New Challenge for April

Well, it's April 1 and the "Freeze Yer Buns" challenge has officially ended over at Crunchy Chicken's blog. But um, it's still cold here in Minnesota. I asked George last night if that meant today we could turn the heat up to 70 degrees F. again. But of course we wouldn't!

For one thing, I can say that it is possible to get completely acclimated to your house temp. being 65 degrees when you're home and awake (which is really lower in our drafty house--we probably spent most of the winter at 62 deg.). And I can't sleep at night if the temp. is above 58 deg.--just gets too hot with the flannel jammies and wool socks, the wool blanket topped with heavy down comforter, etc.

And secondly, we have enjoyed and NEEDED the savings on the utility bill too much to raise the furnace temp. now. In the peak cold months of Jan. and Feb., which were really cold this year, we saved at least $40/month on our gas and electric bill over last year. This, while prices rose this year. And we just got March's bill a couple days ago--it was $169 versus the usual winter bill of close to $250. We didn't see anything above $210 this year--yay! (And yes, our house is old and drafty and costs more to heat than some of our friends' larger, newer homes. This is our combined gas/electric cost though so maybe it's not so high.)

George's answer to my question? "No, now that it's April 1 it's time to turn off the heat, I guess." Yeah, right. It's, like, 28 degrees out right now.

But, here's the new challenge I've signed on for:

Oh crap! This will be hard. And she even had the nerve to use the Target symbol. That's like sacrilege here in Minnesota!

The challenge is to buy nothing non-essential in April. I did say that buying a pair of shoes for Elijah is essential in the next couple days since his one pair of shoes no longer fit him and he's only been wearing his snow boots. Still works here in snowy Minnesota, but I'm tired of looking at them and hearing him stomp around in them. So, new shoes for him are exempt. (And yes, Elijah does tend to have only one, at most two, pairs of shoes at a time. It's all he'd wear anyway. Sneakers in winter, sandals in summer, with snow boots and rain boots being necessary for both kids too. We buy Stride Rite shoes at the outlet so they last the whole season...Rose gets two pairs at a time, sneakers and black dress shoes in winter, sneakers and white sandals in summer...It's always worked for us. None of those cheap, trendy shoes for my kids!)

The challenge shouldn't be all that hard, really. I can still dream about the grain mill, solar oven, Harsch crock and garden supplies all I want. I just can't buy them. And since the tax rebate doesn't come till May, I don't have the money till after this month anyway. I'll have a month to get my priorities in order. Which will it be first, grain mill or solar oven? Camp stove or Harsch crock for sauerkraut making? Rain barrel or garden fencing? Now we have a month to think about it, and no thinking I need it NOW because it's time to start gardening or the sun's warmth is strong and I can bake bread in the solar oven next week!...and putting it on the credit card to "pay later".

And, we can still buy food this month. Whew! I guess that's considered an essential.

Are you up for this challenge in April? Sign up at Crunchy Chicken if you dare!