Scaling down

Jay and I like to look for ways to cut down on our monthly expenses and feel that we do a pretty good job while still being quite comfortable.  The pellet stove was a huge step toward lower utility costs - we didn't use our gas heat all winter, prompting the gas company to contact us stating that the meter must be broken!  We recently stocked up with 2 tons of wood pellets for the coming winter, though with our new little addition coming in the fall we know that gas heat will be needed as a supplement to the pellet stove.   We try to be efficient with our electricity use and even keep our microwave on an outlet switch to turn on only when we need it which helps keep the bill low.  We made the decision upon relocating back to Oregon that we would cut out cable from our monthly bills and only have our internet costs, which aren't the cheapest (we couldn't happily survive without our high-speed!), but serve us well.  When we lived in Davis we had the full cable package with DVR and we were commercial-skipping zombies! 
  Our most recent effort to cut costs was to eliminate our garbage service.  We are hoping this is a long-term change for us.  We were already on a schedule for trash pickup every 2 weeks and there were plenty of times when our little can was mostly empty.  Along with the garbage was our yard waste container, which rarely gets used as well thanks to our leaf bin.  So we decided that we can bundle up our garbage once a month and take it in when we drop off all of our plastic film (plastic bags, plastic wrap from packages) at the recycle center.  The best part of this is that Corvallis provides free recycling pickup!  So we still get to keep our rolling recycle bin for cardboard, paper, plastic containers, etc., and have it picked up weekly at no cost.  What a deal!