The “Soup Nazi”
Have you ever seen that Seinfeld episode with the “soup nazi?” If you haven’t there’s a pretty infamous Seinfeld episode in which Kramer introduces the rest of the his friends to a new soup stand. He raves about how delicious the soup is and everyone is eager to try it. When they arrive at the stand one by one, the temperamental soup chef, later referred to as the “soup nazi”, refuses to serve them. Against Jerry’s advice, George asks the soup nazi for a piece of bread. When he’s denied the bread, he begins to complain and the soup nazi raises the price of the soup then swiftly refunds George’s money and kicks him out stating,”no soup for you!”
In my household, my boyfriend is the soup nazi. Except his “soup” is heat.
So far this fall we haven’t used the heat in our condo at all. In fact, our thermostat is still completely turned off. At first I thought this “ban” on heat was a little nutty. But I’m a pretty frugal girl at heart, and once I started to think about the money we’d save, I was totally on board. In fact, I’m actually a little bit excited to see how long we can go without turning on the heat (I’m weird, I know!). I’m thinking if it continues to stay above freezing, we can last at least through the end of the month (maybe longer?).
A few things seem to be working in our favor so far. 1-it’s been pretty warm this fall. 2-we live on the 4th floor and heat rises. 3-we have newer windows that are energy efficient (according to the manufacturer they keep the heat in in the winter and the heat out in the summer).
Other Ways We’re Staying Warm Without Turning on the Heat:
- Wearing layers. Easy and obvious, right? I’m more than willing to wear a few extra layers to keep our heat bill low. Bf actually breathes better when it’s cold (he has asthma, so he’s really enjoying the house being cooler).
- Snuggling under blankets. We have a pretty small place and the temperatures haven’t been that cold yet. So instead of turning on the heat we’ve been using lap throws to stay warm. I actually sleep better under heavy blankets so I don’t mind layering on another quilt.
- Using my laptop. Seriously! Right now I’m typing on my laptop and I’m toasty warm thanks to the heat she’s putting off. Nobody tell me this causes lap cancer, I don’t want to know!
- Eating hot soup and drinking hot tea. I love making a big pot of soup and eating it throughout the week. It’s frugal, healthy and keeps me warm while I’m eating it. This week I made this Stuffed Pepper soup and it was absolutely delicious.
- Wearing slippers. We have hard wood floors that can get a little cold on the feet. I hate having cold feet so I always wear socks or slippers in the house. If you don’t like wearing slippers you might want to buy a few throw rugs, we have a couple in the bedrooms.
- Window treatments. We have wooden blinds and curtains. Our curtains are mostly decorative but keep in a little heat when we close them. We haven’t needed to thus far, but last year during hurricane Sandy we closed all of our curtains to keep the heat in when the power went off. I also have friends who have thermal insulated curtains
that swear the curtains keep the heat in.
that swear the curtains keep the heat in.Have your turned on your heat yet? How to you keep your heat bill low?