Lynette says, “This is my front porch. It’s not likely to be nominated for any trendy or stylish award, but it’s functional and that’s what matters.”
Testimonial by Lynette at Cleverly Simple
“What a difference a year makes”, I thought to myself as I hauled in another load of wood with slippers on my feet and a 19-month-old screaming for breakfast. Living in Virginia Beach twelve months earlier I had visions of our first winter in Central Ohio all snuggled by the fire with a good book and a cup of tea.
The reality of saving money in negative degree weather set in quite quickly as the first load of wood was dropped off onto our cute 1940’s porch. Visions of cute winter accessories were quickly replaced by a woodland piled high and covered in a bright green tarp.
My family had decided late fall that our budget for heating oil was going to be quickly broken as the first oil company bill came in at $600. That lasted us six weeks with the thermostat set at 62 during the day and 55 at night. I was frustrated at the thought of continuing to spend hundreds of dollars and still feel that the house was not a warm place to hang out.
Knowing that the coldest months were ahead, the solution was to spend hours cutting wood from fallen trees at my grandmother’s forest to supplement our heat. We would still need to fill the oil tank, but by using wood as our main source of heat in our living area we would be able to drastically cut our expenses.
I’ve learned so much… one log at a time:
I’ve Found Joy in the Company of Others
As the days turned into months of using wood, I found joy in helping our family save money with each load of wood. I quickly realized that we were not alone. I drove along our curvy small town road and soon took notice of the number of houses with smoke crawling out of their chimneys. They, too, had a woodland on their porch and were providing warmth for their families.
I’ve Learned to Let Go of the Look
I had to let go of the cute accessories we had planned for Christmas in return for green tarp. At least it was a festive color! If letting go of accessories meant saving hundreds of dollars then it had to be okay.
I’ve Realized and Basked in My Blessings
What a blessing to have a husband, brother and father who would spend hours chopping and splitting fallen trees. The cost was free. They were willing to spend their time and resources to help us save money.
I’ve Developed More Creativity
We’ve enjoy our fireplace not only for the heat, but for the s’mores we’ve made together. Yum! And yes, I still enjoy an occasional good book and cup of tea by the glow of the fire. For that, I choose to have a grateful and joyous heart to save money with our small woodland porch and its green tarp.
Lynette blogs about money-saving ideas, creative adventures and family recipes at CleverlySimple.com. She lives with her hubby and son in small town Central Ohio.
I love a good fire! Grew up with a wood stove. But I want to remind everyone that the wood is not free. You should be planting new trees every year to replace what you have taken and take the time to educate yourself as to how to choose trees. It’s important not to damage the forest. Keeping the forests healthy will help make up for the burning of wood and keep the wildlife safe. Your local forestry department can help you.
Go Lynette! Whoohooo!!!! You’re big stuff, blogging on other websites! Congratulations! Shout out to my friend and past roomie! 🙂
You know what I absolutely love about our wood burning stove? The kettle is always on. I never have to turn on the stove for hot water, tea is ready in the time it takes to steep. And I can throw anything on top you would normally put in a slow cooker with the same effects. For the fun of it, I started playing around with baking in the ash pan which had mixed results but was fun like playing in a campfire!
We had an insert installed in December in our home in E. TN. After growing up in PA with gas heat, I have never adjusted to the cold air that a heat pump blows…we love our insert and now use our living room. Previously, we would spend all our time in the family room which has floor heat. We were excited to see the drop in our electric bill. In addition to the financial advantages, my husband’s found chopping wood to be great exercise. I also have to vacuum more frequently, but I’ve loved my Sunday afternoon naps in front of the fire.
I wish I could have wood heat, but it wouldn’t be practical in my funky house. I have forced air natural gas heat. I use my programmable thermostat to control my heating costs. It has saved me so much money, especially since I got it for free.
My sweet little uncle used to use wood heat in his house, and sadly it caught fire and burned his house down. So, everyone please be careful using wood heat. He lost everything because the house went fast.
