Why Are My Utility Bills Always So High and Stressful?

Speaker A00:00:00

Do you ever open up your electric bill and almost choke? I'm talking about the number is just unbelievable. You know, it's heat, it's air conditioning, it's water.And if you're like most people, you feel like those bills are just creeping higher and higher. It feels like you're working just to pay the power company. I felt that many times in my life.Well, what if you could cut some costs without freezing in winter or sweating all summer? I've got some great tips for you to do just that on today's show.This is Financially Confident Christian, your daily dose of gospel, grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence. Hi there, I'm Ralph. Thanks for joining me on today's Financially Confident Christian.This is the show where I help you to become a more financially confident Christian. And we're continuing in our series breaking the Cycle of Financial Shame. And we're looking to do it with confidence.And, and if you missed yesterday's show, we talked about retirement planning and why it feels so overwhelming. So I encourage you to go check it out because it wasn't your typical retirement show.You can find all of our shows@financially confidentchristian.com today we're going to do something very practical. I had a great conversation with my son yesterday. My youngest son has been living in a house with a room sharing arrangement. Well, guess what?He's getting his own apartment and he's going to be having to pay an electric bill, he's going to be paying a water bill, he's going to be paying a gas bill, an Internet bill. And he said to me, dad, he says, how can I save money on this? I don't even have an idea how much I should budget for this.And he said, dad, I don't want to be cold all the time and I don't want to sweat in the summer. And I said, son, that is a great question. And that's a question I bet a lot of my listeners could benefit from.So that's why I'm talking about it on today's show for so many of us. And I've heard so many people say this, Ralph, they said utility bills, they're just fixed costs. It just is what it is.My electric bill is going to be this much, my water bill is going to be this much, and so on and so forth. But guess what? They're not fixed. I want you to hear that right now because so many people say, oh, it's just like and do about it.But just like we talked about on the show the other day, we talked about those subscriptions that are just tiny leaks that are just grabbing your money and pulling them away from you. Well, guess what? Utilities are doing the exact same thing.And these things are insidious because they drain your wallet every month, maybe saying, okay, Ralph, okay, that's fine. Are you now the power company? Are you. Are you somehow going to show us how to save money on utilities? Yes. But here's why.As you know, in this show, my goal is to bring two worlds together. That's faith and finance. Well, clearly, financially, if you save money on utilities, you're going to save money. It's a benefit financially.But you might be saying, ralph, how does that connect to Christian faith? Well, here's how it connects.Because if you want to live in a situation of wise stewardship, and, hey, the Lord calls us to be wise in how we manage the things he's given us. One of the key things you can do to be a wise steward is to reduce your waste. What does that come down to in utilities?It comes down to managing your home wisely, because that's part of honoring God.Well, let's get right into the Scripture, because I've got the perfect Bible verse that talks directly about this, and I've used this in many contexts on the show. This is Proverbs, chapter 21, verse 20. And it says this. The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down.So now you're going to say, ralph, I guess what you're saying to me is if I don't pay attention to my utilities, I'm a fool. I'm not calling you a fool. I'm not judging you. But what does the scripture say?If we're going to be wise, if we're going to truly be wise stewards, we store up things.In this particular case, they're talking about food and olive oil, but you're storing up your money when you're not paying the utility companies for wasteful usage, for wasteful spending. Because guess what? You don't want to be a fool. A fool just gulps theirs down. It's kind of like this. Think about this.It's the middle of winter, you've got your heat running, and I walk into your apartment and the window is up. You're like, hey, doesn't it feel great in here? I'm like, you got the heater running and you're paying for the heat, but you got the window open.So today I want to talk about wisdom. I want to talk about saving, and most I want to talk about not wasting. Because this applies to money and it applies to energy as well.So here's your one action step for today. I just want to give you a couple of things that you can change right away. These are the very things that I told my son.Here's the things you're going to have to think about. A lot of people don't think about these things.So, as in preparing for the show today, I thought, okay, what are some good pieces of advice that I can give my son? And I thought these were excellent. First thing I'm going to recommend, if you lower your thermostat just 2 degrees.Now, that might not seem like much. My son is one of these guys that likes it like an arctic freeze in his house.And I've said to him, I said, when you get that first electric bill, you're going to say, dad, guess what? I'm taking that thermostat and I'm going up a little bit. So you may have to do the same thing.Just lower that thermostat by 2 degrees in the wintertime. So that, yeah, it might be a little cooler, you may have to put some layers on, but you're going to save a ton of money.And the same thing in the summertime, you may find that, yeah, I really like it at 68, but cost wise, if I go to 70 or even go to 72, maybe I put a fan on. Now look at the energy consumption in doing that. But you might be able to lower your cost substantially. So it starts there, lower the thermostat.So another thing I think is an excellent idea, and I've done this in my building here in my office, swapped all of my light bulbs out for LED