Frugal Mom Expenses | Save on Household Expenses

Frugal Living Tip: Household Expenses

Purchasing groceries is one big area where you can save
loads of money each month. The next big area where you
can save extra money deals with household expenses.
Everyone has these and everyone can use all or just a few
tips to save money each month.

If you can, change out all your light bulbs (or all the light
bulbs that you can) with new energy efficient light bulbs.
These light bulbs can cut your electricity bill by ten to
twenty percent each month just by changing the light
bulbs out. These bulbs are meant to use less electricity
than older light bulbs.

When possibly, don’t run the heater or air conditioner.
This only works if you can go a few days in a row without
having them on at all. This will save you money plus if you
can open the windows and be comfortable, you’ll also be
getting fresh air in the house. Another tip is to turn down
the heater in winter and turn up the air conditioner in
summer.

During winter, you can easily get away with setting the
thermostat between sixty-eight and seventy degrees.
During the summer, set the air conditioner to between
seventy-five and seventy-eight degrees. The temperature
you choose is determined by what you can comfortably
handle. Don’t forget that you can put on clothing in winter
and shed clothing in the summer.

While still on the subject of heating and cooling,
purchasing extra ceiling fans or table fans for the house
will help with cooling the house in the summer and
purchasing safe space heaters for winter will help keep
heating costs down. Putting an extra blanket on everyone’s
bed in winter is helpful and sleeping without comforters
can help during the summer.

Next, take a look at your appliances. Look at your big
items that you use often, sat the washer and dryer for
instance. Are these two items using more energy than
saving? Sometimes the older models run longer when they
don’t need to.
You will save money in the long run if you purchase an
energy efficient washer and dryer. Also, if you have a large
family, purchase the larger washer and dryer that will hold
more so you are actually washing less. If you are washing
less, you’re saving electricity. The same goes with the
refrigerator and dishwasher. New appliances save more
energy.

With dishwashers, it costs less to use energy at night, so set
your dishwasher to run overnight if you can. A dishwasher
with a timer is essential for this. If you can get away with
washing or drying overnight, you’ll use less energy as well.
Check that your refrigerator is sealed properly so you
aren’t losing energy by the doors being opened just an
eighth of an inch.

When you are drying your clothes, some dryers have a
damp clothing setting. Be sure that is on and when the
clothes are damp, the dryer will beep. Stop and take the
time to pull the clothes out and pull out all shirts to be
hung up. If you hang up your jeans, pull them out too.

Go ahead and hang the clothes up, but hang them on the
shower curtain rod in the bathroom or if you have a drying
rack, place them on there. Then put the clothes back in the
dryer and finish drying them. They will take less time to
dry now that there aren’t as many clothes in the dryer. It’ll
just take an hour or so for the other clothes to dry on the
hangers and they are already hanging to be put up later.

Even though it doesn’t take much electricity to iron, it
does take some and it takes up time. If you’d like to save
some time, but also save some electricity, here’s a tip that
works for some articles of clothing.

Do you have some pants that should be ironed, but you
don’t want to? Try this tip. Clothes pin the pants at the
waist to a clothes hanger and hang from the shower curtain
rod or some other place where it can hang overnight
without being bothered.

Take a handful of clothespins and put clothespins on the
bottoms of the pants leg. About five or so are good. Do the
pockets need ironing? Put five or so clothespin on each
pocket so that it hangs straight. After about twenty-four
hours, your pants are nice and stretched out and look like
they’ve been ironed.
Simple tips around the house include turning off lights
that you don’t need, open blinds or curtains to bring in
natural light instead of using lamps, try and condense your
cooking to one pot to save on electricity when using the
stove and conserve water while brushing your teeth or
washing your hands.

Set timers on the televisions for when you might fall asleep
watching them. Small things like turning off a computer
each night can save a few dollars each month. Open the
curtains and blinds when you can to offer natural light
into the house. The lamps won’t need to be turned on and
you’re saving electricity.

It’s good idea in each change of season to go around the
house and check out your windows. Make sure there aren’t
any gaps where heat can go out or cold air can come in.
You can purchase a small tube of caulking to plug up the
holes or place towels around windows to help keep cold air
out. Also double check the amount of installation in your
attic so cool air or heat isn’t escaping that way.