Frugal Tool Kit (Part Two)

Okay, there is one monthly expense that I do everything I can to save money on. It's something that leaves us absolutely nothing to show for the money spent. Whether we use it wisely or extravagantly, it's gone at the end of the month. What am I talking about? UTILITIES! Three years ago we had a series of electric bills that were over 400.00 per month, accompanied by high water bills. Our natural gas bill is always lower during the summer but we're going after that in a big way. Every month we suffered from shock at the mailbox. The fact that blew my mind was that once that energy was used it was gone. That wasted energy didn't add any value to our lives. Sure, our food was kept fresh and we were comfortable with the air conditioning running. Reducing our bill wouldn't prevent either of those from happening but it would force us to look at what was important to us on a daily basis.

We were already using CFL bulbs but weren't doing much else in the world of energy conservation. The biggest sucker-of-energy in our home is certainly air conditioning. The summer of the 400.00 plus bills, we kept our thermostat at about 75 degrees. All day, every day. That was where I started. Every other day, I would raise the thermostat by a degree. At first, no one noticed. Then around day four, people started getting a little cranky. Within a week, our thermostat would be set at 79 degrees (higher sometimes) and everyone adjusted. The surprising added benefit would be that our youngest daughter, who has Sjogren's syndrome (an autoimmune disease that damages the moisture producing glands in your body) would stop having almost daily nosebleeds. Less air conditioning brought more than just the blessing of a lower bill. Sometimes, if we are going to have a bunch of company, we turn the thermostat down a bit temporarily.

We did install two additional ceiling fans as well as a whole house fan. The whole house fan was installed in our kitchen ceiling. When it is turned on, we crack the sliding doors and windows in order for the fan to suck the outside cooler air in. We also kick it on when I've been cooking a lot and the kitchen is extra warm. We've watched our inside temperature drop 3 degrees in fifteen minutes with that fan running. We installed it for less than 200.00. This isn't something we use in the heat of summer, but when we have cool mornings or evenings we make the most of cooling the house for a lot less money. We keep our blinds and shutters closed during the day. It's a sacrifice, but one more way we keep the heat of the day at bay. Before summer my husband will be putting up a sun shade on our air conditioning unit outside. Still allowing air to circulate, but keeping the sun from beating on it and heating it up is our goal.

In addition to keeping our cooling costs down, we started unplugging and turning everything off more consistently. I also changed a few things about laundry day. A lot of our laundry is air dried. In the great state of Florida, clotheslines are protected as energy saving devices, so no deed restrictions can prevent you from having one in either your back or side yard. Cool, right? Mostly I dry laundry on our screened lanai and in the laundry room on hangers. First thing in the morning, I do two loads and put them out to dry. The jeans are a little stiff, but my family has stopped complaining. According to the electric company, drying a load of laundry costs between 30 and 50 cents in energy. That doesn't include the fact that if your dryer is indoors, you are also raising the temperature of your home. My goal was to save a dollar a day in drying costs.

We made a few more changes to reduce our energy costs:

When the oven is going to be turned on, I plan ahead to bake everything needed for the week, reducing the frequency of heating up the house.

Cook outside, using slowcookers and roasters on the lanai, using the countertop grill instead of the oven.

Allow dishes to air-dry in the dishwasher

Replacing and adding weatherstripping to doors and windows

Adding extra attic insulation where needed

At the end of the day, it was all worth making the change. Our highest summer electric bill has been almost 100.00 less than what it was before. I keep an eye on our monthly kilowatt hour usage and challenge myself to lower it more. It will be interesting to see if we can get through the summer with lower power bills than we saw last year. That's my goal.

Frugal Tool Kit (Part One)

Lately there has been a lot of emphasis on using coupons. Not just using them to save a little money, but in EXTREME ways. I must confess to being too wrapped up with couponing at one point in time. After becoming too focused on the next bargain, I began to widen my focus on other frugal efforts. Everyone needs to save more and spend less. Not long ago we finished a year of a significant salary cut. There are certain tools that we used to help us make it through. Coupons were actually only a very small part of that effort, and I wanted to share some ideas that others might find helpful too.



Stop thinking everything is disposable. Several years ago, before grocery shopping, I took a look at my list in order to see if there was anything that we didn't need. Paper towels and paper napkins stood out to me. I had to have these in the house, right? We have kids and pets for goodness sake. I began to look for alternatives. First, we became cloth napkin users. I found them on clearance, dug them out of my attic and made some myself. I never noticed any extra laundry because of them. They don't match and some aren't pretty but they do the job. Next we said goodbye to the paper towels. We use newspaper for windows, mirrors and really messy stuff. I chop up old t-shirts into squares to reuse. I purchased a big bag of shop type microfiber rags and have used them for years. Occasionally, if paper towels are free with a coupon, I will pick up a few rolls. Paper products are definitely scaled down to a minimum, and are certainly no longer a part of our budget.

Then I began to look at re-purposing other things that we would usually toss without thinking. My favorite "freebie" would be the plastic bags inside cereal boxes. For real. We open them a little carefully, rinse and dry them. They are used for storing leftover bits of this and that (secured with a clothespin). I cut them in squares and use them to separate portions of meat when freezing. They are great for tenderizing meat, or coating chicken with crushed corn flakes to make baked nuggets. I toss them if they are used with meat, but if they aren't we wash, allow to dry and reuse. They are pretty thick and durable actually. Free storage bags work for me.



We've started to look at everything to see if it has a second purpose. Plastic meat trays are great for painting. Small glass jars are snatched up for my husband in the garage. A valance hangs in our youngest daughter's room made from old clothes. Cutting up t-shirts into rags while you are watching a TV show with your kids doesn't take a whole lot from your day, but it translates into a nice little savings.



Tomorrow's post will be about the one thing that irritates the MOST to spend money on. Seriously.