WOO HOO!

Looks like next month my credit card debt is going to drop below $40,000!  I’m sure to the average person with credit card debt this probably doesn’t sound like a reason to celebrate but for me this is HUGE!  I’m so excited!  This is exactly what I need right now.  I feel like I’m making progress.   Here’s my mint.com snapshot:

Yesterday morning I checked my email and saw an email from the electric company saying my electric bill was ready.  I opened the email and my jaw dropped when I saw my balance due was $989.91!  I clicked the link to long on to my account so I could see a detailed view of my bill.  Of course the site was down for mantenance until 3pm, just my luck, right?

I went and told my husband about the bill and we went outside to look at our meter.  The meter was spinning out of control and all we had running was our evaporative cooler and two tv’s.  My husband tripped the pump (we’re on a well) and the meter slowed down just a tiny bit, next he tripped the evaporative cooler and again, the meter slowed down just a tiny bit.   He then went and unplugged our spa, which we rarely use.  The meter didn’t slow down any.

I freaked out and called the electric company but I was told I’d have to hold for 45 minutes, so I hung up.  We ended up taking our boat out on the lake and I freaked out about the bill all day long.  I didn’t actually talk about the bill but it’s all I could think about.

Our day got even better when we hit an unmarked rock and damaged our propeller but my husband said he’ll grind it out and it’ll be as good as new.  We ended up having a great day and the kids got in a lot of swimming.

When we got home, I immediately logged onto my electric bill online and found out my current bill is ONLY $419!  It turns out I forgot to pay last months bill of $570, what a relief!  I paid the $570 and in two weeks I’ll pay the current charges of $419.  What’s strange about my bill is it’s down $151 this month and nothing has changed.  I line dry everything except for dark clothes because I need the lint removed by the dryer, we don’t run the air conditioner but we do run the evaporative cooler.  I swear if I had neighbors, I would think someone is stealing electricity from me.  My electric bill is out of control!  I plan on calling PG&E and asking them to come out and tell me exactly what is sucking up the electricity.

What’s good about the scare is my husband is finally on board with helping me lower the electric bill, before he’d look at me like I was strange when I’d go around turning lights off, like I was going overboard or something.  The spa is now unplugged and drained, we’re hoping this will shave $75 or so off our bill.  My husband is looking into drilling (himself) a well out at our barn, so we’d have more low cost electricity or putting in a “do it yourself” windmill at the barn and selling the extra electricy back to the electric company for the crazy $.25 a kwh they charge us at the barn.  PG&E has told me since the barn doesn’t have it’s own well we have to pay the higher rate, so if we put in a well we’ll get the lower rate.  My husband is in the drilling business so I’m sure he can figure out how to do drill a well cheap.