We don’t heat our home with our fireplace but we do light a fire every Sunday and roast hot dogs for dinner. It’s fun for the kids and I enjoy the easy night of cooking.
I would happily give up my front porch if I could save that kind of money. 🙂 We have natural gas and we also keep our house very cold – 62 during the day – 55 at night – that translates to anywhere from $600 to $800 a month during the winter. Although we have two fireplaces in our house, a cord of wood around here runs about $300 t0 $400 so the savings would not really help us. I did go on a plan where I pay a higher amount each month to the gas company so I don’t get stuck with the $800 bill all at once. In the summer my bill is really cheap since the gas only has to heat our hot water and it powers or stove. Spreading it out over the 12 months made it less painful!
Wow! I cannot believe the cost of a cord of wood. My brother had to buy a cord this winter with more dry wood then what he’d cut and it only cost $90! I think he found the farmer on craigslist and negotiated the price. I’m really sorry to hear that.
At least you’re able to spread your gas bill over the course of the year. You have a great attitude about it! 🙂
If you’re really interested in heating with wood, start looking around and asking around. Not sure what a cord of wood runs here, but I’ve never bought any. We bought pellets this year because we didn’t have time to locate a source of wood, but we only used 1/4 of what was estimated we’d need for the heating season because we ended up with so much more wood. We have next winter’s wood located and just need to haul it and chop it. Maybe have enough for the year after that if we bring down the trees that need to be brought down on our property. And if I talk to the neighbor about the pile he has in the middle of his field he intends on burning off, we may end up with an indefinite supply.
It is surprising how much wood is available, especially if you have any sort of farming area reasonably close where you know some people to start talking to. The people I know who heat with wood do so because the only cost is the labor and gas to run the chainsaw.
The key is getting your wood for free! We used to burn wood and would spend all the spring/summer/fall gathering as much as we could. In our area, a cord of wood is $300-400!
But there is nothing like wood heat, so warm and cozy!! I think you can get wood stove inserts for your fireplace?? Might make it more efficient 🙂 Thanks for sharing! I think your porch looks beautiful!
Is this a central Ohio reunion or what?! I’m also from central Ohio! Go Bucks! Anyway, I really enjoyed your post and how you could find positives in your situation. I would have loved to have a woodburning stove when our power went out this winter. Our house is all electric, so we just went to my mom’s for a while.
I was going to second the idea that was brought up about keeping wood so close to your house…be careful of termites.
I’m enjoying reading all the comments from Ohio! Like most people who live around here, I LOVE the Bucks, but I’m not a fan of the winter weather.
Your post was a great reminder to be thankful. I don’t think I’ve ever felt grateful for my winter time natural gas bill. But after reading about your heating costs and your cheerful perspective, I’m certain to look at my own bill differently this month.
Thanks Amy. It is fun to see all the Ohio comments. Gotta love the Buckeye State… even this winter. 🙂
If you’re in VA Beach, you definitely were in for a shock. We don’t get winters that that here. Okay, this year we had several snow storms but that wasn’t normal.
Love the post!
Thanks for this post. I have felt this way sometimes too about seeing all the wood stacked in our yard! We also have a woodstove (Baker-locally made) in our basement hooked up to the duct work and it has saved us a fortune, at least $300 per month in the dead of winter as we have total electric. Thanks to my dear husband who does all of the cutting, splitting, and most of the stacking, and all of the bringing in we have a toasty warm house (sometimes almost too warm for him-like 78 or 80 degrees when it’s 20 degrees outside! Our children and myself help to stack the wood sometimes but we don’t keep it on a porch. We have a cement slab several feet away from our house to stack it on and only one wheelbarrow load is brought into our basement at a time to reduce the chance of unwanted critters coming in too. The dirt and dust is sometimes almost unbearable and my husband does a lot of work and has to have a good chainsaw, log splitter etc. but it has been well worth it. I would rather clean more than break our budget giving money to the electric company. Also, it has been helpful in power outages as well.
