some Amazon Prime or YouTube. Watching television is something I rarely do during the summer, but today feels like a good day to do so!
Ok, I’m NEVER going to complain to you about our heating prices in the winter – you might never speak to me again 🙂 Even though you know how much I HATE, HATE, HATE living here and the heat, I am grateful we don’t have those heating prices to budget for…..although we will probably still be paying off our electric bills from the summer air conditioning use than…..)
So glad you got a down day – you work so hard I’m glad you are taking a day for “you” – I just hope you are binge-watching something fun 🙂
I guess it is a tradeoff. We have high heating costs, but you get hit with a/c costs. Probably doesn’t help, though, that our winters last so blasted long!
I did binge watch some You-Tube. Found some free full-length HGTV shows!
my dh thinks the hummingbirds are crazy, too. I’ve been having to fill up 2 every few days. I am anxious o see what our winter heating bills will be with this house. Our HVAC guy we ended up with advised us not to go propane, since we are on a co-op electricity company and it’s cheaper than propane. Plus, we have the heat pump, so our furnace is some kind of hybrid deal where it’s supposed to not use much electricity. My most recent bill, with a/c in the whole house was only $109. We sure didn’t need to put in a 1000 gallon propane tank! We thought we were having propane furnace. Oh well, it’s filled up and hopefully lasts a long time, now (shop heater and hot water heater and one water heater in house on propane)
You may need to add more feeders ~ your DH is good about wanting to keep others fed! Lol
Your low electric bill is fantastic! Even though you went with a different heating system, the larger propane tank can help guard against price increases. Once we do our remodel/addition (several years away from now) I’m sure better windows and insulation will reduce our expenses too. I am also curious as to how much our new furnace will save us. Kind of difficult to tell though, as it last winter was one for the books.
I have very high heat bills and ac bills, both electric. I still freeze in the winter. But, I would rather be cold than hot.
I agree with you there. I prefer the cold. I can always add more layers but can only take so much off and remain legal in public! Lol
Yikes-that is a lot of out of pocket at one time for fuel, but then as you said, done for the year. I’d like to do better keeping our rate lowo r at least our use low since we have no control over pricing.
That’s why we buy it when we do. Prices always go up as demand increases. As it is, I was told the price is set to increase by 10 cents/gallon in a week or two. Buying so much propane at once is a budget challenger, but in the end, does save us some $. If memory serves me correctly, you are in MN. If so, I know you get some brutally cold temperatures. How much fuel do you estimate you go through during a season?
I envy you your hummingbirds! I love watching them zip in and out. Our heating bills are only not high because we are quite careful not to use the new furnace too much. It works quite well now that we’ve replaced it and the ducting but goodness it costs a pretty penny if we were to spoil ourselves with a lot of heat inside all the time 🙂
Hooray to the snowball payment!
Revanche @ A Gai Shan Life recently posted…Money & Life Report: July 2019
These little birds sure are entertaining to watch! Our heating costs would be a lot higher if not for our woodstove. I’d likely have the thermostat set at around 60 if we were relying solely on our furnace! Our hot water heater and kitchen stove are also propane, so that adds to our yearly expense. Heating a home certainly isn’t cheap!
Just wanted to stop by, say hello, and tell you that your blog continues to be an inspiration for me. I really appreciate your transparency.
Congratulations on wiping out nearly $50K of debt!
The $76K Project recently posted…Part-Time Lifestyle Income Report #1 (Week Of August 5)
Thanks! Glad the blog continues to inspire.