Our electric bill, and the affordability of cooking from scratch . . .

I never thought this would be such an exciting monthly event! Yes, our electric bill is in. And, it's good! Our KWH usage for the month last year was 944. THIS YEAR 587! Our average KWH usage per day went from 31.5 to 17.6! Hey, that's a big improvement. That doesn't even include the new CFL's I've installed in our home. Next month I hope it will be even greater. With the additional CFL's and I finally installed two powerstrips that I can turn off all of our computer and t.v. stuff quickly. Exciting. (I'm still living at 66 degrees in my house. I called the oil company to get a print out of our account over the past few years so I can measure any progress ... I'm not going to have chilled fingers for nothing!)

While we are talking about the expense of electricity . . .

I recently saw an article in the Providence Journal that reminded me of a conversation that a group of us had at family night one Sunday. The article was titled "Use common sense when coping with food costs" and on the second page "You can cut food costs and eat a more healthful diet." Amen. The article creates a shopping list along with recipes for six meals for a family of four, for under $20. No kidding. We have been sold on conveneince and have ended up with processed poison that's clogging our arteries, making us over weight, filling up our landfills with needless packaging that people don't take the time to recycle, AND ROBBING US BLIND. It is better for us to eat and drink REAL food. It's better for our health, our earth and our wealth. Think about it.

What we were talking about a few family nights ago was how our commercial capitalistic materialistic society has twisted our perception of what we need. For example, we've been sold that our children (and adults for that matter) need all kinds of electronics to be entertained and content. A book at the library is free to use, enjoy, increase your vocabulary and exercise your brain. Do they need gameboys and an xbox? Suddenly everyone looks around and stamps their foot and says "Hey! I can't afford to live on one income! I'm having to max out my credit card(s)! Just to get by!" Interesting? Maybe we need to think about living simply.

Just something that's been on my mind.