That was a great savings.
It has been a year for frustration and change in our house. This is part of the effect the pandemic has had on our lives. I don’t want to be moaning to loudly given that we have been able to maintain our health. And that is something that we are very grateful for. Of course, we have been adopting all of the pandemic protocols to make sure that we stay health. And that if we are asymptomatic, we aren’t spreading the virus. That said, we have really suffered economically this year. I have had to work from the comfort of the HVAC at home. This has allowed me to continue earning my salary. Something I’m thankful to be able to continue to do. However, I haven’t been able to earn any of the bonus structure and that counts for more than 20 percent of my annual income. Then there is my wife, she lost her job entirely as her company laid her off and later closed down. She has found a few online gigs to earn some money but it’s not even half of what she was making. So we have had to really cut back and be very, very careful about our spending. But there have been some successes. Last summer, we really focused on the HVAC utility costs. With some proactive steps and committed discipline regarding the thermostat setting, we saved well over 20 percent on HVAC utility costs. That was a great savings. We saved hundreds over the course of the summer. This was a welcome addition to our savings account. Hopefully, this year will see us get back on track a bit better.