I'm saving money

When Cliff's sister moved here, she asked him if he'd put up some clotheslines for her.  I quit hanging clothes outside on the line when I went back to work, years ago.  Back about the same time I quit milking all those cows and raising baby calves.  
It was nice to have those clotheslines there, right next door.  I like to hang sheets outside; that's about the only thing I used the lines for, at first.  Then in the last year I decided to get serious:  Unless we are having a series of rainy days, everything now goes on the clothesline.  I have an electric dryer, so I figured I'd be saving a few pennies by not using it.  
About three months ago, I began washing my clothes in tap-cold water, with the exception of the overalls Cliff wears when he's working on tractors and getting all greasy;  my water heater is electric, too.  
Since I pay the same amount year-round on my electric bill ($128 monthly), I wasn't sure how much I was saving, but I knew I had to be making some sort of dent in my overall bill.  
Poking around on the Kansas City Power and Light website where I pay my bill, I found out exactly how much I've saved in the past year, because there's a comparison chart.

On the left is the current year; on the right, the previous year.  Even though last month we had our biggest bill ever, over the year we have reduced our usage by 19% (this information is below the chart).  And I didn't really start waging war on our electrical usage until perhaps mid-summer.   

I wonder if I can do even better next year.

Stuff we bought for our motorcycle.

Cliff and I had a blast in December, ordering add-on stuff for our Gold Wing. It wasn't so much fun when the credit card bill came, but we'll get rid of that real fast. I'm doing this entry primarily for our son, who wanted to see what all Cliff had done to the bike.

Jim, you probably know to click on any of the pictures to make them larger.
This is a mud-guard extension. Cliff said it was the single hardest thing to put on.

I picked this out: It goes on the inside of the lid of the trunk, and there are pockets to store little items like aspirin, band-aids, camera stuff, and any other things we need on a road trip.

This shows the smoke-colored air wings and the highway boards.

This shows the highway boards and new engine guardrails.

This is our new half-cover. We had a full cover for the blue Gold Wing, but it was too bulky to take along on long road trips. This one covers the top half, which is all that's needed.


Cliff's putting it on to try it out.

Yep, that's exactly what we needed!

Money well spent, I say.