1. You deserve to have whatever you want, even if you can’t afford it

You work hard, don’t you? Okay, well, even if you don’t work hard what does it matter? We are here to enjoy ourselves and withholding cool toys, cars, gadgets and handbags from our lives is not enjoyable. You are an adult now and, as such, you make the rules for your life. There are no more parents making you do stupid things like eat healthy, go to work on time, or save money. Don’t let your budget become a surrogate parent — show it who’s boss and get what you want — whether you can afford it or not.

2. It’s fun to always get what you want immediately upon wanting it

If you want something, you should have it immediately, almost as if there is a genie in a bottle on your living room table just waiting to answer your call. If you think about it, waiting to get something until you have saved enough money is always very uncomfortable. There is no fun in the whole process because you spend all that waiting time NOT enjoying the cool new item. When you get everything you want immediately, your life is filled with fun experiences that you never have to earn and whose novelty NEVER runs out.

3. Working for things is boring and makes you feel used

Earning the things you want is for suckers. There is no reason why you should have to go out and earn money to buy the things you want—you should just put them on a credit card. This isn’t the third grade and you don’t need any gold stars to show what a good little worker you are. After all if you don’t pay the credit card bill, who cares? They’ll just charge it off or…something…

4. Stress over finances can’t be as unhealthy as everyone says it is

You’ve heard it all — ulcers, high blood pressure, insomnia, weight gain — sheesh, is there any medical illness that isn’t attributed to stress over finances? It can’t be all that bad. Look, millions of people live paycheck to paycheck each week and just skate by on what they are earning and they don’t all end up sick all the time…or at least…they don’t talk about it if they are. They don’t worry about boring stuff like emergencies, retirement and college savings — why should you?

5. You CAN have everything you want if you just rationalize it enough

There are about a million ways you can make yourself think you can afford something. You can tell yourself that you won’t go out to eat next month (even though you know it’s not true). You can tell yourself that this is the last splurge you’ll have until Christmas (even though you already plan on splurging again next week). You can tell yourself that your budget will be back on track in a couple more weeks, so this won’t be a big deal (even though you have been telling yourself for the past year or two but it never seems to actually get, “back on track”). Just tell yourself whatever you need to hear to make it okay and then spend!

photo credit: ladybugbkt

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The Electricity Detector and Electricity Monitor can reduce your monthly electric bill and help you save a lot of money. Electricity bills can be murder. But now with Kill a Watt you can cut down on costs and find out what machines are actually worth keeping plugged in. Simply connect your appliances to the Kill A Watt and Kill a Watt will assess how efficient they really are.

It seems to be a nice gauge to have and the review on the SuperMediaStore website is positive (though only three reviews so far). If it can indeed help me save on electric bill, as  it claims it can, then it is worth the $19 cost. Jonathan at MyMoneyBlog.com has a nice discussion on this product back in October.

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• Clean your furnace filter: This will make your furnace more efficient as it doesn't have to push hot air through a clogged filter. Also getting the furnace tuned up at least once a year can further boost efficiency.
• Get a programmable thermostat: Let the thermostat control the temperature for you: reduce the heat when no one is home and turn it up before you get back.
• Take advantage of the sun: Open up the curtains on south-facing windows during the day, close all the curtains at night, and let the sun help naturally heat your home.
• Turn down the hot water: Set the water temperature to 120 degrees instead of 140 degrees Fahrenheit. It's safer and more energy efficient.
• Insulate and seal: Adding an extra layer of insulation to your roof or walls and sealing cracks around windows can save you on energy and get you a tax break as well.
• Upgrade your windows: Install windows with the government-endorsed Energy Star label, both for efficiency and to take advantage of the tax credit.

More tips on cutting heating costs can be found here. Information on energy efficiency related tax credits is available here. 

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However, what really surprised me wasn't the unit price at $2.459/gallon, but the volume for the latest fill-up.

27 gallons! Yes, 27 gallons!

I couldn't believe the number when I saw the bill and it seemed as if the previous delivery was last month. But when I pulled out the record, I was almost shocked. The last delivery wasn't in September, but in May! That's more than five months and we only used 27 gallons? True the past five months were summer times and the oil was only for hot water, not heating, but still 27-gallon was a unbelievably small number.

