What will tomorrow bring...

That is what I ponder today as it is the last day of June.

The last day of the current financial year as well as the last day without the dreaded Carbon Tax...

Noone can tell us what the implications are... Or what it will cost us...

Hubby and I are trying to overestimate everything at the moment. Electricity is supposed to go up at least 16% but who knows in the end? Milk, bread and flour etc was not supposed to go up but corner shops had been advices weeks ago of the steep increases...

Today is the sunset of the old. Tomorrow is unknown. To an extent it is no use worrying about the unknown but one must budget and keep the bills down as much as possible. Something we try to do very hard, and will only get harder I believe...

All in all I am not against this new tax at all as long as it actually helps the environment, which I don't believe it will. Companies will buy their credits and get billed by the government for their polluting ways, who will pass the cost onto you and me, the customers...

And after three years of price freezing who knows where the amount will go to...

I want today to be a Groundhog Day lol

Cheers Damaris

I DID IT!!!!!

Proof of our wonderful achievement :)

One of my aims in life... (I know rather sad right???) I have always wanted to have a quarterly electricity bill of less than $100...

Well this last quarter I did it :) :) :) :) Our bill came in this week and it was $99.90. $73.31 without the ambulance levy... How fantastic is that??? I am soooooooo stoked :)

With the increase in electricity again in July I doubt I will have this low a bill again unless we start getting more of a rebate for our solar that we put into the grid or until I get more panels up on my roof... Will see. Just glad to have done it once at least...

Not bad for four people... And just because Russell is not here three nights a week... Trust me he makes up for it on the weekends... :( Anyway I did it and am really proud of our efforts. :)

Cheers Damaris

Thanks for the Help :)

What is that black thing anyway?

The offending tyre

My lovely helpers. :)

Last Monday I was out and about and ended up with a blown tyre... I went to find the jack and couldn't. The manual finally told me that it was under the front seat??? So got everything ready to do the tyre and two lovely people from RoadTek came and asked if I was OK. Told them that I had not done the changing of a tyre before but that I was fine. They got out and took everything out of my hands and had the tyre changed in about three minutes flat... Amazing team work :)

Found out that they were both working on The Gap where there is allot of roadworks going on at the moment and will be for some time to come... Again thanks so much to the wonderful people that stopped and helped... Couldn't have been on my way as quickly without your help :)

Then had to change my other three tyres as apparently you are supposed to check your air pressure in your tyres about once a month. Well no one has ever told me that so had no idea. Russell and I have bought allot of cars over the years and have only ever had one go out of warranty... This was my first flat ever... Things you learn... Am glad that the people that I bought my tyres from will check that for me from now on whenever I want them to :) One place I went to wanted $520 for four new tyres. Top of the range was all they had apparently. Then I went to Ryanie in Warwick and got the three for $295 with a balance and alignment. Gotta be happy with that :) :)

So Brad my lovely Blue Yaris is off for his 40000km service next week and then all will be good again :) Now if only I could remember to refill the water bottle for the wipers... Still have not done that after about two months of running out... Oh dear...

PS. 30.1.11, found out from my baby sister that that black thing in the first picture would be something to attach to the car in case it needs a tow??? Duh!!! lol

Cheers Damaris

Brad is aging...

My lovely Brad has done 30000km...

Yep, he has done 30000km already. Must say that I am rather proud of him as I have had him since 9.12.08 and it was only four days to when he should have reached the 30000km mark. You know they say the old 20000km per year. Being out here too I would have thought that I would reach that target sooner but am doing good... All is well and he is having his service next Wednesday...

Now that I am not going to Toowoomba every month it will also be better with km's. :) Don't like doing the long distances. Hardly ever go to Brisbane anymore either, just the way I like it. :)

Am also rather chuffed that I bought the car when there was that special that any warranty services only cost $120 so that is all it will cost next week... So good to be able to plan for these things and not having to guess what the service might cost. :)

Cheers Damaris

Latest Power Bill Adventures...

I can't believe it but I totally forgot to write about my goings on with our latest Electricity bill... Well here it is...

We had our new digital meter put in two weeks before we had our reading done and I knew our bill should be around $175 for the last quarter. I got my bill and nearly had a heart attack. It was $212.15. What the????

