Nothing major to report today. I wanted to update readers on a couple of things that might be of interest, to those keeping score at home.

Ok, I posted back in April I posted about electricity, and my plan to cut back, and save buckets of money each month. Well, the "measured" month is over so I wanted to let everyone know the results. They were far better than my wildest dreams. In case you missed the post, it can be found here: http://a0001718.blogspot.com/2008/04/i-cranked-out-my-first-loaf-of.html.

In a nutshell, I bought a programmable thermostat for my air conditioner, and replaced all the lights in my house with compact fluorescent light bulbs. Then I turned off my TVs when I was not actively watching them, as well as any lights not currently being used. For the lights, I am lazy, so I bought a few more X10 switches so that I can control them from my remote. This way if I settle in on the couch, I don't have to get back up to turn off unused lights. I also used to leave the TV on quite a bit while not watching it, and now I don't. Ok, Last year, my electricity bill for the period of mid-April to mid-May was $156.87. This year, which I should mention has been the hottest on record in a while for the time period, was $109.54, which is right at a 30% savings. A whopping $47.33! In my mind, there is a table with a bunch of stiff electric company suits sitting around pounding their fists on the desk calling me ripe bastard for figuring out "the trick" that leads to their ultimate demise.

That is quite a dramatic reduction, any way you slice it. The next 5 months are the hottest of the year, so it will be interesting to see how I fare the rest of the summer. Here in Texas, the mid-July to mid-August is the pinnacle of hot, and my electricity bill during that period last year was $289.91. So that will be the true test.

Ok, the next update is regarding the grill issues I am experiencing as you may have seen in my post: http://a0001718.blogspot.com/2008/03/i-have-reached-turning-point-that-i.html. With my new plan of being really aggro on reducing debt, I decided to spend the lower amount, and repair the grill, rather than spending $700+ on a new one. I went with the cheaper ceramic coated cast iron burners, rather than the new brass ones. This saved me 50% on parts cost. The total for all the parts was $181. This is not too bad considering it replaces everything inside my grill. This should easily carry me another 5 years, at which point I can reconsider buying a new one. Maybe I will photo-document the process of repairing the old grill, that could make a half interesting post.

Now that I mention it, I have reached absolute critical mass on debt reduction. After careful consideration, I chopped my 401k input temporarily to 0%. Coupling that with my recent pay raise from work, I am now able to pay well over $1000 to the credit card company each month, and not really affect my lifestyle much at all. I am still paying myself into a savings account, still investing in the stock market, and still setting some aside for vacation expenses later in the year. At this rate, my debt will be gone lickety split, and I can buy a house farther away from the city. I don't like the city anymore I don't think. That's a post for another day though.

Anyway, eat that fuckers!