A party and plums and an almost non-existent utility bill

Hubby threw a birthday cookout for me this weekend, and we used the same things as for my daughter's bubble party in July: reusable plastic plates and cups and cloth napkins. We also gathered all the leftover corn husks and cobs for composting.

Even better, as snacks, I set out plums and blackberries from the yard. Alas, the blueberries are all gone for the season, but the plums are now ripe and sweet! I realize the mistake I made earlier: I was trying to eat the plums when they turned purple. I need to wait until they're so dark they're almost black. That's when they're perfect!

We received our latest bimonthly utility bill (water and electric). You may remember that our April bill was twice as high as February's, and we discovered in June that they had overcharged us. The credit to our account was enough to wipe out the June bill and give us an additional credit of $91.

This bill was just as amazing. We had successfully brought down the bill from $600 every two months, to $400, to about $250. This bill was $118. In other words, it breaks down to an average cost of usage of only $29 per month, per utility. We're definitely doing something right. Each bill shows a comparison chart to the same billing period the previous year. Our water and energy usage is less than half of what we were using at this time last year -- which was less than half of what we had used the year before. Best of all, given that we still have the $91 credit, we only have to pay $27 of that $118!