So I went over my meter readings, which I do every day at 7am and found that the meter reading they had for my old meter was out by 200kWh. I read my meter as the technician was just about to take it out and replace it with the digital one so I knew that my reading was correct. With this information I called Ergon to see why I was out that amount of hours...

The lady was every so helpful I must say. She was soooo lovely. She rang the Depot in Warwick and yes they had put down the correct reading on the paper but when it was transferred into the computer system, human error made it 200kWh more. Problem solved. The bill was cancelled and a new one was issued. This time it was $174.50. Woohoo. That is much more like it.

It did get me thinking though. There are allot of meters being replaced in Australia at the moment with the surge of solar panels going on roofs. How many of these people read their meters? Not many I would suspect... So how many are potentially being overcharged due to human error. I am glad that I saved my family this money and that I was on the ball.

Needless to say I will continue to read my meter every day at 7am. :)

Cheers Damaris

200kWh Target has been reached...

My lovely solar meter. :)

Well there we have it. We have had 200kWh from the solar system that we had installed on 20 January 2010. And it only took 599 hours to get to that. How fantastic is that??? Really fantastic, that's what...

I am very happy that this week our meter would have been read. Yesterday in fact. Which means our bill should be about $175 which will be down from $208.75 last quarter. I am extremely happy with that. We have only had the system for six weeks and only just only two weeks with the new meter. And down $40 in our bill. And that is with most of that time we have had allot of rain and cloudy weather too. Woohoo...

Sorry to brag but very happy about it all.

With my aim to put as much solar into the grid during the day, I am getting used to washing only at night and making bread as the sun sets. All is working out well so far. Your whole thinking has to change and you have to remember that you can't just put on what you want when you want. But the way I look at it is that I am putting more into the grid and therefore getting more money for the power I do put into the grid. Gotta be happy with that.

I can't wait to get my electricity bill. :) Have also been advised that from 1 July 2010, electricity in Queensland will be going up by 13%. Only has to go through Parliament. Am very happy that I have my panels, that's for sure. Just hope that the solar kWh also goes up from 44c/kWh seeing power is going up... Doubt it but would be nice. :)

Cheers Damaris

We are Champions, in my humble opinion anyway...

My beautiful electricty meter...

On Wednesday I watched as the meter man came and took our reading and have been waiting very, very patiently for my electricity bill. I have been itching to find out what we have used. I know as I do daily readings what kWh amount we have been using but I wanted to know what the amount was as I didn't know how much electricity had gone up by. All I knew was that it was up as of 1 July 2009.

Well, yesterday I eagerly checked my mail and there it was. That wonderful, precious envelope that would tell me how we had done for the last three months...

Our last quarter we used 1156kWh and it cost us $233.10. Just after our last bill was when I got an electrician out from Warwick and Marty was able to change my solar hot water to actually be solar hot water. What had happened was that during the building process the electrician at the time just wired the pump and solar booster in as one. Not separately. This means that as we are on tank water we needed the pump on all the time. But that also meant that the solar booster was on all the time. Lovely great hot water but the solar was not being used at all. Such a pity. I argued with the builders for ages and they would not come to the party and get it done for me, even though I had asked for them separately before signing the contract. Unfortunately for me I didn't check to see that it was in the contract. It was not. So I got it done myself in the end and was the best $210 I ever spent. Our water most days is actually hotter than with the booster, and no it doesn't need turning on anymore. Just the way I like it...

OK, so to my brag... We have had our No Technology Monday's and Low Electricity Wednesday's for the whole time as well and our usage was down to..... wait for it.... 896kWh and the total of the bill is $210.75.

I can't believe it... I am sooo proud of my boys and I. Russell is really proud of us as well. He was not here for any of the Monday's or Wednesday's except a couple of them so he knew we had put in a huge effort to reduce our usage. The boys are also allot more aware just what goes into saving now and it is a habit.

Our electricity went up 15.67% as at 1 July 2009, which I think is terrible. I just can't wait for my solar electricity to come now. I am checking on the process of my application with the Government Department during this week and will post as to where we are up to. Can't happen soon enough but I also realise that I will probably have to wait for another six months or so.

I am thinking now of other ways to try and save kWh's now. Not only are we saving money and then some as well as building a better knit family unit but we are also doing our little bit at this end in helping the environment and that is what it is mainly all about. Any of your hints would be greatly appreciated...

Cheers Damaris