Tips to Save You Money

 Gas, food, clothes… pretty much everything is at an all time high. I am just waiting for someone to start charging me for the air I am breathing. I compiled a list of tips to help us all save a little money.

Electric Bill:

1. Unplug appliances when not in use.
2. Install a programmable digital thermostat. I did this and it saves me an average of about fifty dollars a month. It paid for itself in three months. This thermostat allows you to program you're A/C or heat to meet your needs. Say you are at work all day and do not need the A/C to run all day, but would like it cool when you come home. You can program the thermostat to go to a cooler temp an hour before you come home.
3. Switch to high efficiency light bulbs. They do cost a lot more than a regular light bulb, but they use significantly less wattage and last at least three times as long.
4. Turn off all of the computers & televisions when not in use. Leaving your computer in sleep mode will cost you a fortune.
5. Hang heavy clothes like blankets, sweaters, rugs, and blue jeans on a clothes line. If you just avoid running the dryer for the heavy load items, you will see a major difference.
6. If you have kids in the house, reward them for remembering to turn off all the lights. You can make them the “light police.” If they catch you leaving a light on then they get a treat…ice cream, movie, etc. If you catch them leaving lights on then they get the television or computer shut off for one day.
7. Use motion sensor lights outdoors. These lights will come on automatically when you pull in the drive and cut off after you go inside. This will eliminate forgetting to turn it off and the need to leave it on for security.

Grocery Bill:

1. Clip coupons. I know!!! No one like to here those words, but stores like Dollar General and Jitney Jungle have double coupon days that really add up. Often I go to the dollar store on double coupon day and my fifty cent toothpaste coupon turns into a free tube of toothpaste.
2. Add match. It saves gas that you would spend going to several stores and gives you the best bargain. Stores like Wal-mart will add match any local price. Add matching (for those who do not know) is when you take the sale ads from all the other local stores and show it to the cashier at checkout . If an onion at store Z is fifty cents, but the store you are at has onions for sixty cents….then you get the onion for fifty cents.
3. Try to use the store brand when possible. Especially on non food items. Plastic cups are plastic cups!
4. Coordinate meals and buy family packs. If you buy a ham, then also buy red beans. Season the beans with the ham…instead of sausage, bacon, or whatever you generally use. Then none of your ham goes to waste and you have two meals. Buy a family pack of chicken and cook it all at once. You can have chicken one night and put the left over in the fridge. The next night use the left over cooked chicken to make chicken and dumplings. Heating the oven only once saves energy, time, and using the contents twice saves grocery money.
5. Also, buying in bulk or family packaging saves you gas money. Try buying groceries for one or two weeks at a time, instead of making several trips a week.

Other Tips:

1. Instead of having a manicure and pedicure from the salon, have a girls night. Invite your friends over and give each other manicures.
2. Leave the sodas at the store and get your H2O on. Sodas are expensive…especially if you buy by the can or individual bottle. Adding fresh mint, lime, lemon can jazz up the water for the kids. Put a ¼ tsp of lemon, lime juice, or a mint leaf from your garden in an ice tray, fill with water, and freeze.
3. Slow down! Accelerating your car fast drains the gas from your tank.
4. If it is breezy outside, leave the air off. Roll the windows down.
5. Don't be afraid of salvage stores. I can not tell you how much I buy salvage. My local salvage store gets drugstore, Target, Wal-Mart, K-mart, etc stocks. Items stay marked down at least fifty percent everyday of the week. Just today I bought a fifteen dollar package of razors for 1.25$, a three dollar toothbrush for ten cents, and a bottle of salon shampoo for three dollars.