Water Bill
The water bill came to $129.49 this month, while it was $102.32 in January 2013. That’s about $27 more, which is a pretty significant increase, and it’s certainly not where I would have liked to see it end up. I’m not sure there is a whole lot more I can do to reduce my water consumption, but I will put together a water reduction checklist and see if I’m wasting water somewhere where I don’t realize it.
Saved: $0.00
Electricity Bill
This month’s electricity bill was $45.71 while the electricity bill for the same period last year was $39.16. While only about $5 in difference, it was in the wrong direction. I’ll have to spend some time looking if there are some other steps I can take to reduce the amount of electricity I have been using.
Saved: $0.00
Gas Bill
The gas bill came to $89.61 this month while it was only $41.36 for the same period last year. This was a huge increase and one that I’m not happy with at all. I can’t remember if the weather has been colder this year than it was last year, but I was definitely not pleased to see this big of a difference when comparing the bills.
Saved: $0.00
At first, I was perplexed at how this could happen since I had been going out of my way to save in all three areas. I had also been gone a number of days house sitting which should have helped as well. I then looked back at my calendar last year and realized that I had a long house sitting stint in January 2013 which kept me away for three of the four weeks. Considering how much more I was around this year, the increase in the bills was actually a lot less than might have been expected. Since this billing period is kind of like comparing apples and oranges, it’s still a toss-up as to whether or not the utility conservation is working. Hopefully next month will make this a lot clearer and there will be a reduction this year compared to the same month last year so I can claim some savings for the challenge.
Money Jar & Pay to Use My Car
Due to the failure of finding savings from utilities this month, the only savings I was able to add to my total came from the money jar and using the car. Because I had such a good week last week, I didn’t count either of these toward the total. That decision was a good one considering what transpired this week. There was $5.15 in the change jar, so I’ll put $5 toward the savings this week. There was also $8 for the driving fund over the two weeks.
Saved: $13.00
Total Saved Week 5: $13.00
$1 $2 $3 $4 $5 $6 $7 $8 $9 $10
$11 $12 $13 $14 $15 $16 $17 $18 $19 $20
$21 $22 $23 $24 $25 $26 $27 $28 $29 $30
$31 $32 $33 $34 $35 $36 $37 $38 $39 $40
$41 $42 $43 $44 $45 $46 $47 $48 $49 $50
$51 $52
Goals for the Coming Week
What happened this week is exactly why I like the alternate version of the 52 week challenge as compared to the standard version. The unexpected sometimes happens and I was able to save far less this week than I’d anticipated. Still, I crossed off a number on the chart so I’m still in business.
I have a busy week coming up, but what I’d like to do is put together a checklist for at least one of the three utilities (water, gas and electricity) on ways to better save money.
How did you do in your week 5 challenge?
The 2014 Challenge
Week One
Week Two
Week Three
Week Four
(Photo courtesy of KOMUnews)