The weather here has been ridiculous. Hot and humid. Depending on where you live, you might be dealing with the same things. I live in an apartment building where the electric bill is included in my rent, so I don’t worry about the financial implications of running my air conditioner, but I do worry a bit about the environmental implications, so I try to not be too ridiculous with the temperature. I know a lot of people turn off their AC during the day, but my apartment gets HOT in the middle of the day and I have two furry cats to worry about.
All the heat reminds me of my days in college. We were in the midwest, where it got super hot in the fall and spring and super cold in the winter. My dorm was built in the late 1800’s, and we definitely didn’t have air conditioner. So we went for the next best thing – a giant bowl of ice sitting in front of a fan. It’s amazing how great that feels. I still set it up in my apartment from time to time when I really want some cold air blowing on me. Of course, then I have to keep the cats from spilling the bowl of water (they like to drink from it), but it’s a great feeling for not a lot of money.
What are your favorite “stay cool” tips?
Megan is a 30-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
I never would have thought about the bowl of ice idea! We try to not run the AC if we’re not home, but we do keep the ceiling fan running for the cats. The apartments surrounding us keep us at a bearable temperature. (Don’t ask that same question to my husband. He would adamantly disagree!) Be glad your electricity is included in your rent. I would kill for that.
We’ve been around for 60,000 years or so, air conditionings have only been around since 1902. Seams like we can do ok without em. I just open the windows. Though us Aussies have been laughing our assess off ath the people from Moscow with their “heat wave” of 93.8 degrees, it hits 113 on occasion here, we just had a heat wave of 6 consecutive days over 113.