I, like every other american, am used to all the comfort that this free, rich country brings. When I’m hot–I turn on the air conditioning. Too cold? I turn up the heat.

Since we’re pinching pennies we have been trying to adjust our comfort levels. All summer we had the thermostat set at 72°. I do like to have the windows open, but it was so humid that the air was used a lot more. Once we got the dreaded student loan letter in the mail I hiked it up to 78°. I am the one who gets cranky in the heat, so I eventually saved my family and put it back to 76°. I didn’t turn it on unless it was 80° or more outside and used the curtains to block out the hot sun.

Now that winter is coming on fast we are trying to decide what we can tolerate in our drafty house. We know we need to invest in some plastic for the windows. We are thinking of setting the thermostat at 66°. Does that sound reasonable? We can always layer, right?