PA residents and PPL

If you are a PA resident & have PPL electric, then you will want to read this. As you know, starting in January 2010, PPL will be raising rates for customers upwards of 29%, plus $2.00 fee so that PPL can give rebates to those people who buy energy efficient items, such as windows, washers & dryers, etc.

Here is a website you will want to check out called PA Office of Consumer Advocate. Here is what they are about:

"The Office of Consumer Advocate (OCA) is a state agency that represents the interests of Pennsylvania utility consumers before the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), federal regulatory agencies, and state and federal courts. The OCA was created by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1976 and is an independent office within the Office of Attorney General."

Here, they list different companies and their rates, so that you can make a better decision for your utilities. It's worth looking over, even if you plan to stay with PPL. They also offer information for gas, water, & telephone as well!

Hopefully we will be seeing a bunch of offers in the paper or being sent to us as well!

Cutting Food Costs

One way my family cuts costs at the grocery store is eating one or two vegetarian meals per week. My husband is a total meat and potatoes kind of guy, but I have found some recipes that he really likes and doesn't miss the meat at all. One of them, we had last night.

Butternut Squash Soup.

We took a trip on Saturday to an Amish furniture store and next to their store, there was a farm selling produce (mainly pumpkins--for $1.00 each!). They had Butternut Squash, which I had just bought at Giant for $.79 lb. Guess how much these were? $1.00 each and they are bigger than the ones I got at Giant! So I bought 2 more and made soup last night (actually just with 1, it made so much!). I figured it probably cost us about $.95 a serving because I also made a small homemade whole wheat pizza because I had to use the cheese before it went bad. We will get 5 servings from the soup and 2 servings from the pizza. Let me tell you, it was a hardy meal!!

Do any of you have a vegetarian meal you would like to share?