During the winter, I keep my family warm with a wood stove.
I know that it is not as convenient as a furnace, but it saves me a lot of money. I live in a heavily wooded area, and I am able to cut down all of my own wood to heat my home during the winter. I spend no money on my heating system, only time and effort. However, this makes me distinctly sad during the summer, because the air conditioner always causes my electric bill to skyrocket. I remember the first summer when I used my air conditioner. After the first month, I was completely floored about how much money I was spending to use my air conditioner. I hadn’t factored the increase in expenses into my budget, so I had to take some money out of savings to make up the difference for the electricity bill. From that month on, we adjusted our thermostat to use our air conditioner as little as possible. The temperature in our house was comfortable and natural feeling. My wife started getting tired of that this year, so she adjusted the thermostat one day at the beginning of the month. For the entire month, our air conditioner was running more often to keep our home at the temperature that hse had set the thermostat too. At the end of the month, I was shocked to see that our electric bill had jumped $50. When I told my wife that our bill was higher, she confessed that she had adjusted the thermostat and caused the higher bill. I was furious.