You get a heating bill refund!? Gawd, if I got an A/C refund I'd be rolling into the dough.

I think ox means that he pays a fixed amount for heating monthly (or perhaps quarterly if that's a word, every 3 months). That number is only a rough estimate though, but avoids the drama of ending up with a huge bill at the end of the year, and no money to pay it. You get the idea.
Being the (insert insult) that he is, he probably will end up using much less, so he'll get a refund.

cheap ass bastard of middle eastern descent?

Quarterly is indeed a word, and I understand now. I think there are similar plans here, but screw all that.

No no it's 'terrorist descent', like in The Boondocks



And yeah, what J described is exactly right - I pay a fixed monthly fee estimate for my energy (electricity + gas) bills and at the end of the billing year I either pay some more (if I didn't pay enough) or get money back (if I paid too much) depending on my usage. Should be in March.

Now, thing is, when I came to live here I set it at a reasonable amount of 60 € a month. But 4 months later, the fuckers raised it to 95 € month. Since I already pay a sky high rent and Belgian internet is craaazy expensive (45€ a month for below-par speeds), paying another 100 € a month is a pain in the ass for me. I could have contacted and plead with them to lower it, but they would have been very reluctant to do that after they raised it with 35 € a month before.

But the 95 €, as J can probably tell, is a fucking BS high number. My apartment is only 80 m². I live alone. I NEVER use the heating except for maybe a grand total of 2 weeks a year (in the winter evenings). I rarely cook or even reheat things. In the evenings my only lighting is two small energy saving lamps. My showers are short and not daily (if I don't have to go out). I have no electronic appliances running at any time during the day expect for my fridge and my PC (and radio alarm ). I do my dishes very sporadically to save on hot water.

Now...if I don't get a MASSSSSIIIVEEE refund from those fuckers than I don't know who will. I know people who perma-heat at 22° and are much more careless with energy, live in a bigger house and pay a smaller fixed fee than me.

I will live to see Electrabel crawl before me, and swim in their refund money. 12 X 95 € = 1425 €. I estimate I used only about half of that. IF that.

Hey! That's just Ox!
Personally I prefer long showers in the morning. Best way to wake up IMO.

Yes, I can confirm that's just Ox.

I shower every other day* but prefer long hot baths. As for dishes, I got a dishwasher but use it very erratically. Sometimes I get a build up of plates that I hate to look at but often can't be fucked to do anything about it.

*subject to training / football.

OMG I shower like 2-3 times a day and we run the dishwasher near every day. I rarely if ever will reuse clothing I have worn until it has been washed. Just different set of goals I guess. I would be very pissy if I was cold all the time by not running the heat.

Yeah but a lot of people just turn on the heat instead of wearing a sweater or anything like that. That's just stupid. At what occasion do you shower anyway? I only shower in the morning and after sport (hah! as if!), but I can't figure a reason to do it three times a day.

Rinox, I know you're a Luddite, but get your ass a dishwasher. They're pretty cheap second hand, even I own one (and remember, I'm Dutch)! They're easy plus you'll never have to embarrass any guests with any dirty dishes.

Lol. Jeez, I left a great impression again. I actually did the same rant to a friend of mine yesterday and he sarcastically called me the 'Che Guevara of the electricity bill'.

The shower thing...it's not healthier or necessary to shower every day at all. Don't get me wrong, I shower for most social occassions, especially when they involve women. But if I'm at home two days in a row and don't do heavy physical exercise, I'm not gonna shower if I have a mate over or am alone. Obviously after sports I always do. Being single, and not too keen on having people visit me at my home, I don't really have any reason to shower on some days. I'm not gonna do it for myself.

And yeah, you're right on the dishwasher Arathorn, but that'd just end with me piling two weeks of dishes in there and then doing one run. If I do it manually it only takes 30 minutes anway. I'm not exactly putting out 3-course dinners for myself...I often reuse knives if they're not really dirty and I used them the day before to spread butter on a sandwich etc.

In short, I don't believe in overly hygienic living. I will of course pretend to be more clean than I am when I have women over, because that tends to be a date-killer.

And Shiny, I've been wearing the same pants all week. Clothes-wise, I guess it helps that going out here right now doesn't exactly make you sweat your shirt off.

Just had a wee look at the temperature trending for Houston, and although the highest recorded temps are ridiculous, the average highs are very manageable. So I'd assume the 3-shower-a-day thing can't be temperature related.

sheez.... I shower in the morning, because I feel pretty dirty after sleeping all night. It's not unusual to sweat a little when you end up with too many covers or whatever, for instance. I then shower right before I go to bed, as I have a whole day's worth of activity to dirty me. If I sweat from exercise or exertion or something, I'll shower then, too. So.. I shower at least twice a day, sometimes thrice.

As for clothes, I'll re-wear jeans if they're not too nasty, but not for more then 3 days or so. I hand wash dishes pretty much as I create them, then stack them in the dishwasher. when that's full, I run it... every 2-3 days or so. I do all of our dishes (Shiny and mine). Letting dishes pile up in the sink can attract bugs, which is the main reason I'm so fastidious. Both ants and water bugs are a hazard around here, water bugs being basically these huge, nasty cockroaches that live in the pipes.

I shower first thing in the morning before work, then usually when I get home from work I will either go to the gym and shower afterwards, or take a hot bubble bath with a cocktail to relax and read, then I will shower before I go to bed so I get into bed clean.

In the summer, it is so freaking hot you should shower more often, but think about it in the winter too. I mean you dress warm for the outside and then go indoors and often you are too hot. /shrug I like to be clean - I find it is better overall. As for it not being healthy to shower that many times a day - I disagree because it all depends on the length of the shower and how warm/hot the water temperature is during the shower. However, I should note that I have very very dry hair so I do not wash my hair daily. As it is I have to put oils in my hair after I wash it due to the intensity of the dryness.

As for dishes, well I don't like seeing a lot of dirty dishes in the sink. It grosses me out and would attract vermin!

As for clothing, it is stressing me out that odds are when Satis and I go to Europe in a few weeks I will most likely have to rewear clothing as I am trying to cut down on the amount I have to pack with so much traveling. I am hoping this is not the case and booked hotels with laundry facilities, but you never know if that was bullshit they had on their website or not . I do not mind like rewearing a hoodie sweatshirt if I had on another shirt underneath and didn't spill anything on it but I dunno. I will wear jeans for two days of light use, but I dunno it is just not my ideal situation.

Hehehe...poor Shiny! Btw I just googled water bugs, and they do look really fucking nasty. Especially the whole carrying eggs on your back thing.

Re: bugs and dishes...you gotta keep in mind that 80% of the year the temperature is below 20° max here, and a much below that for the most part. So bacteria and bugs don't breed nearly as fast here as in warmer areas. In the summertime I obviously don't let food leftovers mush for two weeks. But just for example, my boiler room is a seperate room from next to me apartment, where i also keep empty bottles and trash bags and whatnot...in the winter, I can easily put out a chicken carcass or fruit/vegetable garbage out there and it'll just dry out, not rot and generate vermin and bugs. Not that I routinely do that.

If nothing else, not throwing clothes in the washer after wearing them once is probably good for their long-term endurance (and thus cheaper, and making me not have to shop for now clothes)! You'd wear them more, but they'd get washed much less often which is probably tougher on a piece of clothing than regular wear.