We filed our taxes, and figured out exactly where our refund is going to go. Basically, we looked at the list from my last post and figured out that we should do energy-use-reducing stuff first. Our refund will pay our oil company for the last fill and the oil tank replacement, in full, and get a timing belt for Dave’s car, and then three windows for the living room. We also each get $150 to spend frivolously, so I plan on getting an iPod nano for the gym. (More on that later.)

Then, if the stimulus plan passes, we will match that and replace the woodstove in our living room with a pellet stove. Something pretty — I don’t like the black boxes on pedestals, even though those are cheaper — and then we have a secondary heat source, that uses waste wood products, and that supports our local economy — pellet mills are a newish industry in Maine.  Since we already have the hearth and a place to put it, it will be nice to have a ‘fire’ to sit by in the winter. We’ll keep working on replacing the windows, room by room (in this order: living room, master bedroom, guest room, dining room, kitchen, bath — maybe reverse dining and guest, we’ll see) and next year we will replace the roof and refrigerator. All of those things add value, as well as (hope to god) improving our heating bills and dependency on fossil fuels.  With oil just skyrocketing — FUCK, I just don’t want to prebuy this year at 3.49, then next year at 4.49, etc — rather, putting in a second source means we can choose based on price and efficiency. And, no matter what, it will be nice to have a fire going on cold nights. Pellets make a lot of sense for us, because we do live in town, we don’t live on acreage we can use to self-harvest our fuel source, we don’t have a woodroom, or a pickup, or a chainsaw, etc. Plus, it’s clean to store and burn. In a power outage, we’d need a generator, but realistically — we live in town. In the ice storm, people took generators around and let people get an hour or two of heat to prevent pipe freeze, and hell, maybe we’ll buy a generator in the future anyway, or a battery backup.  I’m excited about the plan, anyway.

The gym — I’ve added cardio, which I think is a good thing. I’ve been doing Group Power since September, and definitely feel stronger and more confident in my body, to the point that now I stay after GP (an hour long weightlifting to music class) and do 30+ minutes on a cross trainer machine thing. (I’m working up the courage to use an elliptical, and the cross-trainer is like an elliptical without the arm action.) But, while I have generally had no use for in iPod, preferring instead to eavesdrop, no one is talking at the gym, and the two tvs are set to ESPN and the Fox News Network, and closed-captioned, and as far away from my machine as you can get, so, yeah, boring. And the magazines generally suck. So, I want an iPod.

But, can I just be really proud of myself for a minute? I am going to the Gym. Regularly. And, yes I’m not a teeny-tiny sorority girl or whatever, but I started with 1kg weights on my bar and am now doing 10kg (on each side — so 20kg, or 44. something pounds, and the bar is 5, I think, so, like 50 lbs) and I can feel the strength in my body now. I had tried a step + weights class at the beginning of this term, but, ohno, step is not for me. It is "balance on one foot, trying fruitlessly to catch up and not trip" so I bailed after 3 classes. But, the premise was that it was a beginner fitness class — 30 minutes of step, and 30 of weights, and I was blown away by how…. easy… the weights part was. It would NOT have been without group power. And now, instead of that class, I am going on Wednesdays for just cardio in the gym. As the weather improves, I plan on walking the circle at least a few times a week, too, and as the days get longer, an after-dinner walk to the park will be a nice way to get some movement in. (We are ALL ready for longer days and warmer weather — after-dinner time now is reading books and watching Jeopardy, but we sure need some more outside stuff to do, and light to do it in.)

My next step is to get some vitamins going. Yes, I suck. I never even finished my first bottle of prenatal vitamins from my FIRST pregnancy, let alone kept up through the second pregnancy and 15 months of breastfeeding.  When I taught I had a good system going, taking them in each week and taking with lunch, and I’ve just realized that there’s no reason I can’t do that at work, now. Plus, I have an FSA with it’s own debit card, so it wouldn’t even be spending money to use it. I did Omegas (Flax oil, I think) and a big women’s vitamin, and something else, I’m pretty sure, but I can’t remember what it was. Must do some investigating.

So, pellet stoves, using iPods at the gym, vitamin regimens — any valuable input on any of those things is always appreciated.

Our most recent oil bill ($600! And we have a super-efficient furnace and use less than 450 gals a year!!!! ANd will probably have one more tank fill this winter… god) made me freak about money, so we’ve set a challenge to Not Buy Anything We Don’t Need* until March 1. Which is interesting, because I find myself windowshopping like mad all of a sudden. IE, I now want an Apple TV. The new update that makes it work standalone is pretty cool, and having AppleTV, I could subscribe to the daily show and colbert report and other shows, so it would be like having the exact cable shows I wish I had. In theory. And if AppleTV & iTunes ever do a netflix like thing, w00t, I’d be all over that.

Also windowshopping: cars. I really want to drive my car into the ground, and I’m doing well with that, but it doesn’t mean I can’t browse the websites for local dealerships. Honestly, it was less panic-inducing than I might have thought — I found a great used Outback, with 41k miles and all of the luxe features I’d want, for just 12k! And saw a car almost exactly like mine, with higher mileage, selling for 7k. Mine is prob in worse condition — it’s 10 years old and counting, and showing it’s age — but this one was just 2 years younger. I have kind of an arbitrary goal of making it to 200k in mine, and we’re at 135 now. And, since I drive about 5 miles a day, total, just 5 days a week, it could be years before I get to 200k, so I’ll just keep saving and hope to one day pay cash. On the off-chance I would need one quickly (horrific car crash, etc) it’s at least nice to know what’s out there.

And of course, new windows  — the show Tom did of the two we’ve put in Ing’s room aired this weekend, and it made me want more! more! MORE! But, alas, we will wait. I mostly want to see what our accounts look like after a month or so of necessity-only spending.

I don’t know how people who can’t afford oil, are affording it. It’s almost double what it was when we first moved in, four years ago, and like I said — we use very little! We  also keep our thermostat lower than anyone we know — 54 during the day (when we are not home) and 62 overnight, and 64 during the evening hours that we are awake.  And we have this woodstove, that the chimney sweep advised against using, but we really need a second opinion — especially if oil is like this next year. It’s also a goal to pre-buy this summer; my boss did, and paid a full DOLLAR less per gallon (2.49 vs 3.49) so that we don’t get these puke-inducing bills.

A month of window-shopping isn’t so bad.

*Exceptions are a photo-thank you card for my Grandma, for our Christmas checks, and we can use any giftcard balances we have, as that is not coming out of our MONEY.