I am the morning person in the family. I wake up before everyone else, so I can get the household started. I get out of bed, make lunches, lay out clothing, unload the dishwasher, do some light cleaning, do some freelance writing and wake everyone else up, all before taking a shower. My husband, on the other hand is a night owl. He tends to stay up late paying bills, taking out the recycling and doing small handyman projects before bed.
It is not unusual for me to pad downstairs in the morning to find things little things that he leaves on, such as the basement lights, a kitchen light, a garage light, the cable box on the television, etc. Although he likes to save money where he can, he is just not as vigilant about it as I am. And that is okay, because it makes us different and life interesting. He can come up with money saving ideas that I have would have never dreamed of in a million years. And we are usually on the same page.
But something occurred last night that just makes me have a need to vent.
I came downstairs this morning to a hallway that was freezing, despite the furnace sounding like it was running full blast. This is an older home, and you can also hear the baseboard heat rattling away when it is really trying to warm up the house. We keep the heat down at night, so this was a red flag.
I made my way toward the bathroom and family room only to find the garage door wide open! This is the door that leads from the house to the unheated garage. Now the mystery was solved. All of our heat (or oil or money) was just pouring out through that door. Was it open for an hour or all night long? I later asked my husband about it who said that he didn’t leave it open.
So folks, just a warning. Apparently there are door opening elves a foot here in Pennsylvania.
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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