Great article! Thanks for sharing. I have several family members in the midwest that heat using wood stoves! It is a lot of work but the house usually stays comfortable and warm (you don’t have to walk around wearing your winter coat inside the house, ha). Thankfully we live on the East coast so our winter is shorter but we still turn our thermostat down to 60 to 63 in the winter to save on electricity. Every little bit helps!
We’ve been burning wood for almost 35 years and have saved tons of money. When my friends and neighbors are spending a extra $100 to $150 a month on natural gas during our cold Wisconsin winters, are gas bill goes up less than $20 a month. We keep the house at around 70-72 during the day (I have a in-home day care) and around 66-68 at night. We have a actual wood stove in the basement that is hooked to our furnace. Not a pretty thing, can’t make s’mores but I am so glad that we have our wood stove.
I had to laugh when I saw this post, because I made the exact same move (from Virginia Beach to a small town east of Dayton, Ohio) only several years earlier. In the beginning we would get a lot of puzzled stares from people who would ask us WHY ON EARTH we would be crazy enough to move from a place like Virginia Beach to Ohio?? All I can say is, going back for a visit is nice, but living and raising a family in the midwest can’t be beat! BTW, we just had our first wood burning inserts installed in our 2 fireplaces last week and can’t wait to give them a good workout next winter. I do agree with the person who commented about the location of the wood. We keep our main pile away from the house, and only keep a smaller pile of what we would use up in a day or two on the front porch. Termites are NOT something you want to deal with.
About 5 years again, we asked to “borrow” my parents used stove that they were saving to install in one of their out-buildings. It is a Woodstock Soapstone, and it holds heat so well. We did not use any other source the 1st year, just to see if we could do it, success. We did run our furnace for the next several years on a back-up basis. This year, winter came too soon. We had begun an addition in the Spring and it was not completed when the cool hit, this meaning that the furnace was not hooked up and our newly purchased monitor had yet to be installed. However, this year was different as we now have a child and were somewhat concerned that the house wouldn’t be warm enough especially with the addition that nearly doubled the size of our home. It is now March and I can proudly say, this woodstove once again did its job, an entire Winter complete with no other heat source, not even one electric heater for the nights that hit
-20. Although it can be a lil messy and is definately more work, I feel completely rewarded when I am able to cuddle up with a cup of tea and a good book next to our stove!
Our wood stove has been a true blessing as well. We have a small house and with our stove, in the middle of the winter, we can get our house up to 80 degrees!! Talk about toasty!! My 2 children have grown up around it and know how to stay safe.
Thank you for your post!
I grew up in a wood heated house and have had one for the last 14 years of my married life. We haven’t bought oil for our furnace for 4 years. It would take about $1000 to fill up our oil tank and we would use about 3 full tanks during the winter.
It is a huge pain some mornings and nights when I just want to come home from work and not have to worry about the fire, but I wouldn’t trade the heat for anything.
Storing the wood right next to your house like that is a bad idea. It invites termites, which can gain access to the foundation and walls of your home. They can go through concrete, stucco, mortar, brick and wood. It also invites carpenter ants. You should store the wood further away from any structures. Termite or ant damage would be very expensive to repair!
We actually used to keep our wood on the front porch and had termites strike. Talk about expensive!
So we ended up moving our wood to the back of our yard. But we never realized this was a possibility until it happened…
Thanks for the info. I’ve never thought of that being a problem. We pile it there mainly for the convenience during cold days. I’ll look into it. Our house is stone so I wonder if termites will even think they’re invited. 🙂
Our home is brick. The joists, window frame and inside drywall (where we had damage) were not though. It might not be an issue for you, but something for everyone to keep in mind when choosing the best place to store wood.
Termites aren’t much of an issue in the winter. They go underground and stay there. So we keep our woodpile a fair distance from the house and stack up what we need on the porch for the winter. Now that it is warming up, we’ll take the extra wood off the porch and move it back to the main woodpile.
Cuts down on the work, too. 🙂
We moved into a house that had termite damage, and yes, to fix it cost $$$$!! The previous owners kept the wood against the house, and I have always wondered if that didn’t get it all started. You make a good point!
