Tips and Tricks for Saving Money
Computer monitors use about 90 watts of power per hour. This is even when screensavers are on. In hibernate or power save mode, they only use 3 to 5 watts of power per hour. So make sure your computer isn’t using up unnecessary energy by setting the screensaver so it goes blank.
Avoid commercial furniture polishes which are made from flammable petroleum distillates (which are carcinogenic and linked to lung/skin cancer). You can make your own furniture polish using 3 parts olive oil to 1 part vinegar or lemon juice. Put in a dollar-store spray bottle and label it. Shake before using.
It’s a New Year and a new decade. Many ecologically sound ideas are also frugal choices: recycling clothing, buying used, making your possessions last by maintaining them properly and voluntary simplicity by cutting down on the amount of “stuff” you buy. Frugality can equal a positive environmental impact. By using vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser of your front-loading washing machine, you’re making a frugal move as well as reducing the toxic load on the environment. Unplugging electronics and replacing fluorescent lights with CFLs cuts down on electricity usage. If all of us had one meatless meal a week, this would cut greenhouse gas emissions significantly.
Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want.
~ Anna Lappe
I’m not buying super concentrated any more - not dishwashing soap, not laundry soap. I know those smaller containers are enticing because they’re easier to haul out of the store. I find whoever does laundry just blithely adds the same amount they always do. It doesn’t matter if I put big notes on the laundry soap. It disappears in a jiffy. No one seems to think that putting an itty-bitty amount of the stuff will do the job.
So I try to buy the big, already-diluted version. The laundry soap just lasts longer and I think I’m saving some money and the environment.
PASTE WAX
You think of paste wax and it conjures up images of women on their hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floor.
This is an amazing product that can shine up shoes, boots, leather, cork, bakelite, copper, brass, autos, furniture, even stone and concrete. It’ll loosen up your sticking drawers.
What about the infamous “wax buildup” that advertising people say their products avoid? Roy Frizell, Supervisor of Quality Control, Ethan Allen, Inc., Danbury, Connecticut, recommends wax only in small doses. “We tell customers to dust with a damp cloth, then maybe every six months use wax. 0therwise,” he comments, “They’ll put wax on every time they dust.”
Work small sections at a time and buff with an old T-shirt or cotton rag. You’ll get a really deep shine.
Best product I’ve found is the Butcher’s Bowling Alley Clear Paste Wax.
Okay, so there may be liquids somewhat more expensive than printer ink, but not many.
I’ve bought computers that include a free printer, and have also picked up $40 ink jet printers to use as an extra in our home office. It’s always a shock when I go to replace the ink and after a few times have spent more than the cost of the printer.
I started using off brand ink cartridges, or store brands to save money. Still cost way too much.
I was always worried about using a refill service because I thought that if it leaked it would ruin my printer. Whoa. The printer was free. What’s the loss?
There were two benefits from getting refills for my printer cartridges. One was a huge money savings. Sometimes there were stores that offered free printer ink refills as a loss leader. The other benefit was the environment. Less used, empty cartridges in landfill sites.
A few other things I do to save on printing are; in-office document printing is always done in draft mode. Also I just print less stuff. Saves paper that way also. Whenever possible I also use recycled paper.
Instead of throwing out old documents and papers, if they are blank on the back, and not something I need to shred, then I cut them, staple them, and use them for scratch pads.
-Phil
Two days ago, I went to the library and got this book, “Cut Your Energy Bills Now” by Taunton Press. This book covers each section of your home and gives great suggestions on where to save money. Their goal is to give you steps that are low cost or high benefit – or both.
I handed it to my husband, Mr. Fix-It, and asked him if there was anything in the book that surprised him. Now, here’s a guy who would have been useful on Apollo 13. He would have jerry-rigged something and there never would have been a movie. He made comments all evening as he perused the book.
This isn’t a book that cheerfully suggests, “Caulk those windows!” There are loads of photos and diagrams with carefully thought out tips. It’s also an eco-friendly book as well with ways to reduce your environmental impact.
Additionally, the book goes over many of the energy myths. One is that unless you’ve had a big water spill or leak that got into some of your ducts (which has caused mold to grow inside the ducts), you don’t need your ducts cleaned. They point out that the main purpose of duct-cleaning services is to clean out your wallet. Furnaces don’t create dust, they just move it around and any dust that’s in your ducts is unlikely to get kicked up if it hasn’t already.
Another interesting myth: Insulating 98% of a given area provides 98% insulating performance. NOT SO. Their analogy: If you had to wade across a river, would you care about the average depth? Just as the depth of the deepest area would define your success, in an insulated surface (like an attic) the performance of the worst area dominates the overall performance. A gap of 2% in an attic insulated with R-38 turns the overall performance into about R-22 – a decrease of more than 40%.
He suggests sealing off your chimney if it’s rarely used with an insert that has a much tighter seal than a standard damper. He goes over exactly what type of windows to buy in which climates and the appropriate glass. He has some interesting information on your water heater which we had never read before.
Many of the suggestions don’t cost much and have a big impact on your bills. He tells you what to tackle first. The book has an ecological bent to it as well.
Last weekend, at my Aquafitness class, the instructor passed around a box of baking soda to demonstrate to us how much the human heart weighed. Another person commented, “She must bake.”
Oh no, we answered. From there, other uses than baking popped out from the group: cleaning the bathroom, keeping your fridge smelling fresh, indigestion (swallow a teaspoon mixed with some water), a few tablespoons down a drain and then some vinegar poured in to unclog drains, brushing your teeth (equal parts of salt/baking soda).
Here’s a list of items you might not have heard of. I like the one where she fills nail holes with baking soda. There are books on the subject.
It’s an environmentally-friendly box of magic.
Newspapers sell off the newsprint roll ends. It’s like getting a blank newspaper that’s rolled instead of cut into pages. I called two local newspapers this week and one sells their rolls end by the pound and the other sells them depending on size ($5 and $10). We’re going to use roll ends for the children’s program here in the summer at the campground. Marvelous for lots of projects.
My brother, Phil, suggested “we” tackle the subject of water as a whole write-up. It’s amazing how much money people spend to get drinking water. The choices are bottled water, large bottles (delivered or refilled), filters, and plain ol’ tap water.
The whole plastic bottle for drinking water thing has to stop. It’s dreadful for the environment and there are health risks from the leaching of chemicals from the plastic. This article is definitely worth reading.
We have a separate filter for our water on the sink. It is a reverse osmosis filter and the cost is about $35 every three months to replace the filter. Even the cats drink reverse osmosis water but I figure it offsets their drinking from the bathtub drips and puddles outside in the summer. As well, we use a chlorine removing filter on our shower.
My brother, Phil, tells me that he buys those large refillable bottles at the supermarket and finds the water is good and it’s a cheap refill.
