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A reader e-mailed me with a great question about saving money around the house. I asked her if I could share the question with you all since I’m guessing there are some money-saving-around-the-house experts around these parts. This is what she wrote:
Kaley, I was just wondering what other tips you have for savings for around the house type things. Such as using the dishwasher vs. hand washing, etc. I would love to get my electric bill down about $30.00 and was wondering if you could write an article about general savings.
Since most of us have a long winter still facing us, I figured this would be a great time to tackle this topic. I’m sure any tips that people give will be most useful, it doesn’t matter how big or small, we’d all love to hear them! Once we get the ball rolling, I’m sure that people will give some great hints and tips for what they do to help them lower their energy bills.
So, help me out, dear readers. What are your best tips for saving money around the house? Have you made any changes that have significantly lower your energy bills? What’s your secret? Did you change energy providers? Do you use TXU plans or a similar company? Do you make sure you only have one light switched on at a time? Have you started reading your energy reading all the time, just so you know exactly much you are using? Please let me know in the comments down below what it is that you do to help with your energy savings. We want to learn any tips that you might have!
Thank you for this thread!
We have awful windows in our newer 7 yr old house – the metal frames conduct cold and they are drafty. The carpet 18 inches away from the windows is colder than the rest of the room. When we got our tax return last year, I insisted on using it to buy insulated roller blinds (they are on clearance in the Spring,BB & B has insulated drapes on clearance right now). We have bamboo blinds hung with an inside mount and a valance so air would leak around the blinds. We concealed the plain insulated blinds under the valance and then pull them down over the pretty blinds. Our a/c bill dropped $100 a month and our heat bill has dropped $200 a month because of $200 worth of blinds! I pull them half way down in the afternoon and all the way as soon as the sun sets. You have to lift them every morning and wipe the condensation off the window or you will get mold, and we had ice on the windows and frost on the frame inside the house one week because my windows are so bad! We also sleep better b/c the house is darker and sound is muffled.
I just added bubble wrap to the top half of the windows. This is a greeenhouse trick. Wet the window and the wrap just clings. The sunnier rooms were warmer day 1 but now it has been raining so much I haven’t had a chance to see if it works. It doesn’t stop the air leaks around the frame, but it lets me open the windows.
Do a search on window quilts – this is another way to insulate that I haven’t tried yet.
When we get our tax return this year I’m getting insulated drapes for my bedroom, replacing those little flaps on the bottom of the doors with better quality to stop that draft, and putting a window insert in my kitchen door. We get morning sun in the kitchen and have a small house. So I will not need the overhead light until afternoon on sunny days. The top half of my storm door drops down and has a screen so creating a cross draft with the new kitchen window will let me go longer without using the air conditioner. I plan to spend around $200 again, but figure I will cut out at least 2 months of a/c use a year (if not more) so it will be worth it.
Here’s a tip to save money when switching to fluorescent bulbs. Start with the lights that are used the most. And get motion sensitive lights for outside your house so you still have security without having to leave lights on all night. Our local power company installed an overhead security light on the pole outside our house for free after the neighbors has some vandalism troubles so we no longer need to worry about lights on that side of the house.
We also have all our indoor lights on dimmers, and start dimming lights after dinner. It takes about 2 hours for the body to produce melatonin for sleep so this is a natural way to signal the body that bedtime is coming. Our nighttime lighting is brighter than a nightlight but not enough to read by. If I want more light to read or crochet with at night, I use a camping headlight that I wear around my neck like a necklace and I have a USB light for my laptop.
We have central air and heat. Our a/c repair man told us to buy the cheapest a/c filters they make and spray them with end dust in the direction the air will flow then be sure to change them once a month faithfully. He said that the pleated Hepa filters make the unit work harder and can increase your bill. We were not changing the filter regularly b/c some months we couldn’t afford the Hepa filter so we jumped on this tip. We made a lot of changes at once so we don’t know if it helped.
I have had to fight DH for all these changes, but it has been worth it. And he is going to be mad when he learns that we are stopping the air dry cycle on the dishwasher. I’ve tried to do that before and he complained, but after reading your posts I’m going to do it again and stick to my guns. He still doesn’t get that we can no longer afford certain conveniences and some luxuries are wasteful to the planet.
