Saving money ....
Posted: Sat May 21, 2011 5:17 am
We all like to have money to spend, so why throw it away? Here's a couple of tips that I learned as a kid. Sorry, no miracles here, but if you aren't doing this you are wasting money needlessly!
The fridge-freezer. Being single, the fridge holds my current stock of beer and the freezer is rarely used. It is trying to cool air, and as soon as the door is opened, the cold air is gone, so it works really hard to keep the right temperature. The solution for me was to go buy several one gallon jugs of water and put them in the freezer. Add to those the 2 liter bottles of soda, rinsed, filled with tap water and also placed in the freezer.
Once that lot freezes down solid, transfer some of the bottles to the refridgerator and top up the freezer with more bottles. You now have an ice chest full of ice which, on opening the door, is not going to lose its cool! If you buy frozen foods, you can remove bottles to make space for it, then put them back as the items are used, so the fridge never works hard to keep the inside cool!
My local power company (SRP) has a plan where you reduce power useage during the peak hours (3pm to 6pm). I changed the thermostat for a timer version which shuts off the air from 3-6pm (since I'm at work it doesn't affect me). I added timers to the hot water heater and the ice-filled fridge so they have no power then either. This saves me a bundle in electrical costs since all my useage is now at the low off-peak rate. This may not work for everyone since some people are home 24x7, but if it ties into your schedule, it is well worth looking into!
Solar power. A lot has been said on this subject, and there are some great ideas out there for building your own heating panels etc. Just a thought, if you are technically savvy and not so avtive any more, consider recruiting some local youths to assist in making the panels. Perhaps in conjunction with a local school as a project, and make it a charity event helping seniors in the area install heat exchange panels ?? The possibilities are endless, and of course you could also add your own name to the beneficiaries list, but you didn't hear that from me!!
Door mats. Well, a door mat is a door mat - a kinda rug that sits in front of the door, but is yours really doing its job? Forget about the cutie little bits of cloth with the funny messages, get yourself a heavy duty coarse mat that will take the dirt off the bottom of your shoes! Take a look at the entry to your home. the high traffic areas near the entry doors. You see wear on them caused by the stones, gravel, water, pieces of plants, oils, animal droppings and all the rest of the stuff outside the home. That stuff should have been left at the door mat, not trodden through the whole house! Lets face it, it is a darn sight cheaper to replace a welcome mat than it is to recarpet a room or repair a wood floor!
If your home is like mine, and all the AC/heating vents are in the floor. consider closing unneeded vents on a seasonal basis. I live in AZ, and it is warm (!) outside, so I close the vents in the bathroom - I don't need to get out of the shower and stand over a pillar of frigid air, and flipping on the bathroom extractor will quickly remove the humidity once the bathroom door is opened.
In a similar vein, a cold climate would reequire extra heat in the bathroom, but that extractor is going to take your heated air straight out of the home. The answer is to keep that vent closed, and let the heat from the shower or bath warm the space. Don't turn the extractor on until you are ready to leave the bathroom for the heated bedroom, and turn it off as soon as the condensation on the mirror clears! You might consider a time switch for the extractor so it doesn't run full time!
Wow, this far in and I haven't mentioned CFL bulbs. If you aren't using them, then you probably earn so much that you don't need the rest of the advice here either!
I'll add more here as it occurs to me, but other contributions would be more than welcome -put that keyboard to work!
Thanks for reading!
DaveyB
The fridge-freezer. Being single, the fridge holds my current stock of beer and the freezer is rarely used. It is trying to cool air, and as soon as the door is opened, the cold air is gone, so it works really hard to keep the right temperature. The solution for me was to go buy several one gallon jugs of water and put them in the freezer. Add to those the 2 liter bottles of soda, rinsed, filled with tap water and also placed in the freezer.
Once that lot freezes down solid, transfer some of the bottles to the refridgerator and top up the freezer with more bottles. You now have an ice chest full of ice which, on opening the door, is not going to lose its cool! If you buy frozen foods, you can remove bottles to make space for it, then put them back as the items are used, so the fridge never works hard to keep the inside cool!
My local power company (SRP) has a plan where you reduce power useage during the peak hours (3pm to 6pm). I changed the thermostat for a timer version which shuts off the air from 3-6pm (since I'm at work it doesn't affect me). I added timers to the hot water heater and the ice-filled fridge so they have no power then either. This saves me a bundle in electrical costs since all my useage is now at the low off-peak rate. This may not work for everyone since some people are home 24x7, but if it ties into your schedule, it is well worth looking into!
Solar power. A lot has been said on this subject, and there are some great ideas out there for building your own heating panels etc. Just a thought, if you are technically savvy and not so avtive any more, consider recruiting some local youths to assist in making the panels. Perhaps in conjunction with a local school as a project, and make it a charity event helping seniors in the area install heat exchange panels ?? The possibilities are endless, and of course you could also add your own name to the beneficiaries list, but you didn't hear that from me!!
Door mats. Well, a door mat is a door mat - a kinda rug that sits in front of the door, but is yours really doing its job? Forget about the cutie little bits of cloth with the funny messages, get yourself a heavy duty coarse mat that will take the dirt off the bottom of your shoes! Take a look at the entry to your home. the high traffic areas near the entry doors. You see wear on them caused by the stones, gravel, water, pieces of plants, oils, animal droppings and all the rest of the stuff outside the home. That stuff should have been left at the door mat, not trodden through the whole house! Lets face it, it is a darn sight cheaper to replace a welcome mat than it is to recarpet a room or repair a wood floor!
If your home is like mine, and all the AC/heating vents are in the floor. consider closing unneeded vents on a seasonal basis. I live in AZ, and it is warm (!) outside, so I close the vents in the bathroom - I don't need to get out of the shower and stand over a pillar of frigid air, and flipping on the bathroom extractor will quickly remove the humidity once the bathroom door is opened.
In a similar vein, a cold climate would reequire extra heat in the bathroom, but that extractor is going to take your heated air straight out of the home. The answer is to keep that vent closed, and let the heat from the shower or bath warm the space. Don't turn the extractor on until you are ready to leave the bathroom for the heated bedroom, and turn it off as soon as the condensation on the mirror clears! You might consider a time switch for the extractor so it doesn't run full time!
Wow, this far in and I haven't mentioned CFL bulbs. If you aren't using them, then you probably earn so much that you don't need the rest of the advice here either!
I'll add more here as it occurs to me, but other contributions would be more than welcome -put that keyboard to work!
Thanks for reading!
DaveyB