I forgot to add. The little red wagons for kids are a great way to haul wood from your backyard to your stove if you have one!
We use a simple refrigerator cart. Lay it down, fill it up and pull it in!
Lynette thank you so much for sharing your story, I was just getting to my wits end with what a pain our wood burning stove is. Actually last night I was complaining about it at dinner. We live in a propane heated home and with propane around $5 a gallon right now and a 15 year old home our gas bill would be about $500 a month if we used our heater. My Husband and I are both weary of cutting, splitting and stacking wood, and cleaning up after it in the house! Ive done it every year since I was a kid. But your story is a great reminder of why we do it, AND that we’re blessed we live in an area that typically doesn’t get below 12 degrees, 2 cords of oak is usually what gets us through. Thank you so much again for sharing your story, it’s energized my daily battle with the wood! (BUT I still can’t wait for spring! :o) )
PS- I don’t if everyone already has one or not but if you have a wood buring stove cabelas sells the “ECOFAN” (its powered by the heat and moves the hot air from the stove outward to circulate through the home) they are around $100 which is alot at first but my husband and I have had one on our wood burning stove for 5 years now and it has MORE than paid for itself. It helped our home get several degrees warmer than without it. Check it out if you have time.
The price of heating oil is tragic. With our tax refund last year (most of it from just buying a house), we were able to bring natural gas to our house and switch to gas heat. Our heating bill has gone from $800/month to $100. I’m so thankful.
When we bought our house, we were also very surprised by the high cost of heating oil! We now heat with wood as well. We found a couple used wood stoves (one for upstairs and one for the basement) off Craigs List for a couple hundred dollars each. My husband also spent some money lining to chimney. We’ve also used Craigs List to find wood for cheap, and get loads of several cords delivered to our house for $600 which my hubby cuts up for next year. It is a lot of work, but we save soooo much money. We still get oil deliveries and have the furnace maintained for when we run out of wood or when it is warmer and not worth starting a fire.
That’s a great tip Jennifer! Craigslist is a great place to look for wood. It also supports people in the community.
We’ve had our woodstove since last Nov., and I absolutely love it! It’s been a long time in coming, and although there is the extra bit of work in keeping it fed, I wouldn’t trade that for not having one. I love hearing the crackling of the wood burning, the slight smoky smell that escapes into the air when we put another log in, and the warm, comforting heat that just gets into your bones. As much as I like the nice weather that is to come in Spring and Summer, I’m actually going to feel a bit sad that I’ll have to wait until next Fall to enjoy it again. (btw, I live in NW WA, so we’ll still be able to enjoy it for a couple of months still.) :o)
I wish we had a wood burning stove. Maybe some day.
Wow, that seems so expensive to heat a house! We are lucky and have natural gas (I’m also in central Ohio) and our bill is usually $150 in the cold months (also heats our water). I didn’t think about it when we moved it, but we live in a middle townhouse so we have so few exterior walls it really helps keep the heat in.
Wow, you are lucky to have spent only that much, especially with this winter. Our house is also a beautiful old drafty house which makes it lovely to live in but harder to heat. It’s good to hear that Natural Gas is so efficient.
Yay Central Ohio! Go Bucks! We had quite a winter this year. My husband and I hope to buy our dream farm house in the next year. After this winter, we are convinced that burning wood is the way to go. We most likely will purchase the wood burning fireplace as well. It will be more work but as you said, it’s invaluable to instill saving money and hard work in the lives of your kids.
that was meant as a reply to Samantha. Sorry.
Spent 6.5 years in Dublin-Loved your Go Bucks!Live now in Wake Forest,NC-north of Raleigh.Everyone is for Duke,UNC or NC State.
We got plenty of use from our fireplace -able to keep the pile in our garage.
