Saving Money on Electric and Gas Bills
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I need this article a lot! Once again, I am not an expert. Last year during March, I didn’t have an electric bill, because we were under our budget ($100 per month, our house is all electric). This year due to the unusually cold weather and rate increases, we are already $200 over our budget. I am thinking this is going to result in about a $350 bill for March. Ekkk! I am scared already.
I am going to write about some of the steps we have taken to curb this for the future, but I really, really want your suggestions too!
- We bought a programmable thermostat this week. This is a move I have been wanting to make for a while, but thanks to my January budget savings, we were able to pay cash for it. It is my understanding that this will hopefully cut our heating bill by 25-33%! We should have done this long ago.
- We closed all our storm windows and put glass in our screen doors. This may seem like a no-brainer for all you up north, but we are used to mild winters. We haven’t used the glass in our doors in a few years. I have noticed a huge difference in the temperature in the house, so we will be doing this each year.
- As we can afford it, we are switching to energy star appliances. Our washer and dryer are less than 10 years old and relatively efficient. We purchase a new energy saver/energy star water heater last year. Our deep freeze is energy efficient. I really need a new fridge and dishwasher, because mine are on their last legs, but that is not possible right now!
- Light bulbs have been switched to CFLs. I have picked up free or very cheap CFLs over the last year. We have slowly converted our whole house to them.
- I have been washing clothes in cold water and trying not to run the fluff cycle on the dryer as much. The dryer thing has been hard for me. I have an outdoor laundry room, and in the winter, I have a bad habit of leaving clothes in the dryer overnight.
I know you ladies out there are really savvy with saving money. Do you have any suggestions out there to help us conquer our electric bill? Please leave me a comment below!
Do you have a Thrifty idea? Did you save a ton of money this week? Do you have a Thrifty deal you want to share?
If so, please leave a comment or link up below!
Please leave a link back to Coupon Teacher so that we can all share ideas.
This is linked to Life as Mom and Madame Deals.
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