WHAT?! Something's not right...

So, I was going to write about my flower garden again - but Southern Alberta is facing another winter storm warning.  I covered my newly planted garden with a tarp and laid heavy rocks (and flower pots) around the edges so it wouldn't fly away.  This will help keep the snow and biting cold from the wind (which is supposed to get up to 80km/hour today) off of them.  Residual heat from the ground will also stay under the tarp, created a sort of greenhouse.

At least, that's what I'm hoping will happen.

It's entirely possible that the wind will get so strong and be long gone by the time I get home.

So, on to the bills.

Enmax: $360.58
includes all utilities: gas, water, electricity, waste water and drainage and waste and recycling.


Whoa! That was my reaction too when I saw the bill online.  I was expecting something closer to $220.  I did some investigative work that included calling Enmax to find out possible reasons why I had a summer bill this high when I've lived in the same place for three years and it's never been that high.  I checked out the electricity meter (which the enamx folks said was where the trouble was), which was hard to find by the way.  The conclusion: the person who reads the meter, did so incorrectly.

On April 9, 2010 they reported that our meter read 38,445 kWh. Jordan and I checked it on April 30, 2010 and the meter reads 38,026. So, Almost a full month later and we still haven’t used as much electricity as the meter reader said we did.


Next months Enmax bill will show our true usage and thus will be next to nothing for electricity usage (as we will have already paid for it).
Shaw: $130.96
We recently changed our Shaw bundle to include home phone, internet and TV.  


This particular bill includes $13.45 in long distance charges and $7.99 from a video rental. The raw cost of our services is $214.80 and we receive $114.50 worth of bill credits each month. That plus taxes is where the $130.96 comes from.

So for this month the total is $491.54 - so we each pay $122.86.
...which really isn't that bad.