Frugal Household Tips
The frugal household tips I'm going to share with you will help you to keep more cash in your pocket by putting these helpful household hints to use.
When it comes to family money management, these are straightforward approaches that my family uses. In fact, speaking from experience, if you begin to put these tips to use, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much money you can save.
Home Energy Savings
There is no doubt you can stop the leaking of cash following these home energy saving tips. Did you know that the average family spends at least $2,000 a year on home utilities? The good news is that there is a lot you can do to save energy and money at home.
Below you'll find easy and low cost frugal household tips that I use to save energy.
You can install a programmable thermostat and knock down your heating and cooling costs by at least $200 bucks a year. These thermostats are really fantastic pieces of technology. You can program in the times you turn on the heating and AC using a pre-set schedule. By doing this, your furnace and AC do not operate as much when you're sleeping our out of your house.
When shopping for a programmable, you should look for the most energy efficient thermostats. The best ones you can purchase have the ENERGY STAR label meaning they're government backed superior energy efficient products.
Light Bulbs - You'll want to use ENERGY STAR compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL's) because they use 75% less energy, last up to 10 times longer, and put out 75% less heat than standard light bulbs.
I use CFL's for all of our lighting, both indoor and outdoor. They cost a little more than standard bulbs, but definitely save you money over the long haul.
You've probably heard this before, but its true - turn the lights off when the room is empty. Better yet, you can use what we have in our home, motion lights - a huge energy saver.
AC - You can plant trees or bushes near your AC unit to give it shade. This allows the AC to use less electricity than the same one operating without the shade.
Appliances - If you're in need of a new appliance, these days they're much more energy efficient than the older models. When shopping around for a new appliance, be sure you compare the yellow energy guide labels. The label will show you the estimated yearly operating cost of the appliance and how much annual electricity the appliance uses.
Refrigerators and washers and dryers are the biggest appliance energy guzzlers. To keep your refrigerator more energy efficient, be sure to clean the cooling elements behind and beneath the unit.
I do this yearly and it really works. I forgot to do this one year and noticed it took longer for our freezer to freeze ice cubes. As soon as I cleaned the cooling coils, bam - the freezer was back to normal.
You can substantially cut down your water costs by taking short showers instead of baths. You can also save money by lowering the temperature on your hot water heater to 120F.
Other tips: Wash full loads of dishes in your dishwasher; Turn your water taps off when washing or brushing your teeth; Fix leaking taps; Reduce the amount of flush in your toilet by adjusting the float on the top of the toilet basin; Program your sprinklers to run 3 times a week instead of daily; Get energy efficient sprinkler heads which cover more area needing less water.
Having proper insulation can save you a ton of money on your utility bills. You'll especially want to check the insulation in your attic and basement.
Speaking of the attic, what you can do to ensure it's properly insulated is measure the thickness of the insulation. If it's less than R30, you'll want to add more insulation because most homes have between R30 and R60 insulation thickness.
You'll also want to make sure the heating ducts (especially in your attic) are insulated. You can actually lose up to half of your heated air if your ducts aren't insulated.
Weatherstripping all of your doors is another insulation money saver. Also, don't forget caulking. You'll want to seal all openings to the outside where air leaks. This includes doors, windows, and where plumbing, electrical and duct work penetrates through your walls, floors, soffits, ceilings and cabinets.
You'll want to plug TV's, DVD's, your computer, and other home electronics into a surge power strip. You'll also want to turn off the surge when you're not using the equipment because PC's, TV's and DVD's use quite bit of power when they're in standby mode.
Change furnace filters often to allow your furnace to run efficiently.
If you have an attached garage, you should keep it closed, especially in the winter to provide further insulation.
You can purchase the glass block basement windows which provide much better insulation than the standard installed windows. You'll also want to have better insulated dual ply windows throughout your home.
Tim is the editor of http://www.frugal-save-wave.com where you’ll get the answers you need to save more money through “living better on less.”
Tim doesn’t just write about these frugal strategies, he lives them. Tim also has an MBA in finance as well as over 20 years of professional experience in personal finance.