Tuesday, February 10, 2009

It's a Chicken Pot Pie Day

Or, maybe you'd understand better if I said it's a meatloaf day....Just one of those downer days and even foods don't have great appeal for me. (Where are you cravings??) You see, when I was younger, every time my brothers or I had a bummer day at school, we'd come home to meatloaf night. I don't think it's a favorite for any of us, and that just seemed to top it off. The only fun part about meatloaf night was our family tradition of unwrapping the tin foil off our baked potatoes, rolling it in a ball, and shooting it into a predetermined "basket" somewhere in the kitchen. Well, I didn't have meatloaf in our apartment...I certainly haven't made it since we've been married, but I did have frozen chicken pot pies in the freezer, so I popped one of those in the microwave. I'm sure Matt will be shocked about this. Afterall, I'm not a fan of chicken pot pie. Hmm, you're probably finding out I'm sort of particular about food from my posts. Anyway, I just wanted something warm that wouldn't take long and nothing sounded good so that's what I had. *Just in case you're wondering, I'd have to say even worse than meatloaf or chicken pot pie is hamloaf. If you've never had it, stay away! I also hear there is such a thing called salmonloaf. What are these people thinking?? Let's just eat our meat and ham and not make it into a loaf! The salmon I will avoid anyway. I'm not a seafood person at all (just a little tunafish on my sandwich every once and awhile).

Why is today a downer or a meatloaf/chicken pot pie/hamloaf day? I'm not really sure. I feel like I'm working around our apartment, but there is not much to show for it. I was having a good time with our paper shredder for awhile today (we have lots of old papers we needed to get rid of) until it jammed. Currently, I am typing this post with the lights off and the heat a little below 55. Yes, we're back to bundling ourselves up. Would you like to hear our last bill? I'm sure you do! You see, 2 months ago, we were keeping our heat at like 50, like now, and turning it up a bit in the evening while Matt and I were both home. We still had an outrageous bill. This last month, we tested a theory presented by friends to set the heat a little higher, more in the normal range, say 65 during the day and about 60 at night so the heater wouldn't have to work as hard to get up warmer when we turned it on in the evening. Well, wait for it, wait for it, this was our electric bill for the month: $347. Yes, that was only our electric. You read it right. Our heat is electric. Our gas bill was $75. We have a decent size 2 bedroom apartment, but people, we do not live in a million square foot house! Our gas is only used for our hotwater. We like to each shower once a day (I'm sure others prefer that too), and we use the hot water for our dishes. Ummm, wow. Somebody help us! What are we doing? We left our last apartment due to gas/electric bills (among the other things my couple of faithful readers are very familiar with). The common factor we come up with is, ....us! Yes, I have the computer on during a good chunk of the day if I'm home. I have the light on in the room I'm in when it's dark. We even have the swirly energy efficient light bulbs, and we're still waiting to see the savings. We've only had the shredder a week, and as much fun as it is, I don't think I'm using it all day every day and it's using that much electricity. Yes, we do watch tv sometimes, but still...this is ridiculous. I seriously contemplated making a peanut butter sandwich instead of using the microwave for my pot pie today, but I really wanted something warm! Ok, so I'm venting, and I am thankful we do have heat when it's below freezing outside, but if you have any pointers, we will take them!

3 comments:

Andrea said...

YIKES! That's some bill! Your electric bill is more than our gas and electric bill combined and that's for our whole house and we heat with both electric and gas - and gas does our hot water and our dryer - and even our garage is heated... I'd say you have some major insulation issues... is it cold by the windows? Maybe hang some heavier curtains or blankets to keep the warm air from escaping? Brrrr! Buy stock in hanes long underwear and socks? Brrrr!

Andrea said...

Oh yeah, and why the meatloaf bashing? I made a pretty mean meatloaf this weekend myself and I hear megan did too... we must have been thinking the same things - mmm...comfort food! ha ha!

Becky said...

Yes, isn't it outrageous?? We've been hearing from so many people that ours is higher than theirs for a whole house. We are dumbfounded. Our apartment is in a brick house...? Yes, I told Matt I wanted some long underwear!!

Sorry about the meatloaf...maybe I'd really like yours or Megan's, or maybe it's just a lost cause!