Thanks for sharing!! Sometimes I felt like I was the only one that was bringing wood in during the early morning hours, had two small children that constantly seemed to want my attention right when I needed to go put more wood on the fire!! Its nice hearing that there are other moms out there just like me!! Several people on our road burn wood, but all have kids out of the house, no small children. We live in Illinois and I also wanted to make sure that I brought enough wood in every morning that would last us the whole day and night!! Its amazing how much money you save and what kind of work ethic it really teaches your children. My oldest son is only 2 and yet just from watch and “helping” me bring wood in he understands how to have a good spirit and attitude when doing it!!
Glad im not alone 🙂
We also live in central Ohio and have a wood burning furnace. We need about 6 cords of wood to get us thru the season. It is a lot of hard work, especially after a long day at work and an hour commute. We try to do wood as a family (even though I am very glad when I get home and my husband is just finishing up a load), and I was even stacking wood when I was 7 months pregnant. We throw all of our wood down the old coal shoot into the basement, and then stack it downstairs.
The first 2 years that we lived in our house we heated with fuel oil and then propane. The third year we bought the wood burning furnace and it more than paid for itself the first year. Every time I dread cutting wood, I just have to remember that there is no way that we could afford to live on our dream farm if we had to pay to heat our house. It has become a kind of game for us to see how little propane we can use each winter.
The ugly monstrous pile of wood sitting in my front yard waiting to be thrown down the basement is a kind of trophy for us. That pile is a show of what we have accomplished. As we drive around we are always envious of peoples huge stockpiles of wood, so I know that the pile that may be ugly to some is a source of envy to others.
Our boys are 5 and 8, and this year they were a big help with the wood. I took such pride in our 8 year old when I tried to snap a picture of him unloading wood and he wouldn’t stop working long enough to look at the camera. He worked very hard that day and was very proud of what he accomplished. He knew he was growing up.
I’m from Ohio too, and can totally relate to stacking wood pregnant. Great way to get heartburn, bending over like that! My son, now 3 likes to try to stack the wood in the house, with his dad’s gloves on. I know before long he will be big enough to really help us out. As others have said, it’s not free. But, I would rather pay sweat than money anyday! We are running a bit low, and I keep telling my husband I would rather have to split and haul a little bit more than to turn the heaters on!
Enjoyed this post….it’s interesting, isn’t it, how our perspective changes as our needs change! It is always better to choose to focus on the blessings of any situation and to give thanks for them than to focus on the negative and be ungrateful!
Have a beautiful day….and enjoy a cup of tea!
;-D Kathleen
Thanks Kathleen, I will! 🙂
Thanks for sharing! We use a Vermont Castings Wood stove to heat 2/3 of our 3,300 sq ft house in middle TN. The first winter month we lived in our house we did not have wood cut, so we used the electric heat pump and were quite surprised by the $400 electric bill. We quickly found wood and started using the wood stove full time. We are lucky to have wood on our property in the form of trees. Now my husband and son spend many hours felling and cutting trees. Then in the fall we rent a wood splitter $45 for the weekend. We all work to split the wood and stack it. We now try to stay 1 year ahead so it has time to dry. Then throughout the winter my son has the chore of bringing wood to the porch every other day.
Our house is nice and warm, usually in the upper 70’s during the day and mid 60’s overnight. We do have to vacuum a lot more because of carrying the wood in and ashes out, but it is worth it.
This year we have been able to help 2 other families refered by our church who were in desperate financial postions by delivering wood to them throughout the winter. We took a total of 6 truck loads of wood to these families.
While my front porch is not a showcase, family and friends do love to come into our warm house during the winter! Thanks for sharing!
I love how you mention the vacuuming. That was one unexpected surprise with burning wood. Wood chips multiply quickly!
We too are blessed to have a wooded area on my grandma’s property. Buying wood can add cost, although it’s still much cheaper than using oil or gas. That’s awesome you were able to donate! I’m sure the families were very very thankful!
We also have a Vermont stove. No other heat source, so we have to burn here in WI. Love the $150.00 electric bill. When it gets below zero we do plug in space heaters for the upstairs. To move the heat we have to have fans going all the time. And invest in a good vaccum. It is a daily must.
