I called around to the oil companies yesterday. I wanted to give them my stimulas check to get a jump start on oil for winter. Turns out that they won't take my money until July when they have an idea of the price that I can cap at (I will not pay more than that price throught the winter no matter how high it gets).

Thing is, they told me that the price right now is $4.79! WHAT! That estimates me at spending an extra $250/month doing the monthly budget plan. I can't afford that! That's more than our grocery budget and even that's hard to stick to. We're arleady in credit card debt that it feels like we can't get out of. We'll either end up starving or freezing to death this winter.

DH suggested that we keep the thermostat low and get a space heater or two. One for the living room and one for DD's room. Will keeping the thermostat low offset the cost of the heaters? I am really not looking foward to this.

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Wow, we always prepaid 300 gallons in July for the winter.

At that price we will spend over 1500 for gas for the winter!

maybe you can look into a pellet stove or a coal stove? We have a coal stove and I just called around for coal and we will need about 2 tons and it will cost us $400.00 and it heats our house house!!! Also call alot of different compaines and get prices. Thats what I do with the coal and buy over the summer

Does anyone know what it costs to put a pellet stove or coal stove in your house? We have oil heat currently and just learned as well our heating bill will be about $300 (double what we pay now) in August. We can't afford that and need to look at other options too.

DH came home yesterday telling me his co is looking at a lock in rate of $4.75. Im sure it'll go up by time the rates are settled in July though.

Isn't this scary? For us we use just over a thousand gallons of oil in a winter. We are looking at other options now ~ but otherwise looking at paying $5000 to heat our house from Oct to April

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HOly cow, I'm locked in for 700 gallons every winter. My payments are 218, I can't imagaine how much they'll go up! I over pay right now to get a jump on the winter bills, I send them $300 a month, my contract renews itself every August.

I would definatly look into a pellet stove or a wood stove if I were you. We don't, but we just had new windows put in so that will help. I turn the heat OFF if I can help it and keep the thermastat as low as I can before we freeze to death.

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~Missy~Mommy
Meghan8.Samantha7,Cameron4

I feel your pain. A local oil company just quoted $4.999 as a lock-in price. We have opted to put a pellet stove insert into our fireplace. Installed, with labor, etc., plus two tons of pellets for the winter, the stove will run just over $4,800. There are less expensive models out there, though, and labor will probably be lower in a different part of the country. However, even at that high a price, the stove will pay for itself the first winter it's in the house.

We also use between 1,000 and 1,100 gallons a year.

We are installing a wood stove this year because oil and propane are too expensive! We will still have the systems as back up but it will save us a lot.

As far as lowering oil consumption, get a programmable thermostat if you dont already have one. We set ours at 65 during the day and 60 at night. Also if your windows are drafty use window plastic to seal them. I use space heaters to supplement and my electric bill only went up about $25 those months. Who knew electric heat would be cheaper than oil!

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