I am a stay at home mother of three so learning how to cut our expenses and save money is a big part of my life. With rising gas price driving up the cost of everything else finding ways to cut costs is important. Little things can make a big difference and can add up to a lot of savings.
Most people don't realize that you can reduce your monthly bills. One easy solution is shopping around lots of companies are willing to give you a better deal than what you are currently receiving to get your business. Why pay more for the same services your receiving now.
One bill that usually hits us in the wallet is our electricity bill. In the last year we have managed to cut our bill almost in half. First we started by changing over to the energy star spiral light bulbs. They cost more than regular light bulbs, but they pay for themselves by saving you on you electric bill. You can also replace your old mercury thermostat for you heating and ac unit with a new digital one. They are more accurate. I also suggest getting one of the seven day programmable ones. The one we bought showed what how you could program the settings to save you the most money. They had it set for 81 degrees for the summer, since I stay at home I set it to run at 76. We still saw major savings within the first month of doing so.
Of course we turn off the lights, and any thing else that plugs in to the wall when not in use. Through research we learned that anything that is plugged into the wall that may not be on is still consuming energy. We have put lots of things on power strips so when they are not in use we can turn off the power strip so less energy is being consumed. We no longer leave cell phone chargers plugged into the wall when not using it.
Even making changes in the way you do laundry can save you money. Washing your laundry with cold water cost significantly less than using the hot or warm water cycles. I was as many full loads as possible, it takes as much energy to wash a full load as it does only a few things. I also dry full loads and make sure the lint trap is always clean so the dry works as efficient as possible.
This year we are replacing our screen and sliding glass doors with new doors that seal better. Having doors and windows that let air in and out increase heating and cooling costs. The doors we currently have are just too old and weather stripping no longer help. It is a bit costly to make such a replacement, but we see it as money well spent.
Credit cards are another place you can cut costs. It is well worth it to transfer your balances to a new card with a lower interest rate. We have also taken advantage of cards that offer no interest for a set amount of months. Why pay interest when you can be putting that money towards your debt.
We shop around when we fill up our gas tank too. This is something we never gave much of a thought. We would just stop and fill up at any old place. We always fill up where the price is the lowest. When the price drops we make sure we fill up the tank.
It has become a natural practice for us to look for the cheapest price and do anything we can to save us money. It is not really hard and it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to save some money. More than anything it is just making small changes in your daily life. The changes are well worth the money you save because it does add up.
