down again...

another energy bill arrived in the mailbox today, and i'm happy to report that we are down again this month. $33.86--$9.96 for gas, 23.58 for electric. last month's total was $35.69--$12.77 for gas, 22.54 for electric. i'm not sure what caused our gas usage to dip, as i didn't use the dryer at all either month. we didn't use any heat, so all that's left as far as gas is concerned is the water heater. i guess, for whatever reason, we used less hot water. or the weather was warmer, so the water heather didn't have to work as hard to keep the water at the right temperature.

i doubt we'll get our bill any lower than this. though we typically have nice weather well into october, mornings can be chilly and with lucy and myself at home, we'll might need to run the heater a bit some days. also, i've been sewing a lot (diapers, & i'm finally getting started on a few christmas gifts). all that new fabric has to be washed and machine dried, so i've been using the dryer here and there as needed. a few sprinkles today had me rushing to bring the diapers in, and reminded me that line-drying is not a year-round sport, unless you like laundry strung all across your house (i'm not so into that, i don't think). we'll see. i might be able to rig something in the garage. i'm also making my way to bb&b this weekend to buy a proper drying rack. my old one from college finally took a sad turn for the worse, and even jeremy's fixing didn't stick.

as far as our electricity usage being up... well, what's up with that? it's something to work harder on, i guess. but "whole-food september" has us cooking at home a LOT more. especially baking. which, of course, requires electricity. i guess you just can't win!!!

kind of related: check out the new "patch" on the sidebar of my blog. posting the patch links me to the 350 challenge, which has been put together by betterplanet.com and 350.org. posting the patch also offsets 350 pounds of carbon in the name of valley girl has baby, goes crunchy. that's the equivelant of not driving around in my car for 2 weeks. just by posting the patch. if you have a blog of your own, please consider doing the same... it doesn't have to be eco-related. any kind of blog will do. i like my little patch. it kind of reminds me of my days as a brownie, before i quit. (i totally didn't dig that uniform).