Suz

We have resorted to wearing layers; sometimes an undershirt, turtleneck and two sweatshirts. Since we spend most of our time in the living room, we have turned the thermostat down and have an electric space heater for this room. I have a separate thermostat for my basement sewing which holds the heat well. The electric is expensive, but not at much as oil. When we moved here about 15 years ago, oil was $.69/gal. Now it runs close to $4. -- We are thinking of moving South. Our winter here is PA has been cold and snowy. We are expecting between 3 and 9 more inches this evening. It has already started. It is beautiful when it is new and pure white. It is just when it mixes with cinders or stones and looks so ugly and just lays along the roads, etc.

The locals plow to a vacant area at the lower end of our lot and in the spring we have piles of little stones which we try to remove before cutting season. It has been suggested we use the shop vac to remove same. This would save a lot of back-breaking work. BUT spring and summer cannot come fast enough!!!

janjj

Cold in Iowa too used to cost around $300 to heat my house (28x54) we built in 1974 insulated around the basement walls with 1" styrofoam. locals thought we were crazy. Well turned out not so crazy., This year cost will be around $800 for the season. summer fill was $1.35 gal Dec was $2.01 still have about 35% hope it lasts through the month of March. Stay warm.

athomenow

We keep our temp at 65 during the day and 63 at night. You'd think that would really help with the bill but it's a lot higher this year. I wear so many layers I can hardly move sometimes and nothing helps my hands. Some days I have to use the hand warmers that hunters use. Makes us hearty as my dad would say. At 63 I want to be comfortable and not hearty!!!

Ladibug

I don't know what they expect people to do. 100 gal of propane usually lasts me a year, only heat with it in the wintertime. I filled up in December at 237.00 The tank is almost in the red now and they told me it would cost me $400 plus tax for the next 100. I don't have it. That is over half my monthly income. I was told by my. I wish Spring would get here like yesterday!!!

duckydo

We are on propane and on a level pay, have been paying $94 monthly, it has not gone up to $218 monthly. I am glad we can pay bill, but I think it is a crock. Someone is supposed to be investigating price gouging in our state, but I doubt we hear any more about it. It is a shame what happens when you are on a fixed income.

babasil

It will be over soon! The last snow for last nite was none existing!

Onebyone

Winters are predicted to keep getting colder and longer. It's time to insulate your house for extreme cold or move if you are having trouble with the cold and costs now.

Snooze2978

As I mentioned I'm on a budget plan here in Iowa and I love it. I also keep my thermostat stat around 69 during the day on the 1st floor, 62 upstairs in the bedrooms all the time and in the basement around 70 all the time as that's where I park my carcass during the day. When the temps start to get cold I live in my long john tops and sweat pants with usually a thin flannel buttoned shirt I found at the Thrift Store. While watching TV with the kitties I have a lap quilt over my legs plus the kitties to keep me warm and I usually have to turn the thermostat down to 62 by then. Their body heat keeps me warm. I purchased goose down blankets for all the beds when I first moved up here as I'm from Florida and thought I'd get too cold at night. These blankets keep me toasty the entire night to the point of sweating so I've gotten my money's worth from them. Again I love my budget planning as I'm on a pension and have to make it last the full month. Even with this cold, cold winter we've had I'd never return to Florida with the bugs, humidity and hurricanes.

garysgal

Ours hasn't been too bad. We moved from rural to city and had a wood stove, now we have gas. What a difference! Still, I like being in town and being close to the things we need to get to.

RugosaB

Our heating bill is higher (this Ohio, no surprise) but we've had 2 things happen in this house that have NEVER happened before. We've had the house for 33 years and never had a frozen pipe. My husband resorted to cutting a hole in the drywall - it worked! We're thinking about putting a door similar to what's on the kitchen cupboards to keep one on super subzero nights

Last week I heard a noise like someone was here, but the dogs didn't get up, very unusual for them. There was no one on the back porch so I just figured I was hearing things. A few days later we noticed one of our windows was broken. There was snow below it and no footprints so we just figured the cold broke it! I honestly never heard of such a thing.
We're going to worry about it in the spring because it's double paned and only the outer pane was shattered. The screen was holding the glass on the outside and the other pane was holding it on the inside.
We got all new windows 20 or so years ago, and they have argon gas between the 2 panes. My argon escaped!

Weird