How to budget for home heating costs

It is never too soon to learn how to budget for home heating costs. In general, it is often easier to spread your annual heating costs over a long period of time (10 to 12 months) than it is to try to pay extraordinarily high monthly bills during the winter.  Here are some tips to help you learn how to budget for home heating costs that will not leave you short on money every month all winter long.

If you heat with oil

For those who heat with oil, gather all of your prior years oil bills. Your oil company can help you with this if you are unable to locate them. Calculate what your oil payments were for a complete twelve month cycle. If you had an unusually mild winter, you may want to consider finding out how much you paid in the prior twelve months.  Once you have gathered your figures, determine how much you spent and divide by the appropriate number of months.

Contact your oil company and find out what the average price of oil is. Another question to ask them if they will allow you to lock in rates for oil. Find out if they offer a "cap" on the maximum amount you will pay per gallon during the winter season. This can allow you to properly budget for anticipated costs.

If you heat with natural gas

Contact your gas supplier and ask them if they offer a budget plan.  What will happen is they will look
at your past usage history and advise you how much you can anticipate paying on a budget.  Many companies will bill you for ten (10) months for a flat amount and will use the other two months of the year as "catch up" months allowing you to pay off any excess balance as a result of higher usage.

It is important to note, that if you are behind on your gas payments you may not qualify for a budget plan until you have paid your balance off in full or made suitable arrangements to pay off the past due amounts.

If you heat with electricity

The process for those who heat with electricity is similar to that for those who heat with gas. The billing may be higher if you also have centralized air conditioning in your home.

Being warm in winter should not have to depend on whether you can afford to pay the higher heating bills that are associated with colder weather.  Being proactive and finding out how to budget for home heating costs can help make sure that your heating bills do not get out of control.  Before you start falling behind on home heating expenses you may also want to look into government heating assistance programs.