Pinching Pennies While Home Heating

I am completely confused when I listen to the reasons why oil is priced so high, and why it just keeps getting higher, then lower, then higher.

Each year, it seems like it goes up just in time for summer travel, so I just figured it was the powers that be, whoever they are, taking advantage of all the extra tanks of gas required for vacation travel.

But now on the news I see riots in other countries that are being affected by the same thing, so obviously this is much bigger than my little thinking can piece together.

We heat with oil, so we really feel it. This is another reason that I am growing more and more thankful for our small cabin/home. We have a huge stack of wood to be split from some trees that were taken down in order to install our new septic system. Here are a few things we do to save oil...aside from burning wood. Some may be obvious, some not so, please feel free to add your own in a comment:

1 - Take cooler showers if your oil burner heats your water like ours does, they feel great during the hot summer.

2 - Shop around. I call every oil company in our phone book every time we buy oil, and am surprised to find that what I thought was a bargain company for one purchase isn't the one with the lowest price the next time I need oil.

3 - Keep your oil burner serviced so that it burns efficiently.

4 - In the winter, I wear sweats around the house...no, not very fashionable, but WARM, and allows me to keep the temperature down to just above the mid-60 degree mark.

5 - Live in an area where you can use a wood stove? Use it if you are able, it saves a lot. We run a ceiling fan when using it to "push" the warm air down from the ceiling to other areas of the house.

Have any other tips? Feel free to comment!