By and large, it was all about making sure the thermostat stayed put.
There is nothing quite like financial panic to perk you right up. This was the case last year for us and we’re still feeling the effects of it. Although, we are making it where there are a lot of people who just aren’t and have lost everything. So, we are keeping our situation in perspective. But both my wife and I took steep pay cuts in order to keep our jobs and work from the air conditioning at home. It’s better than being unemployed but it still through us for a loop. When we realized that we were looking at a year of limited income, we had to make some real changes. The air conditioning that we were working from at home was a big target. So much of our spending habits had to change. And what we had been paying for heating and cooling costs was just in no way sustainable. So in a way, the pay cuts forced us to address the HVAC cost issue we had been avoiding. I think we avoided it because it was easier to just set the thermostat and forget it. Whatever it cost was whatever it cost. And that’s a recipe for grossly overpaying for HVAC in one’s home. So last summer was the first time we got real about HVAC costs. By and large, it was all about making sure the thermostat stayed put. It was definitely the warmest our house had ever been. But we got accustomed to it and we ended up saving hundreds of dollars on HVAC cooling costs. That made a big difference when added to the other cost saving measures that we employed last year.