Tips to Save Money on Your Utilities

The cost of gas and electricity lately has gone through the roof and it’s not expected to decline anytime soon. While many homeowners are resigned to the fact that utilities bills are beginning to rival the cost of groceries every month, there are a few small changes you can make to cut costs on necessary item such as heating, lighting and water.

Smart Tips to Save Money on Power

Compare vendors. Even if you’ve been with the same company for half a decade, it doesn’t mean you’re necessarily getting the best deal. Gas and electricity vendors buy power in bulk and often in advance, meaning they’re looking to secure the highest number of customers. Compare costs at MoneySupermarket.com to learn more about switching suppliers.

Take a look at your thermostat. If you have a timing device on your heater, place it on a rotating schedule so that the heating is off at midday when the family is away at work and school. It will turn on again when the temperature drops in the mornings and evenings, and you’ll save money on the time in-between. While you’re there, consider reducing the temperature; even a reduction of one degree can save you money.

Maximize your appliances. Fill up the washing machine, tumble dryer and dish washer by all means, but never turn them on when they’re half-full. One full load will use less energy than two half-loads. Turn down the water temperature for washing clothes, opt for showers rather than baths, and on sunny days, make use of the sun’s natural energy to dry clothes.

Be energy aware. By making small changes in your home you can collect savings that add up in the long run. For starters, switch high wattage incandescent light bulbs for energy savers and remember to turn off lights when you leave every room. Only fill the kettle with as much water as you need, and fix dripping taps – particularly hot taps. Check for draughts around windows and doors, and add insulation to keep that precious heat inside.

Utilities are a necessary expense, but it’s not necessary to waste resources such as light, heat and water. Get into the saving mode and save money every month without making much effort at all.

5 Green Living Tips to Save You Money

Green living is not only good for our planet, it can be good for our wallets as well! By following a few eco-friendly green living tips, you can keep a little green for yourself.

Here are 5 eco-friendly green living tips that will also save you some green…

1. Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs (cfls). If you change just five of the most used light bulbs in your home, you can save about $80 in energy costs in a year. Although the cfls are more expensive to purchase up front, the added cost is more than offset by the energy savings and they also last much longer than standard bulbs. And if everyone changed just one bulb to a cfl, it would be like taking 1.2 mil cars off road for a year!
2. Bring your own bag to the grocery store. Some stores will give you between 5 and 25 cents off per bag. Most plastic bags are not recycled.
3. Bring your own cup. Some coffee houses will give you credit if you bring your own cup (like Starbucks).
4. Switch from bottled water to water out of the faucet. It will save you a load of money over the long term and will save tons of plastic bottles from winding up in landfills. Even if the bottles are recycled, a great deal of energy is used in transporting and recycling, so better not to use them in the first place. And nothing tastes better than icy cold water out of a real glass!
5. Consider organizing a book swap with friends or others in the community. Rather than purchasing new books, you can give old books new life by exchanging them with others. And you can save a bundle by not having to run out to purchase new books! Another option, of course, is to use the public library. But, for those who dislike reading books that have been handled by so many people, a book swap is a great alternative, because you can set the rules about the condition that books must be in before they can be considered for exchange.

By adopting even just a few eco-friendly green living tips into your everyday life, you will begin to notice that you can keep some extra money in your pocket, while feeling good that you are doing your small part to help the planet.

Save Electricity - 12 Tips to Lower Your Usage

Cutting down on electricity usage in your home doesn’t just save money, but also helps to save the planet as well. Every time we plug an electronic device into an outlet or turn on a household appliance we are adding our share of pollution into the atmosphere. So the more we can learn about saving electricity, the more we can help our planet. An added benefit to using these tips to save electricity is that we will also wind up with more money in our pockets that we can use to enjoy the planet we help to save!

There are a number of fairly easy ways we can adapt our daily lives in order to save electricity. None of these electricity saving tips involve a big up-front outlay of money or a drastic change to our lifestyles. Just a few small modifications to the way we approach our use of electricity, and we’ll be saving kilowatt hours in no time! Now I do believe that it’s so ingrained in our way of life to use electricity without thinking about how much we use or the ramifications of our usage, but if we are to do something about helping our planet then we need to be more cognizant of the outcome of our actions and what we can do to lessen the carbon footprint we leave on this earth. [Read more]

10 Easy “Green” Habits

Nowadays, everyone is extolling the virtues of ‘green living’.  It’s definitely about time that we took notice of our planet and what we need to do to save it, but sometimes I find that a lot of the eco-friendly talk revolves around products that are too expensive for the average consumer, or celebrities that have the money to completely revamp the way they live their lives, or methods that are such a big change from the way that we are used to living our daily lives that they seem unattainable.  But green living doesn’t have to be expensive and it doesn’t have to be a lot of work either.  There are so many ways to live in a more eco-friendly way that are easy to do and will actually save you money in the process.

As you may know, I’m all about the shortcuts that help to get things done quickly and easily.  I believe in working smart, rather than working hard, so I am always ready to embrace ideas that have a lot of impact without requiring a great deal of effort or sacrifice.  So I have included ten of the easiest ways to ‘go green’ while also saving some green.  As always, if you have any tips to add, please do so, because the more we can help each other, the better this world will be! [Read more]