bulbs. In fact, when I built this office, which is about two and a half years ago, I had them put in these puck lights in the ceiling that are all led.I think they cost literally nothing to run. And it was really interesting to me as the electrician was installing them, I said, okay, where do I change the bulb?He says, ralph, there is no bulb to change. He said, these things last about 10 years. I said, okay, well, what do you do when they're gone? He says, you replace them.I said, okay, they're expensive. He goes, no, they're dirt cheap. So that's another thing you consider if you've got traditional lighting, switch those out.Or even if it just go and buy those LED bulbs. Here's one a lot of people don't think about. And I Actually didn't think about this one either.How many things do we let run when we're not even using them? They're little leaks. They're little here and there, like the chargers. Listen, we've got chargers for everything. I was thinking about this morning.I've got a charger for my iPhone. I got a charger for my iPad, my computer, my headphones. I got this charger and that charger.Well, one of the things that you can do to really save money, I actually had a person that used to work with me at the credit union. She said, ralph, she said, what my husband did. Now, this guy was sharp. This is what he did. He actually put breakers into particular rooms.And when he wasn't using a particular room, he would just kill the breaker for that room. Now, I'm not telling you to go to that extreme, because I think that's a little extreme.But unplug those things when they're not in use because they do trickle a little bit of charge. And you might say, okay, Ralph, big deal. How much is going to waste five, ten cents a day?Well, add that times five chargers, that could be a dollar a day. In 30 days, that's 30 bucks. One more thing I thought of. This is a great idea. A lot of people get in that shower.I was talking to a plumber client of mine the other day.He's trying to sell a lot of these instant hot water heaters because he said the chief complaint is people getting in the shower and they run out of hot water because their traditional hot water tanks too small. Well, here's an idea. To save some money, you can actually shorten your shower by two minutes. Just focus on shorten it by two minutes.You will be amazed at how much water you will save, thus saving money on your utility bills.And it all comes down to one small choice, that if you repeat it every month, every week, whatever that looks like, it can save you a ton of money every month. Because just like interest, and we talk about interest compounding, when you put a money in the bank, it compounds. It grows on itself.Well, consistency does the same thing. And if you have lower utility bills, that gives you a greater margin. If you have a greater margin, you can save more.We talked about retirement yesterday. You can put more into retirement. You can give more. Hey, you can be more generous.And when you don't have to worry about opening those pills, as I was planning for the show today, I thought, you know, think about the anxiety that so many feel when they get that electric bill. Now, most People, I think, get them electronically now, they don't get the one in the mail anymore.But think about that anxiety and think about the peace you could have if you know you're doing everything you can to reduce those costs. And hey, in the end, it's all about wasting less and honoring God's provision to us and truly living in wise stewardship. How about we pray together?Father God, we just thank you for providing every resource we need. We know that you give us everything we need, Lord. So today I just want you to help us to see the small ways that we can save and steward well.Lord, remind us that every single dollar, every drop, every bit of energy that we use that is wasted is not being wise stewards in your mind, Lord. So help us to bring those things close and right in front of us.Lord, teach us to be wise, teach us to be faithful and teach us to use that saving to be generous in return. We ask all this in the name of Jesus. Utilities are not fixed costs. I get so annoyed when people say that they're not fixed causes.You can impact how much you spend on your utilities. So I want to encourage you one more time, make some small changes today because small changes today can lead to big savings tomorrow.And if today's message has helped you, here's what I'm do. I want to encourage you to share this show with every single person you know. Yes, I am going that broad with it.Just send him a text, send him an email, say, hey, this guy Ralph talked about how to save money on your utilities. Because guess what? For most people, they got to pay utilities and they can benefit from this.So just send them to our website, that's Financially Confident Christian dot com. Just say to me, Ralph's got some great ideas. It's a short show. You can catch it every morning. It's about faith and finance.Again, I encourage you to share that. And listen while they're there. I got something for everybody. I just finished writing my third book.It's called Becoming a Financially Confident Christian. And I'd like to give you a copy of that book today. You just go right to this website and and you can download it for absolutely free.No strings attached. Just get it and go. Go to the website. Financiallyconfidentchristian.com/Becoming. I'm going to give you that one more time.That's financially confidentchristian.com/becoming. And download that book today, man. It is chock full of ways to help you become a more financially confident Christian. So go get that book now.Tomorrow we're going to get into that discussion. We talked the other day about death. Well, guess what we're talking about tomorrow? Taxes. We're talking about how to make tax time less taxing.You probably heard that a time or two. But listen, I got some great ideas of how to keep you from living in that constant state of stress when it comes to taxes.So make sure you join me on tomorrow's show. Now, today, let's all go out there and be financially confident Christians. I have confidence in you. Have confidence in yourself.Stay financially savvy. God bless you, and you have a great day.