I talked to my home heating oil company this week. I am on the 9 month budget plan and my budget will increase $160.00 per month over last year. Yeah, that is $160.00 more per month, outrageous. My cap on the budget plan is $4.99 per gallon for heating oil. That is what m y budget is based on. If home heating oil goes higher than that I am capped at the $4.99. Assuming I use no more oil than I did last year I know exactly what I will pay. If oil goes down in price, I will pay the lower price but I won’t benefit until the end of the budget and then I will get a refund. The oil company gets my money and any interest they can generate if the price goes down. I get the safety of a cap if the crazy market gets crazier and I don’t get penalized if the price goes down. The other alternative that some of my friends are doing is the prepayment option. The lowest I have heard is $4.59 per gallon prepaid based on last years use. Based on my usage that would be about $3000.00 prepaid to lock that ...