I've been tracking heating oil prices for a while now and I think I made the right decision buying on Dec. 22 at $2.85 a gallon. After that, prices rose to a high of $3.12 a gallon on Jan. 2, but have since been dropping with the warm weather we're enjoying this week.  Today's price is $3.01.

I used to call around to different suppliers, but have found a site that lists daily prices of many different heating oil suppliers, so it's much easier to use that site, and they consistently provide the lowest prices. 

Just another thought on my 2025 expenses...I note with satisfaction that after the town implemented a new system for how household trash is disposed, I spent just $21 instead of $105 for the annual permit. That's becus the town did away with the annual permit system and now just charges you for specially designated blue bags that must be used to drop off trash at the transfer station, AND there is renewed emphasis on recycling, especially food waste, which is composted.

Basically now, the more you recycle, the less you'll need to toss in the trash and the less you'll pay for the bags. There are different sized bags you can buy, but 1 roll of 10 small trash bags costs $10. I started out only needing to bring trash to the transfer station every other week, and sometimes, I can go 3 weeks before needing to, becus after recycling and composting stuff, what I usually have left is small pieces of paper or wrappings that cannot be recycled due to their size, and stuff like that. 

I think the new system is great because now there is actually an incentive to not be wasteful. Yet there's a certain contingent in town that just complains, complains, complains without giving it a chance.  Recently, the town installed 4 new compost dropoff containers around town to make it easier for busy people to drop off their compost. It's a big, spread-out town. All you do is download an app on your phone, and you need to use that app to unlock the bin so you can drop it of. It's an added convenience,  yet people complained about that, too. This drives me nuts.

A few more thoughts on last year's expenses..... I divided those expenses into 3 broad categories to help remind me of the relative importance of each. In the first tier are the 14 highest expenses that range from $1,000 to $19,662. (Car purchase and payments accounted for 30% of my total expenses. After that, my next highest expense, property taxes, made up a far lower share at 11.6%.) This is also where all 4 of my home improvement projects fell. Also showing up here were food, health insurance and car insurance as well as two utility costs: electricity and heating oil.

In the 2nd tier are expenses ranging from $500 to $916 that aren't super high, but aren't small potatoes, either. This is where you'll find my homeowners insurance, out of pocket medical costs, gasoline expenses, entertainment, clothing and gift expenses.

Finally, in the 3rd tier are a bunch of much smaller expenses, all under $500, some of which I'm tempted to consolidate into other categories.  Like my trash disposal fees and haircuts, for example, plus "subscriptions."

I already know what home improvements I want to focus on for this year:

1. Replace back door and storm door in the kitchen. I like the front entry storm door so much I would get that same door. I'm not positive I can even FIND a door that will fit becus it's smaller than standard size, like the front door, but also because there are kitchen cabinets to either side of the door so it is a very tight fit. 

2 & 3. I'd love to replace 2 major appliances in the kitchen: the fridge and stove. The fridge, only becus the current one is now 15 years old and i worry about it breaking down. It has an exterior ice maker which I regret getting becus I've heard they are prone to leaking. The stove works fine, but I would really like to get an induction stove, which heats things up faster and is more energy-efficient. 

4. I really, really need to replace the cheap bathroom cabinet upstairs. It's shot. But I've procrastinated about doing this because the stairs going to the 2nd floor narrow at the top and getting something new up there without dinging up my walls or something else would be a challenge, not to mention the very narrow bathroom door, and if it's not the right size or they rip the wallpaper, then all the wallpaper would need to be redone. So this one I don't like to think about.

I do admit to a new, somewhat hefty purchase this week. Similar to the reverse osmosis water filtration system I got, because I worry about bad stuff in my water, I decided to buy a top-rated air purifier for my downstairs. I have one I often use in my bedroom while I'm sleeping. It doubles as a sound machine. 

The new one has an app you can control it with, and the brand and model were recommended in a webinar I watched by Electrify Now, a consumer group out of Portland or Seattle that supports electricity as clean energy in place of fossil fuels or natural gas. I love watching this group's webinars, and in fact they are responsible for my decisions to purchase a variety of green appliances for my home, including my  heat pump clothes dryer, my heat pump electric hot water heater, hopefully an induction stove and now, this air purifier.

You can find their videos on You Tube; just search Electrify Now.

Anyway, the air purifier indicated that the air inside my home was "excellent" even before I turned it on. Anytime you cook, even with an electric stove and especially with natural gas, you are affecting your indoor air quality. Even burning a candle emits soot into the air. Running an exhaust fan helps when cooking, but not 100%. If you have pets, of course, there are issues with dander. And then there are the many rugs and furniture that emit formeldyde and other chemicals.

As I spend more time at home, and especially in winter months, I think more about things like making sure the water i drink and the air I breathe is healthy. I know not everyone can afford to do this, so I am grateful I can make these choices. This comes years after I ditched all my plastic food storage containers for glass and put carbon monoxide detectors in the bedroom and basement.  All this technology I welcome; AI, not so much. I recently googled, "Tell me about [my name] recently, and it came up with an interesting bio of myself collected from online. Some of it was totally inaccurate, though, like saying i served on the architectural advisory committee. No idea where that came from.