Living Quarters: MERALCO Bill

I always thought that my MERALCO bill was too high as compared to my other friend who has almost the same set of appliances as mine and who frequently uses hers. Namamahalan ako kasi in the first place, wala naman akong aircon :p. I only have a TV, ref, a microwave oven (mostly used), an electric stove (which I only use when I do batch cooking), 1 electric fan, iron, laptop (which I don't use everyday), my router which is turned on as long as I'm home, and gadgets to charge. I also turn off lights at night and at daytime. I unplug everything (except for the ref) when I go out.

So for several months now, I was looking for ways to lower it. One of the big factor was the TV. I used to watch TV all day, especially on weekends. Sometimes, I don't really watch. I just turn it on for the sound. Every night, I also watch ANC's replay of On The Money. However, I guess they have rearranged programs and it's not showing at its usual time slot. Then I got tired of all the commercials and political ads so I just stopped watching. Plus, I became comfortable with silence so turning on the TV means noise now. I still watch from time to time but very seldom. The TV is seldom used since September, hence, one of my goals for this month is to cut my cable subscription. It has lowered my electric bill but I still think it's high. During these months, I was averaging from Php 700 - Php 900 in my bill. Lower than the usual more than a thousand pesos!

In December, I went home for the holidays so I decided to consume all perishable goods and turn off the ref. It was turned off for 13 days, these days covered in my current bill. The result? See below.

MERALCO Bill

This is by far the lowest I got to date hehe. So....looks like the biggest contributor is the ref. Well, maybe it's because it's more than a decade old already. It's not one of those energy efficient models which are abundant these days. Anyway, I'm still not changing it unless absolutely necessary. I'll just continue to consciously turn it off when not needed.

Now that I'm almost back to regular programming (aka staying at home especially on weekends), let's see how my next bill will be. 

I wonder how others keep their electric bills to a minimum?