We cut and split all our own wood we get from friends for free.
We also burn wood to keep our gas bill “down”. Still high. I know that frustration of freezing at home, yet still having $300 bills (our first winter in the house). With new windows, furnace, etc. our bills are lower but still not great. So the wood stove allows us to be toasty warm in part of the house at least. Makes such a difference to my morale!
This makes me want to live in the snowy countryside, LOL.
I’m in Houston Texas, so we don’t really do the whole fireplace thing here much.
I definitely understand letting go of expectations of how things *should* look in favor of what works best though!
I love this. I live in an apartment, so I didnt have to experience this. However we moved from an apartment with wooden floors , 11ft ceilings and lots of space to one with more carpet, smaller space and shorter ceilings. Man, a big difference!! I dont even have to sneak in and turn the thermostat up anymore to 80 (shhh)..
I am glad she saw the blessing in the whole process.
Thank you for sharing, very encouraging
Oh how nice it would have been to have a fireplace when we lived in Ohio. My family also moved from Virginia (Yorktown! not too far from Va Beach) to Ohio to an oil heated home. The cost to warm the house during the winter months was insane! We have since moved to Georgia and now we are back in Virginia (we are a military family) and we have a fireplace again! It was used pretty often this past winter but the temps didnt get nearly as low as they did in Ohio!
Wow. Thank you for this encouragement and reminder that it’s so much more then outward appearances. I fall into that trap way to often. I am grateful for you and for the way you sacrifice for your family.
LOVE THIS! We burn wood too. Huge pain, lots of work, somewhat dirty air = WAY LESS EXPENSE! Thanks for sharing and for having a great attitude!
Thanks Jana! Yes, it’s alot of work but like you said, it saves so much money!
How much money do you save do you think? I’m guessing you have either a fireplace or a wood burning stove….. is it dangerous with kids around?
At this point we would have filled our oil tank approximately 4 times at around $600-$700 each time depending on the price of oil that day. That is with our thermostat at 55 at night and 62 during the day in a beautiful, drafty old house.
Instead we’ve filled it twice {$1200} and have burned wood in our fireplace. Our fireplace has an insert and blower which make it more efficient then a fireplace without one. It is however, less efficient then a woodstove.
All in all since we received our wood for free with free labor from family we’ve saved at least $1200. Not to mention that our oil tank from our second fill is quite full and will most likely carry us through the first month next winter.
The insert has a fireplace screen which does not get hot. This keeps my 19 month old at a safe distance. Our fireplace is in the living room, our main living space, so this was a concern. I was actually quite worried about the safety but he learned quickly the word “hot” and “danger” and has never attempted to be close to the fireplace. You have to take precautions like the screen, but thankfully we’ve never had an issue with the fireplace.
Thanks for answering! And wow- saving at least $1,200 dollars!! The price of utilities is getting crazy so it pays (literally!) to find ways to cut costs.
We have three kids 6 and under and a woodstove. It radiates so much heat that they feel it from far enough away and they never want to get close enough to touch it. Actually we have more trouble when there’s no fire in it in the spring but we haven’t cleaned the old ashes out yet…they want to drive their big machines in the ashes and then rub it all over the living room! We save hundreds of dollars, but you do have to figure in the cost of owning and maintaining equipment such as chainsaws and possibly a log splitter. Time is valuable too! But there’s nothing like gathering together in the warmest spot in the house, watching the beautiful flames – keeps us all together all winter!
Congratulations on a winter well “spent”! We have had our insert for 2 years now (a gift given from family) and saved so much money! We’ve bought 4 loads of wood over the last 2 years and the other 10 loads (it seems) was free! Praise the Lord for a hardworking husband and our boys!
Our heat was not turned on this year (except for the occasional guest that wasn’t acclimated to our temperatures). I have to admit though that I bought heated mattress pads this past fall (on sale of course and with a coupon) and that has made a world of difference climbing into bed this year!
Here’s to many more winters saving money! And to the spring that we’re getting ready to enjoy!