If your energy bills and food cost doubled

[Faize]

I don't know what in the world we would do if the power bill doubled. Last year our highest power bill was almost $400.00 there is no way we would be able to afford $800.00 a month for power...I guess we would sit in the dark and unplug everything but the AC. Maybe I can find a creek to wash my clothes in...

Florida customers were hit by about a 16% price hike in power in 2008 as the local power companies began investing in solar energy. The power companies have to go to the Florida Public Service Commission every time they want a rate hike. The Commission is suppose to look after the customer by ensuring the power sold is purchased from the cheapest source .Instead they justified the increase by stating future global warming legislation would make solar cheaper even though it cost almost 400% more to produce. Looks like no one is looking out for the people themselves

Have you thought about getting just a small window unit to run only in the room you most use when you are home during the day ?
That might help the bill go down quite a bit.
For it won't since I downsized considerably when I saw this coming several years ago and a single unit would run about the same to run as the central unit set at 80F.
If it gets worse I guess I will have to raise the temperature in the house a little bit .
(for you northerners having ac in Florida in the brutal summer amounts to the same as having heat in the winter up north ...people die here of heat strokes without it)

[434Teresa]

well my food bill would be more than double if i did not use coupons so I have already been there and done that one and it was hard...as far as the power bill it is double in the winter time for some odd reason in the summer with the air running 24/7 it runs about $215 in the winer its like $450 and what we do is stay at home more it takes from our going out to the movie money every 2 weeks and there is other things that we have to cut back on to pay the bill..

[loladooder99]

I don't know what in the world we would do if the power bill doubled. Last year our highest power bill was almost $400.00 there is no way we would be able to afford $800.00 a month for power...I guess we would sit in the dark and unplug everything but the AC. Maybe I can find a creek to wash my clothes in...

I know what you mean. if i had to wash my clothes with a scrub board in a tub I would. My utilities went up 30-40 dollars a month. Which isn't alot to some people but i was spending that on food. Sitting in the house with nothing turned on doesn't work. Lol i unplugged everything for a month and didn't turn on lights unless i had to at night and my utility bill was the same cause its all basically fees. 10% percent is actual usage. I wish I had a book or information on how people lived back in the days when there was no electricity. Like how they kept their food and stuff.

[KenyaMK]

Our GOAL is to sell this house that is more than we should afford and downsize and at that point DH wants to install solar panels and have as many energy saving/green appliances as we can. He doesn't want to invest it into this house because we aren't planning on staying.

Automobile gas: We would like to move closer to the train station and DH now drives to the southernmost poinst of the train route and that is a good 10 miles away from us. We have an SUV but when gas got up to $4/gallon I simply drove less and kept the gas bill the same. I would do it again if needed.

Food: Our current plan is to buy a few acres.....we have 2.5 right now and want at least that in our new place......and have a good garden going and maybe a small greenhouse in the yard. I would most likely do whatever it took to save, make everything from scratch, coupon, etc....

Dawn