A Mommy Story

Today I found out that our natural gas bill will be going up 49% for January. That’s not a typo: forty-nine percent! This is after several other smaller, although no less significant, rate increases over the past few months. They say the rate increases are due to the hurricanes in the Gulf, and that things won’t return to normal until this next summer, when we won’t need the natural gas as much. How convenient for them.

According to Columbia Gas, this means that the average family here in Ohio will be paying $315.90 to heat their house this January, versus $212.66 this month.

Looking at our past gas bills, the highest we have paid was about $200, and that was last January. We were shocked when our fairly low usage November bill turned out to be $130. If the weather continues to confuse Ohio with the Arctic Circle, we’ll probably have a $400 gas bill for January.

That amount is more than a budget breaker – it’s downright painful. We’ll be able to cover it somehow; as a last resort, we can always use money from our small emergency savings account (which I think this would qualify as a proper use for). And there’s a chance we’ll be getting some cash for Chrismukkah, which could partially go towards the bill.

But what worries me far more is how will those who don’t have an emergency savings and those living on strict budgets make it through the winter?

Most homes in this area are heated using natural gas. Portable space heaters can only do so much, and they pose a huge fire risk: just last night a father and daughter were killed in Columbus when their heater caught fire. And I can’t imagine going without heat.

When I drive to my father-in-law’s house, I pass a run down house that shows signs of people living there, including children. But several of the windows are broken out. One window has cardboard covering it, and another has a blanket over it. I can’t even imagine how cold it gets. I want to run up to that house, give them all coats and warm blankets and somehow magically fix their windows.

Our governor (you know, the one who got impeached) is releasing extra welfare money for heating assistance this winter, but I don’t know how much it will help. I think this situation shows that there needs to be a more permanent solution for helping people heat their homes.

As for us, we can count ourselves lucky that we have all of our windows and even though it will hurt, we’ll be able to pay our gas bill. Tonight I’m going out in search of heavy curtains for our house. While our house is less than 2 years old, it still seems to have several air leaks, and there is always a draft near the living room windows. Hopefully heavy curtains will help keep the warm air in a little better.

We’ll also continue washing all of our clothes in cold water and taking shorter showers to keep the use of natural gas to a minimum with the hot water heater. The house temperature is set at 68, and I hope we won’t have to lower it more than that. I found a good list of natural gas conservation tips here.

I think I now know what I want for Christmas, but I don’t know if the gas company sells gift certificates?