There's so much talk of going green and saving the environment, you'd think some things would be easy to find. That's not what I am discovering. Our utilities company is talking about how much electric, water and gas is going to go up in the next year or two.
Everybody's got problems and needs more money so we have to pay more, and in some cases it could be significant. It's really stupid. They tell people to use less utilities and have incentives. They say rates will go up if we do not cut back. Lo and behold, people cut back on their utilities useage. You think that would solve the issue, correct? No. We aren't using enough so rates have to go up. It doesn't seem to matter in reality although all their theories sound really good.
One thing is clear, regardless of what the chameleons say, the less I use as an individual, the less it may cost me. Unless they put a special tax on people who use less for some silly reason.
I think we are in trouble. Cap and Trade is coming and it will be expensive for everybody, another kind of fee tax.
Our city council diverted funds needed for the police and fire pensions so there is not enough to fund the pensions now. In spite of the fact that other groups are allowed decreases, this one is not. So the city wants more taxes to fund it. There is no question the firemen and police deserve to get it as much as anybody (especailly more so than the jerks with the golden parachutes) but, even if we raise the taxes, they won't necessarily get it. There is zero accountability concerning city hall for those who diverted the money in the past and there will be zero accountability in the future. There is no insurance that the money will go where it is supposed to go, just like before. It may simply become a big money grab for the city within a year or two after the tax is passed and they think people will forget. There is no insurance, no accountablity and no liability for anyone. It will be a soak the public and everybody loses kind of thing. The city council's word is no good. If it was, these people would not be in the mess they are in. They have nothing but failure to back it up. It doesn't matter what I think, we will pay anyway and it will not all go to them.
We have the schools crying because revenues are not up as high as predicted. They cry every year and have been since I was a little kid. Everything is terrrible, they don't have enough, it's so bad. Schools are like bottomless pits, there is no such thing as enough no matter what you do. They always promise but never deliver. They do some of what they say they will do and the fountain of tears dries up for a few months after they get what they want, then it starts again. They are like a spoiled female who always needs the newest dress and behaves like a drama queen until she gets it. They closed schools to build new ones because they really "needed" them so bad and now they have overspent and need more. Shock and disbelief. And, of course, they always neglect to do something essential to manipulate the public into saying "poor baby". (One of this town's planned areas of neglect resulted in the death of one child and the disability of another. I predicted it as soon as the manipulations started. If I knew, having been in education for years, they knew too, some would be innocent but some were not. Money over children. We are in the end times it appears.) It has been that way every town and city I have lived in, the cry for moeny not the deliberate risk of children. With the school system it is always somebody else's fault, so they did as predicted, they blamed it on everybody else. This time they said it was the city but sometimes it is those evil parents they like to blame. Hogwash! Eventually they will get their newest additional tax increase. One more expense for the rest of us whose income is also not the greatest.
The next tax will have something to do with universal health care that is being considered. Whatever our "fair share contribution" is will be coming. Even if it starts out cheap, it won't stay that way.
Those are some of the new taxes we will be treated to in the next few years. There will be more. The economy is down.
So back to my original statement, I'm not going green, I'm looking for ways to be frugal. I tried to buy a free standing clothesline to save electric by using the dryer less. We do not have the right trees. They are very hard to find. "Green" WalMart and KMart do not carry them. Hardware stores have a few. They are pretty expensive too. My local store was out but was getting more in soon. They hadn't exactly had a run on them. They order in about 3 at a time.
I heard on the radio that appliances use 70% of their total electric when they are turned off. It's those little led lights and keeping the appliance ready for instant on that uses it. I am going to buy surge protectors and put all appliances on them. That way I can turn them off when not in use totally. If I have anything that needs instant on, I'll not plug it into a surge protector bar. And i'm going to wait for surge protectors to go on sale to get them.
I'm buying those little solar lights that absorb sun during the day and light up the house at night for outdoor lighting, on sale of course.
I have put small gardens in my back yard to grow my own fresh food in small amounts. It is somewhat expensive at first so it really isn't saving any money this year, even though I waited for price reductions and used coupons. One of the things I used in the garden beds was special moisture retaining soil. I need to go and get more. That way, the plants do well with less watering. I am also adding vegetable scraps (composting) instead of tossing them out, for organic matter.
Whenever we replace something, we buy energy saving models.
Awnings are not pretty but, if utilities go up a lot, we will be looking at them. That and those roll down bamboo shades to shield the house in summer and block the wind in spots in the winter even. Bushes around the edge of the house provide protection for the foundation. Trees provide shade in summer. So can tall plants near the house. I will probably buy heavy curtains eventually, a few at a time, to block out the heat in summer and the cold in winter. Thermopane windows are cost prohibitive at this time and even with them, the sun shines in the windows and heats up the house.
Weather caulking is on sale this week so I should go get some to make sure the windows and other areas are sealed well.
More later.