Saving Money: Electric Bill

When money is tight, often the easiest way to save some money is to change your life style just a bit. Since you will be using less electricity, you are preserving electricity and be living a greener life!

Some lifestyle changes to consider:

- Unplugging electrical cords from outlets you are not using. Anything from cell phone charger, electric toothbrush charger, electric shaver, to that space heater you only use at night. They really do suck away unnecessary electricity when not in use.

- Slightly unscrewing unnecessary light bulbs. We have six, non CFL bulbs that brighten our master bathroom that doesn't have to be that bright. There are three light bulbs per his/her vanity, and we left one light bulb each for lighting, and unscrewed the other 4 a few notches so they're there, but apart enough so they don't light up. My husband actually read an article a few months back from Time magazine suggesting this to preserve energy. He did this one night after I had gone to bed, and in the morning I thought all four of the lights went out simultaneously!

- Take shorter hot showers. It takes energy to heat up the hot water so if you can't live without hot showers- take a shorter one!

- Don't leave the fan in bathrooms on too long. I used to be guilty of this. After a hot shower, the mirrors fog and I leave the fan on and go elsewhere, coming back hours later to find my fan still on. Electricity runs these fans! I've been better about this.

- Washing clothes with full loads. I read in an article somewhere that a washing machine uses the same amount of energy to wash a full load as with a small load.

- Wash clothes with cold water, not hot. It takes energy to heat water so using cold is most economical. When I visit my relatives in Japan, their washing machines only allow cold washes and most homes don't even have dryers because it's so common to hang dry their clothes outside! (Although some do have a "dry" option (kind of like leaving the fan in the bathroom on) in their bath(tub) room to hang dry clothes on rainy days, if they must wash clothes. They do end of hang drying, but I think there's more airflow or something to allow the clothes to dry faster than simply hang drying in a stuffed up room)

- Using a clothing rack to dry clothes instead of the dryer. I have to admit, this is my least favorite for me because I do all the laundry hence I need to hang all the laundry dry. Not only is hanging every article of clothing and towel be a drag, I can't stand crisply (is that a word?) dried towels. They scratch my face and hands and I feel like they don't absorb as well. So after hang drying, I throw the towels and my husband's shirts (he can't stand the crispy shirts) into the dryer for 10 min with a fabric softener. It comes out soft enough and I don't use the dryer too much. I compromise. I also reuse the fabric softener sheets a few times since they don't get used to their potential after a single 10 minute run.

So my Electricity bill went down $19 in a month just by doing these simple things! I honestly don't know why it made this huge of a difference in my bill since I read somewhere that these things will carve a few % off your annual electricity bill. But I like the results and will continue the tedious hang drying since I don't do laundry as often (I wait until that full load!)