We got some new tires for the SUV today - saved $200 by using a guy I know through work, but still cost us over $600. And the government has decided that 2016 is a good year to stop regulating the electric company and our snake of a provider jacked up the rates over 375% (yes, you read that right) for some periods of the day. This does not bode well for people like us, who use electric heat until the winter sets in enough to switch to wood. Our last electric bill almost doubled. We’re paying almost $800 a month now. Thank God I managed to convince new boss that my salary was far too low for the job I’m doing or we’d have to put the house up for sale again. I feel horrible for all those low-income families that were barely eking out a living before - how on earth are they going to afford to heat their homes now?
We still have a lot of repairs to do around this place - garage roof to be re-shingled, shower replaced in the main bath, back porch to be re-done, basement to be tidied up from the water damage a few years ago, and a sump pump battery back-up to be installed. None of which is cheap. But all of that might have to be put on hold to explore other options for heating this place if the electric is going to sky-rocket like this. I can’t understand how they’re allowed to get away with it when they’re already under investigation from the gov’t for their sketchy billing practices. And the farmers around here must be livid - they were already paying tens of thousands of dollars per month to light their barns.
Things just never seem to get easy when it comes to money. We always have “just enough,” which is ok and I know I shouldn’t complain, but sometimes it would be nice to breathe easy and not have to worry. I end up getting raises at work and think, “now things will get better and we’ll be able to pay off some of this debt we racked up after I lost my other job” … and then hydro companies raise their rates, or groceries double in price, or gas prices soar and we’re right back to where we were. It’s depressing.
And yet I look at the Syrian refugees starting to stream in to the country now and I see images of the state of their own homes, bombed and abandoned and I know I should be quiet. It could be so much worse.
This moment’s music:
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