The Great Adventure: Part Deux

So, last time I told you about our self-inflicted financial issues and our goal to give the dreaded budget a makeover. This is where I tell you the plot of the story and detail the “hardships” that are going to make it a good read. Much of our problem stems from simple lack of focus. We know what to do, but get distracted by the new and interesting ________ just ahead. (Read: bees, chickens, siding, bucking wood, pigs, Latin, garden, greenhouse, etc.)

That being aired, here’s the plan so far.

1. Electric – As a family of seven, with filthy hobbies (see above), we generate quite a bit of dirty clothes. Add to that cloth diapers and outfits that have been spit up on and you find me washing clothes almost every day, at least once a day. I have read up on it and researched a bit and discovered that running a dryer costs about 60 cents per hour. Doesn’t sound too bad, right? Takes about an hour and one half to run a load through the dryer; so for each month of dryer use we spend $22.58 to blow hot, moist air outside. Still sounds reasonable? That is almost $300 a year! I can think of better places to spend that money.

 

Next we have lights. We have four children currently capable of reaching the light switches in our house. Either we become light Nazi’s (which I may do anyway) or slowly replace our bulbs with LED’s. (I hear lots of positive raving about CFL’s, but as a completely accident prone person, I refuse to have them around.) Anyway, LED’s are longest lasting, way cheaper to run and don’t dim when the air-conditioning turns on. Check out this side-by-side comparison.

	LED	CFL	Incandescent
Light bulb projected lifespan	50,000 hours	10,000 hours	1,200 hours
Watts per bulb (equiv. 60 watts)	10	14	60
Cost per bulb	$35.95	$3.95	$1.25
KWh of electricity used over 50,000 hours	500	700	3000
Cost of electricity (@ 0.10per KWh)	$50	$70	$300
Bulbs needed for 50k hours of use	1	5	42
Equivalent 50k hours bulb expense	$35.95	$19.75	$52.50
Total cost for 50k hours	$85.75	$89.75	$352.50

 

2. Heating and cooling-Our house has a propane forced air furnace and stove.  Since I cannot do less cooking, that leaves the furnace.  On a whim, we installed a used wood stove in the kitchen two years ago.  Last winter we used that little fella a lot and were able to get through one of the coldest winters of my experience.  This year, with lots of dry ash stacked in the basement, we should be able to knock out 2-300$ a month of propane to keep us warm.  (Plus the heat re-claimer helps the hanging laundry to dry very quickly.)

*Note-Don’t be concerned. There is more wood that is not shown in this photo.

 

These options are doable, easy even.  Which brings me to the thing that will make the biggest difference and will be difficult.  This is the suffering part of our adventure.  Smoking.

3. Smoking

Many people who know how we eat (no grain, PUFA’s or sugar) are quite surprised to know that we smoke.  After all, we do all these difficult and sometimes expensive things to keep our bodies in good working order (think organic pastured meat).  The reason the food transitions were comparatively easy is the quick results of the change.  Eating well has increased our energy levels, cured my blood sugar issue and even healed some chronic immune problems.  Unfortunately, quitting smoking has no short-term discernible good effects. Quite the opposite, my body goes through withdrawal.  I don’t feel any different for even the first six months of not smoking.  However, the financial reward is huge.

One pack a day between us is at least $200 a month.

Therefore, it is our goal to quit; to find a similar, but good habit and replace smoking with it.  God help us and the children that will be enduring the “third-day” attitudes from us.  Amen.