I am also cutting dryer sheets in half (suggested here), and was shocked to hear that for heavy loads he was using 2 dryer sheets! So I am checking out wool dryer balls.
Thanks!
We tear up old t-shirts, etc to use as rags for cleaning and wiping up messes. A roll of paper towels now lasts us about 6 months and the dirty rags are kept in a box by the washer. When I have a “not quite full” load, in they go!
Sooooo….these are all awesome, but I thought I would toss a special one in for us apartment dwellers. You are limited if you don’t own your “home”, but you can still make a difference. If there’s a fireplace, use it!! Two words for those crappy windows: finger caulk. You can buy a big roll at the hardware store, and press it around your windows with your fingers. It is amazing for stopping those awful drafts.
Also, as soon as I get home, I change into my “house clothes”. If you dress for business, change into warmer clothes in order to stay comfortable with that thermostat lower. (I go from nerdy accountant to lumberjack woman…) Slippers are a must!
After baking something, leave the oven cracked to use that heat in your place. And hang in there, we’ll get our own greener places one day 🙂
I have lots of ideas, but one of the easiest is to insulate your hot water heater. We did ours about 2.5 years ago, and it has helped our gas bill quite a bit! The insulation initially cost under $20. We recouped that cost in the first couple of months.
Another easy one is to buy a cheap olive oil bottle for your dish soap. It won’t come out unless you dilute it pretty well. Plus, it’s hard to over use the soap when it comes out slowly. I’ve been using the same big bottle of dish soap for well over a year now.
You can buy eggs on sale, beat and freeze in ice cube trays for later use. 1 cube = approx 1 egg.
I’ll try to think of some more slightly unusual ones!
We have gone around the house and plugged TV, VCR, computers, etc into power strips that can be turned off. When we are not using these items, they get switched off. We figure it saves us about $40 a month by doing this………….if we do it consistently!!
I have a few to share:
1. Use half the amount of laundry detergent. It gets the clothes just as clean and it’s like getting the laundry detergent for half price.
2. Use furniture polish on your stainless steel appliances. Works great, no streaks for a lot less then the price of stainless steel cleaner.
3. Buy a bunch of microfiber clothes from a auto parts store. A lot cheaper there and better quality. They clean everything beautifully and you will wind up using a lot less cleaning products. These work so much better then regular rags.
We have saved money by changing our bulbs to lower wattage flourecent energy savers, unplugging anything we aren’t using there are many items that suck energy even if they aren’t in use. You can wrap you hot water heat and turn it down a notch. Also check to make sure none of the inner coils have burnt out causing the remaining ones to work harder. Open shades instead of using lights whenever possible. If you want a faint light while watching Tv or something else you really don’t need light for burn a scented candle the glow is relaxing and it’s scent can be relaxing. Use cold water for laundry when possible. Take cooler shorter showers. Tuen off you computer, router etc. and printer when not in use they are major energy hogs. Update appliances with newer energy efficent ones. That totally killed my electric till I updated. Downsize and unplug extra freezers and fridges when not needed. Turn down the dial on the heat by 2 degrees and put on a sweater. Block any airflow to maximized your heat. Check into replacing windows if they are older and insulate the attic and walls that may not be insulated. Hope this helps give you some ideas if you want more your energy company usually posts ideas on their websites you can check there.
We bought our wool dryer balls at http://www.WoolDryerBalls.com and are saving money by cutting the drying time and softening laundry without ever having to buy another softener! LOVE THEM and hers are made to last for years!
My DH has been puttering around the house trying to figure out what is making our bill so high, weatherproofing here and there, unplugging things or putting them on switches, putting in energy-saving lightbulbs, and so on. He also has been sorting out where he can safely plug in his shop equipment without blowing our breakers. So, when his birthday came around, I bought him a device that lets you measure the electrical usage of whatever you plug into it, and he’s been using it to analyze different pieces of equipment, appliances, etc. around the house and target the electricity hogs for replacement, relocation to a switch, and so on. Gotta love gifts that pay for themselves :).
