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Post by staytuned on Feb 6, 2022 1:00:17 GMT
UPS is on my s--t list. I know we had a major rain/sleet/snow storm from Wednesday morning til Friday morning, but my package arrived yesterday at UPS facility maybe 8 miles and 15-20 minutes from here. (I used to work practically across the road where they're located). Tracking showed it was out for delivery at 9:25am. At 7pm, tracking backed up to "On the Way" with "The delivery date will be provided as soon as possible." I don't know if UPS can access our security door like FedEx and Amazon so I kept checking to make sure I didn't miss the truck in case I had to buzz the driver in. 8 1/2 hours of "out for delivery" and then find out it's not being delivered is kind of a letdown, especially when they're so close.
Last time I had a package from UPS, I was home all day, nobody buzzed at the door and just left an "attempted delivery" notice outside the main door and I had to go to a UPS store to pick it up.
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val2525
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Post by val2525 on Feb 6, 2022 17:26:45 GMT
Fed Ex has decided to deliver my package today. Instead of just bringing it from Corpus to San Antonio, it went back to Houston then to SA. Oh well. It's being delivered to my house. The last several times they've done Sunday deliveries, they had to deliver to my mailbox place, which is closed on Sundays. You'd think they'd have a way in their system to identify commercial vs residential addresses so they don't waste time & money on delivering to busineses when the biz is closed, but nope. Fed Ex tries the delivery anyway and then has to redeliver the next day. Sunny and mid-50s here today. Not bad I need to take a return back to Belk but I don't know when FedEx will get here. Guess I'll do it next weekend and just hit the grocery store after FedEx comes by.
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Post by Desire on Feb 6, 2022 18:49:31 GMT
Just got an oil delivery on Friday, they put in 169 gallons. Last delivery was 3 weeks ago on January 10th and it was just over $500.00. This new bill is $696.16, the price jumped up to $4.10 per gallon from $3.60 last month, a 50 cents per gallon increase. This whole country is a big friggin' mess with gas, oil and food prices. How the heck do they expect people to pay this kind of bill? We leave our thermostats on 60 at night and 64 during the day and we bundle up with layers. If we ever put the thermostats up on 68-70 we'd be paying twice as much. I am so sick of this BS.
Is anyone else experiencing high oil bills like this?
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val2525
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Post by val2525 on Feb 6, 2022 19:06:29 GMT
No. But we don't have oil heating here. I've actually never lived anywhere with oil heating, not even when I lived in cold climates. Have you looked in to more efficient, less expensive alternatives? Heat pump? Pellet stoves? Natural gas? Solar panels? Radiant floor heating is awesome. Is your house fully insulated? How about your windows - how efficient are they?
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Post by pyrexandpearls on Feb 6, 2022 19:09:04 GMT
Just got an oil delivery on Friday, they put in 169 gallons. Last delivery was 3 weeks ago on January 10th and it was just over $500.00. This new bill is $696.16, the price jumped up to $4.10 per gallon from $3.60 last month, a 50 cents per gallon increase. This whole country is a big friggin' mess with gas, oil and food prices. How the heck do they expect people to pay this kind of bill? We leave our thermostats on 60 at night and 64 during the day and we bundle up with layers. If we ever put the thermostats up on 68-70 we'd be paying twice as much. I am so sick of this BS. Is anyone else experiencing high oil bills like this? Our bills are definitely higher but not this high. Especially given how low you keep your thermostat that seems pricey. We keep the thermostat between 67-69. (I'd freeze at those temps you mentioned!) Our gas, water, and sewer bill are combined as it is all one company here. We just got a bill on Friday and it was just under $260 and I'd expect closer to $300 next month. We have gas heat, a gas water heater, and a gas stove/oven. Our electric bill was around $80 last month. My house is fairly small, at least by midwestern standards, at about 1400 square feet including my finished basement. Our basement den never really gets too warm either even with both vents open and a brand new window (so not as drafty as the old). I am certainly noticing an increase in my grocery bills. It is just DH and I and I budget $125 a week for groceries, toiletries, household cleaning items, and dog food. My dog is small and her food is $15 every two weeks so that is using a fairly small part of our budget. We are certainly getting less and less for that and it is feeling tighter. With that said, I will be the first to admit we buy a lot of stuff that could be cut in the event of a financial emergency and stuff that just isn't frugal so that adds to be bill. We tend to buy things like a lot of single serve yogurt, Gatorade/Bai drinks, deli lunch meat (ahem, someone is picky and likes only Boars Head), frozen breakfast items, etc. But, nonetheless, $125 doesn't go very far especially if you want to buy any decent cuts of meat.