Anyway, as I went through the record, I also calculated how much we spent last heating season. The first delivery of last winter was on November 9th, 2005 and the price as $2.479/gallon only 2 cents above what we got yesterday, thanks to the sharp decline of oil prices in recent months. For that delivery, we paid $162.74 total. Then we had another one on January 2nd, 2006, for $2.549/gallon and total $361.36. The last was on February 23rd, 2006, for $2.499/gallon and total $339.19. All together, we only spent $863.29 on heating oil last winter which wasn't bad at all. Actually, there were a couple of factors that I think helped us lowering the bill:

• Use programmable thermostat to control the temperature: Since nobody is at home from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm, I set the temperature at 60 degrees when we leave home in the morning and at 5:30 pm, the heat will be turned on and remains on until the temperature reaches 68 degrees. From 10:00 pm to 6:30 am, I set the thermostat at 62 degrees and the heat is on again when we wake up in the morning at 6:30 with the temperature set at 68 degrees.
• In the weekend, if we leave home for several hours, I use the Temporary feature on the thermostat to overwrite the programmed settings so the heat won't be on all the time when we are not at home.
• Use a radiator in the bedroom. We have a Delonghi oil radiator in our bedroom and it is on throughout the night, from 9:00 pm to 6:30 am, so I can set temperature else where at 62 degrees, reducing the use of heating oil. 

For more winter energy saving tips, click here.

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Nationwide, 58 percent of all households depend on natural gas as their primary heating fuel.  Despite increased natural gas consumption this winter, households in all regions will pay significantly less for natural gas this winter due to lower prices. For example, in the Midwest, about 79 percent of households rely on natural gas to heat their homes, and this upcoming winter, these households can expect to pay nearly 14 percent less in natural gas expenditures relative to last winter. Lower expenditures in this region are the result of a projected 18-percent decline in price compared with last winter, even as Midwest natural gas consumption is expected to grow by 4 percent. In the West, about 66 percent of all households rely on natural gas, and these households can expect to pay 10 percent less for natural gas this winter, even though consumption is expected to increase by 2 percent.

For heating oil:

Nationwide, only 7 percent of U.S. households depend on heating oil for winter fuel. However, most of those households that do heat with heating oil are in the Northeast, where 32 percent of households use heating oil as their primary heating fuel.  In this region, households are projected to pay about 7 percent more in heating oil expenditures compared to last winter. Midwest households relying on heating oil can expect to pay 6 percent more than last winter, but relatively few households in the Midwest (3 percent) use heating oil as their primary fuel.

There's an article today on SmartMondy.com that offers some money-saving tips to get you prepared for a cold winter.

• Schedule a home-heating inspection: The system should be checked out every year for safety and efficiency.
• Seal up your home: Small air leaks can pad your home-heating bill.
• Use that thermostat: Using a programmable thermostat saves money.
• Shop around for home-heating oil: Search for low-price suppliers in your area, ask for a senior citizen discount or join a fuel cooperative for locked-in, near-wholesale rates.
• Block off unused rooms: The less space you need to heat, the lower your bill.
• Turn on the fan: Use your fan's reverse mechanism to keep warm air circulating through the room.

And don't forget to check the battery, breaks, and fluids of your car as well.

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According to a story in USAToday, effective October 3, Starbucks will raise prices of its lattes, cappuccinos, drip coffee and other drinks 5 cents, or an average 1.9%.

Time to give up your cappuccinos? Since I got coffee in my office for free, this won't affect me that much. At home, I  brew my own coffee with coffee beans I bought at Dunkin Donuts (two 1-lb bags for $7.99 with coupon).

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So the summer is over? So I don't have to turn on the AC again for the next, what, nine months? Actually, this summer was quite good though we didn't even barbeque once. Except two weeks in July and August when the mercury craked the 100-degree mark, the temperatue was in the comfortable zone of 80s for the most of the time. And whatelse did this nice summer give us? Low electricity bills of course.

When I checked our electricity bills for the past three months tonight, I found the highest amount we paid was $65 in August. $55 for July and $35 for June. That's unbelievably low, isn't it? Well, we didn't have a big house and there was nobody at home during the day, so there was almost no consumption. In addition, we also took some steps to lower our bills:

• If we did have to run the AC, we set the temperature at 78 degrees instead of 76;
• We closed all windows before leaving for work in the morning to keep the heat out;
• I usually stayed late in the evening. So if the outside temperature dropped below the room temperature, I opened the windows before I went to bed to let cool air get in.

For the past three months, there were only a copule of times we let the AC run over night. Yes, it wasn't very nice and comfortable in some nights, but I won't call that sacrifice. 

Oh, by the way, we used a lot the thermal cooker I bought in July. Maybe that also helped a little bit.

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