First, wash your clothes at night less energy is used by the public at night so it is usually cheaper in the long run. Second, check all your doors. Most of our heat is lost through bad seals on doors and windows. This will raise your bill by about 100.00 month if it is really bad. You can also seal your windows with plastic in winter time. It keeps heat from leaking out. I never walk out of a room and leave a light on. I also use energy saving light bulbs. Put all t.v’s and computers on power strips. Then at night turn the strip off or unplug all big power suckers. It will cut your bill by anywhere from 10 to 30 a month. Also pick one day a week to do all major cooking. Then freeze the meals. This way you don’t always have te stove on and it saes time for busy moms during the week. I also keep my heat at 66 and have one blanket on each couch/chair. It is warm enough and if i feel a little cold I grab my blanket and I am good. Well this should get people started. You can also check out my blog where I put recipes, ideas, recycled crafts and money saving ideas.
http://goingnaturalwellkinda.blogspot.com/
I have been using cloth napkins for some time now. If each person uses a different napkin ring and your food isn’t too messy, you can probably get by with using the napkin for a couple days. It saves on the cost of paper napkins and there is less paper for the land fills.
I stopped using the heat cycle in my dishwasher. This not only saves money, but I can now put almost anything in the dishwasher without worrying about it melting! Having newer appliances makes a huge difference, especially if they are marked as “energy efficient”. Although it is a huge initial expense, if you can get a grant or loan to improve your home it is worth it to get proper insulation, good siding, replacement windows, fiberglass doors/garage door and fill in any holes or openings that allow air (and bugs!) into your home. I dry the light and heavy items separately in the dryer so that I don’t overdry the light things while the dryer is continuing to dry the heavier items. I also disconnected the icemaker in the freezer. This not only gave me more room in the freezer, but saved energy as it runs often. By doing the above things I cut our electric bill in half. Good luck!
While at a school food service director seminar today, I was excited when out of the blue one director commented that she saves money on Easter candy by freezing some of her child’s Halloween candy and then using it for the basket. What a great idea!
If you have Edison they have what is called the CARE program. You have meet the income requirments but it has saved is ALOT of money on our electric bill.
I’ve read twice in the past month that washing dishes by hand saves no more water, energy or money than using the dishwasher. One of the reports was from Amy D. of “The Tightwad Gazette,” who always researched things like this very meticulously/scientifically. Hope that’s helpful!
Line dry clothes, either inside or outside. If you can’t do all of your clothes this way, do the towels, etc. Don’t spend money on cleaning supplies that you don’t need or can make yourself. Stuff like Febreze and air fresheners aren’t good for humans, the earth or the wallet. Open a window instead! Be vigilant about lights off. The dishwasher can be more efficient, but don’t use the dry part of the cycle. They can air dry just as well. See what you have running all the time (electricity). I have a coffeemaker with a clock — so wasteful — pull that plug until you need the appliance. Do you need digital clocks? How about the old-fashioned kind instead? Pull the plug on the microwave, keep the freezer fully stocked (words efficiently), use double sets of curtains in drafty rooms.
We recently replaced the toilets in our home to the newer ones that save water. My water bill was cut almost in half!! If you have older toilets and aren’t able to replace them, try filling bags with marbles or something and putting them in the tank area to take up space. This will reduce the amount of water used with each flush.
We are in the process of remodeling an older home and as we do so, we have found some great suggestions for lowering our electric bill. You can insulate the hot water heater and/or put it on a timer. Switch to cold water in the washing machine. Get a digital thermostat and adjust the temperature down when no one is home…
I make wool dryer balls that naturally cut down on static & softens clothes (save money on softener & dryer sheets), and best of all cuts down drying time, so lots of energy saved! I explain how to make them in this blog post:
http://resweater.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-gifts-i-made-dryer-balls.html
Kris 🙂
The energy saving compact bulbs really do save alot of money. I have a 4 family rental that I pay for the hallway, outdoor and garage lighting. The only lighting on that meter is light bulbs. I switched all 5 to the florscent bulbs and bill went from 22 to 7. And I don’t have to change the hard-to-get-to bulbs as often…