We actually pay our bills automatically online, but I did a double take when I saw this bill-payment notice. It’s a good thing it wouldn’t be boasting to say that’s a decent power bill for nine people during the entire month of August, because if it were I’d be boasting. We’re part of a rural electric co-op which charges $25 a month just to be connected, so that means we actually spent all of $20.80 on electricity last month, or about $0.69 a day. Add that to the fact that we have no water, gas, or cable bill, not to mention no Dumb Stupid bill (all credit cards are Dumb Stupid), and it’s a good thing I’m not given to boasting.

How? Well, for one, we teach our kids to turn off the lights. Kids came pre-programmed to leave everything in exactly the state it was when something new distracts them (every one to 90 seconds, depending on age), and that includes bedroom lights, bathroom lights, computers, buzz saws, etc. If we sit down to dinner and I see a light on anywhere in the house (our house is so small I can just about tell, from where I sit), the most likely offender gets to stand from her meal and go “peg it.”

Also we have mostly new appliances, low-flow faucets and shower heads, etc. Most appliances nowadays are pretty darn efficient. My parents just got rid of an old upright freezer at their house that was costing them $20 a month to run. We have three freezers at our house, including two large uprights each the size of theirs, and combined they don’t cost a fraction of that.

Also we have a tankless water heater that runs on propane. This is a big deal for a big family. I was talked into a tankless by the analogy of your car: would you leave it running all night just because you’ll be using it in the morning? Yet water heaters run all the time to keep the water hot, andthey’re still liable to run out. It makes lots more sense to just heat the water as you need it. A tankless is expensive to buy and install, but with multiple teenage daughters in the house we figure it will pay for itself in about five years.

Also we don’t have an air conditioner. This is an unfair comparison if you live where you really need it. After driving Dexter around all summer with no AC (which means windows down at freeway speeds, which deafens me and positively ruins my ‘do) I understand that AC is a necessity sometimes. But because our house is so well insulated, we leave the windows open all night in the summertime and close them in the morning, trapping the cool in the house during the day. Sometimes I’ll see people’s AC units running at night when it’s 68° out. Shut them off and open the windows!

The two biggest power draws at our house are our well pump (non-negotiable, but it does pretty well drawing water for nine people from 700 feet down!) and the dryer. But we set up a couple of clotheslines and that saves a pretty penny.

There’s a lot of information online about how to cut your energy use. We’d do it even if it weren’t the fad right now, because it’s hard to beat a monthly power bill that costs less than some people’s dinner.