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kritter
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Post by kritter on Feb 6, 2022 19:15:35 GMT
Oh my, gives me the shivers just to read about your thermostat set at 64 during the day. Mine is at 65 overnight and I fell like I am freezing when I turn it up to 72 in the morning. I would spend a lot of time hanging out at the library if I was in your position but I am definitely a sissy when it comes to cold weather.
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Post by Desire on Feb 6, 2022 19:18:42 GMT
I understand the size of the house matters. But it's the price per gallon for oil that I am questioning. We were energy independent a year and half ago. OPEC refuses to produce more oil for us to import, even after Biden requested it, and there are conflicts on the Russian border that supplies much oil to parts of the world. We shouldn't be relying on other countries for our oil supply here.
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val2525
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Post by val2525 on Feb 6, 2022 19:21:06 GMT
As long as oil is traded on the commodities market, consumers will pay the prices. Low or high.
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Post by Desire on Feb 6, 2022 19:31:32 GMT
Oh my, gives me the shivers just to read about your thermostat set at 64 during the day. Mine is at 65 overnight and I fell like I am freezing when I turn it up to 72 in the morning. I would spend a lot of time hanging out at the library if I was in your position but I am definitely a sissy when it comes to cold weather. The main part of our house is on an oil-fired hot-water heating system. It's a warm moist heat unlike forced hot-air we had in our old house. If we set out thermostats on 64 and the sun is streaming through our large back windows all afternoon, it can read 67 in here so it's not bad at all. Rainy cloudy days is a different story. The area over our garage is on the opposite side from our second story of the main house. It has a bedroom, living room and a full bath that is on a separate electric heating system, so that area is not even included in the oil consumption. We have to keep the electric up there on at least 50 in the bathroom with the door closed, so the pipes won't freeze, and no one even uses that area. That electric heat up there racks up the electric bill a bit in winter.
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kritter
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Post by kritter on Feb 6, 2022 19:38:53 GMT
Well, you definitely won't have any concern at all about me dropping in for a surprise weekend visit. 67 is still too cold for me as a daytime house temperature.
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Post by chapeaunoir on Feb 6, 2022 19:56:47 GMT
I call it the post-pandemic mess. I remember barely being able to heat my house back in the late 70s because of the oil crisis then. Sometimes I didn't even have the heat on and just wrapped up. My friends did the same - we'd be chatting in their living room and could see our breath. Here we have a heat pump and our bills are not bad except when it gets really cold, but we've finally replaced all the windows and man, that made a difference.
Unfortunately, oil is traded as an international commodity and we're on the international market so we've never been energy independent insofar as the market goes. We did achieve net import/export parity for a short while (that was a trend that had begun in 2009) but the pandemic disrupted everything and now we're dealing with the knock-on effects with reduced capacity in the oil-producing states and international unrest. Remember when oil was trading at 0 $$ because of so many fluctuations? Hopefully we'll at least get back to parity, but yeah, that depends a lot on conflicts and trade agreements.
IMHO this is a rough patch that we have to all ride out as best we can. It would be great if we produced ALL of our own energy and even exported some, but we won't be able to do that while we rely too much on oil. We don't even have the capacity to refine heavy crude - we export that and have to import other oil.
Solar energy is gaining in popularity here - I say if it works here, it'll work just about anywhere. A number of friends of mine installed panels on their houses and now sell energy back to the light company in partial exchange for using their infrastructure.
