We got our electric bill the other day. $63!!!!

To put things into perspective, we have never paid more than $30/month for electricity. In our Oakland condo, we had 1200 square feet of living space, an electric stove and range plus an electric clothes washer/dryer. We cooked daily and ran the wash once or twice a week. So a $63 bill was shocking. Really.

Tig and I are now looking over our appliances, trying to figure out the guilty perpetrator. In the past, we used compact flourescents, all our appliances were energy efficient. At first Tig thought it was the refrigerator, but a new suspect has moved to the forefront - our electric clothesdryer, left by the previous owner. To test our hypothesis, we’ll get a clothes drying rack from the neighborhood hardware store this weekend and start hang-drying our clothes. We did it in our studio apartment several years ago for environmental and moneysaving reasons. We’ll see if it makes a difference in our bill next month.