The Passive Aggressive Thermostat War

In 2013 we installed a wood burning stove insert into our fireplace.  We felt it was a brilliant way to save some money on heating fuel and create a romantic ambiance in our living room.  The children felt it was a brilliant way to work them like wood-carrying slaves for our own personal warmth.  Poor overworked children.

Somewhere along the wood burning journey, however, perspectives have changed.  

Maybe three men splitting wood creates unnatural thoughts of lunacy, but the male posse of the Fortin household has decided we should never turn on the furnace again, saving millions in home heating oil.  Budget $200/month to $0/month achieved.

My desperate pleas to supplement, not negate, the furnace are met with mockery.  They are all on board the free heat train as I sit stubbornly at the station.

But it is cold some mornings. Like 52 degrees cold. I feel like Laura Ingalls Wilder and they have no sympathy.

"Stop whining, the sun is out."

"What would Dave Ramsey say?"

"Didn't you grow up in Minnesota."

"Budgeting is about needs versus wants."

"If you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen."  This is my personal favorite, because it is normally directed to me when I am standing in front of the open oven door warming my hands.

Consider it passive aggressive, but freezing to death in your own house calls for extreme measures. I turn on the furnaces when no one is looking.

Quietly, stealthily, I push the thermostat to heat, jack it up to 75 degrees, and quietly walk away.

I get caught, I get scolded, I get chastised for being a wimp.  But it usually takes at least an hour for someone to notice, so I have won my warmth.  Momentarily.

There are worst things in life than thrifty kids and a husband who chops wood in the dark.  

My two cents:  turn the thermostat down two degrees in March and call it an end of winter adventure.