photo credit: VirtualErn

When we bought our house three years ago, there was a wood burning stove in our living room. That thing is so ugly. I thought. I can’t wait to get rid of it and put a fireplace in! Fast forward to our first winter, and I’ve now fallen in love with the wood burning stove. Not to mention the time it pretty much saved our lives when our electricity went out for a week last winter!

To save money and also reduce our carbon emissions, we, like so many other frugal people, lower our thermostat during the winter. We keep it at a temperature that feels comfortable to us. I can’t help but wonder if it would be more cost effective to heat more with wood when we’re home versus using the furnace. Right now, we’re using wood from the huge tree that fell on our house a couple years ago, which I guess you could say cost us nothing, or cost us a ton of money from having to pay the deductible and the money it cost to do all the repairs to the house.

Either way, we didn’t pay any money out of pocket to purchase the actual wood.  The only problem is now that we’re running low on wood, so I’m trying to figure out if it’s worth it to pay for some more wood.  There’s nothing better than a roaring fire in winter.  We really enjoy it.  But on the other hand- is it going to cost me more to get the wood, keep the fire going etc, versus using the furnace?  I’m not sure.  Then I worry about the smoke causing pollution and being horrible for the environment (not that using the furnace isn’t).  So it’s hard for me to tell whether or not I should use the furnace or suck it up and buy some more wood.

What do you think will save us more money: heating with wood, or heating with the furnace?  Which one do you think is greener?

You’ve probably heard the term before, but be assured that I’m not going to talk about that exactly. Last week I spent time with my 20 year old sister. She thinks I am totally a tightwad but that’s another story. We were talking about money and she said that since she’s been unemployed she’s had to tap into her savings account. While she was working, she was always contributing to the account. Now that she’s not, she obviously needs money for gas so it has to come from somewhere.

She said that before she became unemployed, she would never touch her savings account. It was almost a sin to withdraw money. Once she “broke the seal” though, she said it was much easier to keep hitting up her savings account like a rich uncle.

In her case, she really can’t help it because she doesn’t have a steady source of income. But to combat withdrawing too much, I recommended she have a separate account that she has a certain amount of money in so that may help curb the habit. For one, if she withdraws more than 4 times in a month, her bank will charge her, and for two, it’s good to have money left!

When you can’t help but tap into your savings account, consider withdrawing cash if you’re the type of person that works better on a cash based budget. I would approximate how much you’re going to need and maybe add $10 on that amount so that if you need extra you won’t get charged by your bank. The bottom line is: don’t beat yourself up about it too much. Emergencies happen. At least you hopefully have a little savings to help you deal with it.

How do you deal with “breaking the seal”?