BIG SAVINGS! We Did It! IT WORKS!

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Ok! I can barely contain my excitement here.

Do you remember this post: Reducing Bills! Electricity Bills! Phone Bills! Water Bills!

Do you remember me telling you that YOU have control over consumption? Do you remember the tips? And do you remember me appointing myself electricity police?

Well, let me update you.

After one month of being the Electricity Police, I am delighted to announce that our electricity bill came this weekend with a 26.83% reduction in consumption on a kWh basis. Now, that is incredible. We used 26.83% less electricity this month than we did last month. That is not a typo - almost twenty seven percent!

Did we also get a dollar figure decrease? Well, as it turns out, we did!! We got a 20.49% decrease in the dollar amount of the bill. Not a typo - almost twenty one percent! I'm not kidding.

Want to know what that means. Dollar for dollar, we saved more in a month that we can get in ONE WHOLE YEAR in after tax interest on any savings account or reputable investment that I am aware of. And because we've saved that money, it's sitting in the bank earning interest, or available for investment to earn a return. How do you like them apples?

And, do you all know what electricity costs in Jamaica? Well, a 20.49% reduction in the light bill is a nice amount of money. And even if they dropped the rates, we had a 26.83% reduction in consumption - we did that, not the electricity utility company - so we were well on our way to some kind of savings.

If you want to see these savings for yourself, here's what you should do:

• Call a family meeting and let all members of the family know this is a family project, and each person has to do his or her part

• Find out all the big uses of electricity. Other than putting in energy savers wherever we could, we were vigilant with what was already there. We were vigilant in putting the heater on a daily schedule so it didn't stay on all day. We organized the use of the stove, washing machine, the microwave and the iron. There are ways to use all of those, accomplish what you need to without wasting electricity. We kept Air Conditioning use to a minimum, plugged out appliances (and cell phone chargers) when they were not in use, and turned off lights and fans when rooms were empty.

• Appoint an Electricity Police or volunteer yourself. This really works better if someone is willing to do what people forget to do, and/or embarrass and fine those who do not do what they should :)

In no way was anyone inconvenienced. And after seeing this reduction, we are more motivated than ever to keep at it!

A Kiplinger Article - Where The Jobs May Be

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Kiplinger.com (the online version of Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine) recently published a very interesting article - 13 Hot Jobs in Hard Times - on where the jobs may be in a Recession and/or Depression. Check the article out for details on the categories:

1. Accountants
2. Education
3. Entertainment Industry
4. Utility Companies
5. Repairers
6. Energy Industry
7. Health Care
8. Senior Services
9. Law enforcement
10. "Sin" Industries (see article for their definition)
    
11. Clergy
12. Repossession, foreclosure and debt collection
13. Government Work