So not sure how much to go into so I'll try to give specifics. Condensed backstop is basically my bf and I bought our first house but turns out the guy who was "renovating" it before us, was extremely sketchy and did some unsafe shit to the house that we are now fixing with what money we can spare.
Examples include: 1) Master bathroom's toliet was not even hooked up to a pipe so everything was being dumped into the crawlspace. We haven't even touched the bathroom anymore since we found mold throughout the bathroom when removing the toilet so the master bath isn't used anymore and we plan to fix it while we completely remodel it to ensure there isn't any other hidden problems there. 2) Just replaced the dryer vent which was made out of the old vents made out of wire and plastic secured with duct tape. The old ones that are not available anymore due to being fire hazards. It was so full of lint that my bf even found the remains of rat's nests near the end. 3) Dangerous wiring for some of the lights which was a simple fix but the first thing we ever found that he did terribly 4) AC didn't work at all for reasons I can't remember. Had to get it professionally fixed immediately to prevent our dog (Alaskan Malamute mix) from overheating while we both gone for work. He would be panting HARD by the time I would get home.
Basically all this quickly drained our emergency fund we had set up and heavily added to our credit card debt. There was also my medical bills due to issues from when I had minor bladder cancer which lead to 2 surgeries which also drained our finances.
Anyway, our water bill is very low (less than $100 of I'm not mistaken) but our electric is a bit above average around 200-300. I usually wash all our dishes by hand and rarely use our dishwasher (which doesn't really dry them anyway, we don't know why). I typically do laundry once a week and got into the habit of using a clothing rack to dry clothes during our dryer issue. However our clothes would almost always come out stiff and couldn't figure out why.
To help combat the electric bill, at least for me when I'm home. I use natural light and then use a desk lamp for the rest of the night since it provides ample light.
Grocery wise the two of us kinda just have a college's kids diet due to time restrictions and dietary issues on my part. I do sometimes make my own pasta as well since pasta is a dish we frequently eat. We do have a plan to combat this once we have the money to see what can be done about my dietary issues since we can work around the time restrictions.
Also if it matters, we live out more in the countryside, the closest grocery store being 30 minutes away but I usually just do the grocery shopping after work since the store is on the way home. Any additional tips or advice?
October 04, 2021 at 12:38PM
