CTH: My jaw came near the floor today when I opened this month’s electricity bill to find a notification of a 28% increase in electricity rates, effective immediately. An increase of 28%…. just like that.
After the initial shock wore off, I started thinking about what this means to the working-class people in my community.
Already struggling with a doubling of gas prices, massive food price increases at the grocery store and the pain of all costs for goods far outpacing any rate of wage increase, this type of uncontrollable increase in price of electricity is going to hit hard.
In the past we have used CTH threads to spotlight the smart thinking and resourcefulness of Treepers from all walks of life. A discussion thread where people can share tips, things that can actually be done, to help offset the financial pressures during severe economic times. I think we may all benefit from starting a series of post like that again. READ MORE
TIP: Electric/Gas rates are going nowhere but up…
begin trimming wasteful spending, such as Starbucks, Cable-TV, Netflix, SiriusXM subscriptions, QVC buying, pricey restaurants, and impulse grocery buying (chips/snacks, soda and high-end ice cream).
I’m adopting these; will report on any success. 🙂
I don’t care ……. I don’t pay any of that shit ………..
Neither do I, Joey, neither do I …
Joey & Nancy:
You’re both stealing valuable oxygen on this side of the grass. Cut your CO2 emissions ASAP.
Kill the cancer that is Washington DC.
Pay your rent! Landlords are facing the same problems. If you don’t pay your bill, they can’t pay theirs.
That affects vendors to fix A/C and plumbing, plus everything else you DON’T pay for upkeep: water, trash, landscaping and lawn care, insurance, water and upkeep for the pool.
Pay your rent. Shelter is a necessity, not a charity.
Our electric bills doubled last fall. CMP is looking for another rate hike.
Our property taxes went up 30% last year and another 6% this year.
Gas has been between $4.70 and $5.
Milk is now $5 gal
FJB
Thanks Brandon and you Dirty Commie Dems.
You all have it wrong. The solution is even more spending. Trust me. It’s no joke. Come on, man.
Keep a running list of errands that need to be made. Don’t go until you can accomplish many tasks with a single trip to town. I’d find myself returning from town and then realize there were other things I could have done on the same trip but just didn’t remember about them. A clipboard and paper tablet are great for documenting what needs to be done. At my age, I can’t remember everything all the time. Lists help. Those little note pads with the wire spring at the top work great and fit into the pocket.
Vote as many Democrats out of office as you can. I realize that overall the Republicans aren’t much better, but the more Democrats that are ousted, the less influence the radical left has. You are not going to get rid of leftist Democrats like Maxine Waters, Elizabeth Waters, Bernie Sanders or AOC – their brain dead constituents keep returning them to Washington to inflict more pain on the rest of us – but maybe we can reduce the Democrat office holders to a small and ineffectual circle jerk of miserable people.
Walk the grocery aisles looking for the unadvertised sales. If it’s on sale and you can use at a later time, buy it. Nothing is getting cheaper.
refrigerators
this winter, leave a 2 liter bottle of water outside so it freezes solid. Take the ice filled bottle and place it in your refrigerator, and put another outside for the next part of the cycle, when needed.
you will notice a differance
Do your own work. Garden and butcher your own meat. All of your labor is yours to keep, unlike wages.
Eliminate debt. Why make 3 dollars do the work of 2 dollars?
Take a dead tree out of the forest and burn it for cooking food and keeping warm in winter.
BTW, that activity is carbon neutral. No matter how much the commies bitch and moan. A tree exists because it removed carbon from the atmosphere and all you’re doing by burning is putting it back, you’re not “adding” carbon. Otherwise the bugs will feast on it as it decomposes and release methane that’s a much worse environmental gas.
If the cost of electricity has been paid out of your rent, GUESS WHAT!
The General’s 10 Tips:
(1) Buy a lamb and let it eat/ruin your lawn (or ‘lower 40’) and then eat it.
(2) Grow all types of greens for the rabbits that you raise after building a rabbit hutch. Bunnies are delicious – just don’t overcook them as the meat will vanish if you do.
(3) Build a mushroom box and use the rabbit poop with soil as mushroom food.
(4) Chickens. Hens for eggs, separate the roosters out early and fatten them up. Get use to cleaning the roosters and the coop – and the smell (it’s organic chemistry at its finest!). Don’t have a coop? Step away from the computer.
(5) Compost the chicken manure for your vegetable garden. Chicken manure is a gold mine.
(6) Grow root crops and squashes that will keep mostly through the winter. Beets, carrots, parsnips, turnips, potatoes. Acorn, butternut, crookneck, zucchini etc. (The crookneck and zucchini can be frozen, too.)
(7) Make your own jams, pickles and tomato sauce (cucumbers are easy to grow). Can when possible. Freeze vegetables in vacuum bags. Get the machine.
(8) Go fishing if you can.
(9) Hunt if you can.
(10) Eat less and work harder for more fun and better sleep. Go to bed physically tired everyday.
(11) Steal pies from your neighbor’s windowsill.
Can’t afford food?
Eat cake!
I guess that should be: “Can’t afford bread? Eat cake!”
Crank up your Private Jet and run an electrical line to the house.
Voila!
Free electricity!
I keep the house at 81 during the day.
I ramp it down when the sun gets low
to 78 to sleep. Cut extra vents in your
soffets to let more air flow the attic.
BIG HELP ! Eat only twice a day and you
will have no fat on you like radioman…..
Buy South Dakota, a bunch of peasants to farm it, and a Power Plant or two (and the guys to run it).
Bill,
Been there; Done that.
Whole countries, in fact.
Pull out your electric meter and replace it with a couple of buss bars. (Make sure you’re insulated) FJB
Will everybody please shut up and charge your EV.
Arm yourself to the teeth. Make a run through the hood beating the crap out of every lazy deadbeat in sight. Steal their EBT cards. Head to the grocery store. Eat like a king tonight.