The purse strings are definitely a lot tighter than they were just a year ago.
Primarily, this is the result of having to work from home in the comfort of our HVAC for the entire summer and more. And now that the summer has ended, it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better anytime soon. So, we just keep plugging I gues. The household budget took some hits due to our income being reduced as a result of the pandemic. I’m lucky to still have my job and be able to work from home. However, my wife no longer has her job as she is helping the kids with their remote learning. So we have to do whatever we can to keep our spending to a minimum. But in this area, HVAC is expensive for at least half the year. Our summer starts early and ends late. That means all of us have to own good HVAC just to get through the heat. This year, we really pushed ourselves a bit more to see just how much we could save on the HVAC costs. That meant that we definitely kept the house warmer than we ever had prior. I kept an eagle eye on the HVAC setting since I was working from home. We didn’t cave and instead made sure that we stayed disciplined in order to save that money. We used fans in order to feel a bit cooler. I’m pleased to be going into the part of the year where the HVAC spending is minimal. And, we saved well over 20 percent on our HVAC utility costs over previous years.