Our (somewhat) scientific study

First, I have to note that it's not even 7:30pm and both boys are in bed! This doesn't normally happen, but we went to Palm Beach today (at Moody Gardens in Galveston). The boys were totally worn out, and they both had short naps because the ride home isn't very long. Grant's behavior tonight proved that he was tired, so he actually went to his room before 6:30 (although he didn't go to sleep right away). And I just put Drew to bed. Yippee....lots of free time!

Anyway....

In mid-July, we got our electricity bill and I almost gasped when I read it. Four hundred and twenty one dollars! That is by far the highest we've ever had....I know last summer we spent a couple of months in the $300s, but nothing this high. But it wasn't too hard to believe. The previous month we'd kept our A/C pretty much constantly at 75 degrees (which we don't normally do in the summer). And at times it was even lower (esp when we had company). It's always a couple degrees warmer upstairs than down, so even at night it was around 77 in our bedrooms when it was 75 downstairs. Frustrating. (By the way, I will never buy a house again without asking first whether there's a separate A/C unit upstairs!)

So I told Dean that we had no choice but to notch the A/C up a little after that ridiculously high bill. And pretty much constantly this entire month, it's been a little experiment of mine. Instead of being constantly set at 75, we set the thermostat at 77, and that's where it stayed pretty much all month (except for a few hours here or there when we either set it higher or lower by a degree). And......we also didn't run our dishwasher on heated dry (which I probably did 50% of the time the previous month). Aside from those two things, we didn't do anything differently. And I think the outside temps were pretty much the same from mid-June to mid-July as they were from mid-July to mid-August.

So.....I got an email notification of our new bill last night.....it was $319! Yay!! I'd say that it's worth sitting in a little bit warmer house if it saves you 100 dollars per month (of course Dean might not agree!). I've never been able to see such a direct relationship between thermostat settings and electricity bill, so I thought I would share!

Also, here are some pictures of our snazzy new couch. I think it looks so great in our den and I'm always happy when I walk in the room and see it. It's just fun getting new stuff, especially when it's cheap (and nice)! Our old couches still felt brand new after 10 years....the cushions weren't broken down at all. But they were looking dated, and it was becoming a chore keeping Drew out of the corner table between them. We went through this stage with Grant, and it was starting to get annoying with Drew wanting to be on top of (or inside) that table all the time. Plus, we felt like that room would be the perfect place for a sectional, and that it might open up the living room to the kitchen a little better.

Old couches:

New couch!Now I just need to go look for some accent pillows. And this is what's so great about Craigslist....we bought this couch for $375, then we sold our old couches the next day for $100. I would have asked for more, except that there were quite a few cat scratches on the back of one of them. Plus, with two babies who spit up a lot, I knew all the stuff that was embedded in the cushions and my conscience couldn't let me ask for more!