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Post by Desire on Feb 6, 2022 20:00:23 GMT
No. But we don't have oil heating here. I've actually never lived anywhere with oil heating, not even when I lived in cold climates. Have you looked in to more efficient, less expensive alternatives? Heat pump? Pellet stoves? Natural gas? Solar panels? Radiant floor heating is awesome. Is your house fully insulated? How about your windows - how efficient are they? Thanks for the options/suggestions. But we live in the Northeast, so some of these are not options. They would work well in milder climates. Time to move to Florida! Heat pumps wont work here in the Northeast properly - it's too cold. When the temps fall below 25 degrees, the heat pumps revert to "emergency heat" and you flip over to electric heat. They also can't get the house "warm" in extremely cold weather. We had them in one of our houses and they were not efficient and very costly and the house always felt cold. No natural gas here in our area to hook up to. We have a propane tank for our gas fireplace. Propane is higher per gallon than oil right now. Our house is too big to heat by pellets and it would be too hard for us to mange hundreds of bags/maintain it all. Solar panels will take over 20 years to reap your money back in the Northeast. Sadly I don't think we will be around in 20 years. You also need a specific type roof for them. It's a large upfront cost, we've read all the studies on them. House is insulated well and we have efficient windows and very good draperies/coverings for at night. The large windows actually help us during the day as the sun streams in all afternoon and warms up the house and the tile floors. It's the price per gallon of oil that is just at a high point right now. I understand that we have a large house and we will pay more, but oil has run 2.29 to 3.00 gallon for many years. This is just sticker shock, will be over in a few months, TG.
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Post by Desire on Feb 6, 2022 20:03:09 GMT
Well, you definitely won't have any concern at all about me dropping in for a surprise weekend visit. 67 is still too cold for me as a daytime house temperature. You just gotta' come visit in the summer. We have central air here! ETA: I was just looking at my oil bills, DH wanted me to make a list of the prices we paid since last year. I forgot to mention that if I pay this bill in 10 days I do get a $25.47 discount off the bill. So that brings the bill down to 670.69 instead of 696.16. Geezz, I feel better now LOL.
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Post by jesmelric on Feb 6, 2022 20:42:57 GMT
Just got an oil delivery on Friday, they put in 169 gallons. Last delivery was 3 weeks ago on January 10th and it was just over $500.00. This new bill is $696.16, the price jumped up to $4.10 per gallon from $3.60 last month, a 50 cents per gallon increase. This whole country is a big friggin' mess with gas, oil and food prices. How the heck do they expect people to pay this kind of bill? We leave our thermostats on 60 at night and 64 during the day and we bundle up with layers. If we ever put the thermostats up on 68-70 we'd be paying twice as much. I am so sick of this BS. Is anyone else experiencing high oil bills like this? Wow that is outrageous!! I know natural gas prices are up, I just got my bill for the month of January (which won't include this cold snap) and it's $43.00. Of course we are a much warmer climate in general. I keep my thermostat at 63 day and night when it's cold. It's a bit chilly in here, I wear a jacket and DH complains a lot lol. He didn't work Friday due to the cold but the sun came back on Saturday and we've been on a nice warm up since, mid 50s today. We are not acclimated to the cold so I'm glad it isn't lasting too long here.
I have also noticed my grocery budget isn't stretching as far. It's crazy how much prices have gone up in such a short time. I'm glad for my deep freeze, it really helps to stock up when things are on sale, if you can find them, that is. Also I've been buying more staples at Aldi's; flour, sugar, milk, etc.
Yes mom sometimes says, You should see how crazy some of the people in here are. But when she first got there she was just as lost/crazy as they are. But of course she can't remember that. They let us go in this time and showed us the room they were going to move mom to, and you could hear a lady saying "help, help" it was really sad
But then they called my sister on Thursday and said they have decided against that room they showed us because it's close to an exit door and while she isn't exit seeking any more, she does sometimes get confused and have to be redirected and so they don't want to take any chances. The next room coming available will be closer to the nurses desk and not as far for her to walk when we come visit. And will only be 1 room mate vs the 2 she has now. And they are going to put a monitor on her when she moves, just to be safe. So it will probably be more like 2-3 weeks.
