Wrestling with Utilies and an expensive lesson learned

  Still trying to get a handle on the  new pay week schedule and when my bills are getting paid. Adult son who lives at home pays me a minimal amount for his car insurance and some extra as 'rent'. Since he is such a tremendous help around the house I keep this rent amount very small for him. He recently got his first new truck with the monthly payments that means. His job hours vary greatly depending on what jobs are scheduled by the boss (he lays flooring for a small 3 man company) so he doesn't have a set pay he can count on. So I am flexible about when he pays me. In general I use the money he deposits for utility payments since auto insurance is directly debited and I need to count on my own pay for this item. Friday he made a deposit into my account and this morning I made our natural gas, electric, and internet payment. TV comes out automatically and will hit my account on Monday. Homeowners will be withdrawn on Friday which is my payday. Mortgage and car payments will be made then. The cash I have on hand will have to be used for gasoline for the next two weeks.
My natural gas bill remains low because we have barely ran the furnace. This last bill only covered about one day when we ran the heat for two hours. As in the summer this bill reflects stove/oven usage and the hot water tank.  I anticipate that the bill will however run about $50-60 until it becomes necessary to have the furnace on fulltime since we have been running the furnace in the early mornings. With that in mind I have set our adjustable thermostat. From 5:30 a.m. until 8:30 a.m. it is set at 67°. All of us will have showered, gotten dressed and out the door by that time. From 8:30 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. it will be set at 63°. Warm enough for the dogs and the cat. From 7:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. it goes back up to 67°. And at 10:00 p.m. it goes down to 60° for when we are sleeping. I left room for adjustments if the bill comes in too high at these temperature settings. I figure we can go as low as 65° for when we are home and 60° for the pets for when we are not.
Our electric bill should also reflect the long hours we are not at home. This month is was around $83 which includes running the dryer. Dryer usage is going to go down as I institute a new drying rack, hanging clothing in the basement policy.
The one utility I am frustrated by is our internet bill. TV is through a satellite company that does not have internet so I am forced to use the local cable company for this service. College age kids depend on internet on home to get a lot of their work done and stay in touch with professors so it is a necessary evil. We have chosen the bottom of the line service and yet our bill just went up another $10. I will be researching other options.
And finally I learned an expensive lesson last week. While driving home with college son I failed to pay attention and ran a red light. In front of city hall. Needless to say my 39 year clean driving record is down the tubes. To the tune of $160. Ouch. I won't be making that mistake again.