I knew it was only a matter of time before the summer finally reached New England but after such a mild winter I was hoping that perhaps the summer would also be kind to my utility bills. No such luck... after weeks of cool 60's the heat wave finally hit yesterday sending me running for the a/c and it's not expected to cool down any time soon.
All winter I was able to endure slightly frostier temperatures in the house setting my thermostat on 60 in the name a savings. I bundled up, cuddled close to S and the pets for warmth, and survived just fine. The summer heat though is a completely different type of torture. If it were just me I could get by with the thermostat set on 78 and a fan on at night to keep the air moving. S, however, is miserable once the temperature passes 70 degrees and would probably set the a/c at 68 if it were only up to him.
I expect that that 10 degree difference in our comfort zones will cause some problems between us this summer especially since I am on the cut costs/ reduce debt mission and he is on the I finally have money again and am going to spend, spend, spend mission. Hopefully, we can reach a reasonable compromise... I'm wondering if the answer is to get one of those programmable thermostats so that we can only have the air running when we are going to be there to benefit from it. I'll have to check into those and see if the landlord would be ok with us installing one.
With having been divorced, I in no way am qualified to tell anyone how to have a successful relationship. However, I'm a pro at what not to do and with the differences in yours and S's mentalities right now regarding spending, you're on a track to a place you don't want to go.
ReplyDeleteYour reasonable compromise solution isn't a programmable thermostat (although that would probably help with the bill), your solution needs to be to find a compromise on the spending. There is no way that you can gain ground on debt and savings when you're not together with a plan.
I so don't mean to be a downer on this or to come off as discouraging or mean. My first marriage was too many years of me trying to get us out of debt and him wanting to spend the money he worked hard to get.
I couldn't agree with you more, Alice... I had a similar first marriage experience that ended in my financial disaster. I've really been struggling these past few months on how to address the financial differences between S and I. We have been dating for a couple years and so far have kept our financial lives separate for many reasons, on my side is a huge amount of debt some of which is from the divorce and on his side is a job loss and foreclosure.
DeleteHowever, since we made the commitment leap to move together and we are both beginning to recover from our individual financial problems, it's long overdue that we start financial planning together.
Honestly, I would really appreciate any advice on handling finances in a relationship because I obviously didn't do it right the first time around and have been extremely anxious about going down that road again because of my first experience!