Labby prayers for you brother that he continues to improve.
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Post by denise15601 on Feb 6, 2022 20:46:27 GMT
Desire..I don't know where you live, but I am in PA. I also have oil heat since gas is not available here. Since I am poor, I do get LiHeap and it pays for my oil. I just had a delivery of 350 gallons and it was $3.60 per gallon.
When it is cold like it has been, my temp is set at 73 and down here in my family room, I have a little heater right beside me, since it is much colder than 73 down here.
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Post by zoesam on Feb 6, 2022 21:24:52 GMT
Never lived anywhere with oil heating, even in MN. I think it's just a NE thing. We have plain old forced air here. I LOVE hot water heat, but haven't had it since our first house We did start up our humidifier which helps keep it warmer. Our natural gas rates went up too. We keep the house at 71-72 during the day. Try for 67 at night, but I'm often up all night, so I won't keep it that cold.
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val2525
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Post by val2525 on Feb 6, 2022 22:02:30 GMT
I keep my place at 60 for night and 69 for the day. If I need a spot warmer, say the desk, I have some small space heaters. During the summer, I crank it down to 65 at night. I like cold. I'm waiting for the power prices to go up, thanks to the supplier price scam during the big freeze last year.
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kritter
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Post by kritter on Feb 6, 2022 22:03:02 GMT
And a pool. Maybe I can rehome some kittens up your way and stop by for a swim.
There are a lot of things I will cut back on but DDP and heat in the winter are not on that list. Whatever it costs to keep this house warm is what it costs and I am all in.
I am not going to spend my golden years sitting around my house wearing a coat and blankets piled all over me. Nope, not going to do it. 65 at night from midnight to 8:00 AM and then 72 until midnight. that is how I roll.
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Post by labbypaws on Feb 6, 2022 22:49:26 GMT
We have oil heat. No gas in our development. Reading propane is high too. We have a Nest thermostat and a sensor in the bedroom. At night we can set it so it reads the bedroom sensor and adjusts the heat accordingly. 68-70 is about average for whichever it reads. We have a dog door open during the day so of course that shoots cold air through the house. I send them $150 a month and now and then add an extra payment. We have a heating/AC contract which adds to that bill. I like to have that leftover so I am not paying that into next year's bill.
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kritter
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Post by kritter on Feb 6, 2022 23:09:06 GMT
LOLOLOLOL
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Post by chapeaunoir on Feb 6, 2022 23:37:22 GMT
When the temps fall below 25 degrees, the heat pumps revert to "emergency heat" and you flip over to electric heat.
Yeah, and that's like burning $20 bills. Heat pumps were great here because of our temperate climate but when it drops into the 20s, it can't keep up and shifts to electric backup. Ugh. We have periodic cold snaps and our bill goes right up. Houses here have oil heating, but it's mostly older homes. Two of my bike riding friends work in oil - both for local residential oil heating firms - my one friend tops up and inspects oil tanks for homes. It's a good job - he has a round with his oil truck and takes care of everything pertaining to fill and maintenance - kind of his own man and it's outdoor work. My other friend does everything for his small firm. They're always busy because there are plenty of older homes. It's our February break and we're having a sunny, warm weekend day in the 50s. The last time we had a weekend like this was in October, maybe, so people are going out of their minds. The DH went out for a ride and said people are stumbling around sun-struck, the parks along Lake Washington are jammed and the roads have loads of bike riders, runners, walkers and dogs - you have to kind of dodge sometimes. I expect down in town every pub and coffee house has mobs of people sitting outdoors eating and drinking. Clouds are moving back in but we'll still have some sun through this week, apparently, before the rains are back. We really need some drying out - everything is covered with slime and moss, even the roads have moss on them - I almost fell on my keister the other day slipping out on the stuff.
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