Well, we broke down and turned on the furnace today. The wood burning stove insert won't be here until the end of November (they have just a wee bit of a backlog), and it is getting too chilly to not have the heat on.

But since this winter burning natural gas is a little like sending $10 and $20 bills up the chimney, we're pretty aggressive about programming the thermostat.

On weekends during the day (when we're actually home and awake), the house will be heated to 68 degrees. That's a little cooler than the norm, but only slightly.

But Monday through Friday, the thermostat will be set to 55. That is downright chilly (though the kids don't complain when the house is that cool), but livable at night and for the brief periods of time we're actually home and awake during the week. Electric blankets and footed flannel PJs for the kids make it reasonably cozy at night.

By not heating the house up in the mornings and evenings (which was our thermostat program last year), we should save a lot on the gas bill. That essentially means that the house will stay at only 55 degrees for 75% of the time--many weeks the heat probably won't turn on at all except on weekends.

This time of year, the house stays at or above 55 degrees without any heat at all. Last year, heat in October/November was around $25 to $50 each month. At this year's gas prices, that means $50 to $100. If we don't heat the house at all 5 days out of 7, that means our thermostat program should let us spend only $10 to $20 each month between mid-October and mid-December (when things really start getting cold).

And by then we should have our stove, so we can supplement the furnace with zero-cost wood.