I tend to have cheap utility bills. This is due to a number of factors, but the biggest is that with utilities "pennies do count." By this I mean that a small savings every day will add up over the 365 days of the year. For example, if you save ten cents a day by remembering to turn off a light you’ll have an extra $36.50 to spend on something else, or save. That’s close to the earnings a minimum wage employee makes for working whole a day. Why waste a days work on a light bulb? Seems silly to me. Obviously, if you a careful you can save a lot more than ten cents a day so be "small minded" when you consider ways to save on utilities which are used every day.
Small ways you can impact your electric bill is to lower the wattage in bulbs that are used just for area lighting and get the florescent bulbs which use much less electric for the same output in lumens. Open drapes during the day to let in sunlight for illumination. Use an area light for reading rather than light a whole room. Turn off the computer monitor and the TV when not in use.
Use the sun to dry clothes in good weather and racks in the winter. For some people the largest part of their electric bill is from the clothes dryer!!! Use a solar cooker to cook on sunny days. Any crock pot recipe will work fine in one. Check out :
Solar Cooking.org
Get solar lighting for outdoor safety lighting. They have dropped greatly in price the last few years and will automatically come on when night falls.
For the truly frugal, get a solar camping lantern which charges during the day, and use it for area night lighting.
When you replace an electric hot water heater, get the tankless variety. We have one and were surprised at how much you save by not heating a re-heating the water in a tank. Check out:
SETS Electronic Tankless Water Heaters
and
EEMAX.com Tankless Water heaters
Finally, check out price differences in electric plans at comparison sites like:
LowerMyBills.com
Continue to check out the informative and inspirational free sample pages at these excellent frugal books.
Complete Tightwad Gazzette
The Complete Tightwad Gazzette
Declare Your Finanacial Independence
Declare Your Financial Independence
Complete Cheapskate
Mary Hunt's Complete Cheapskate
Miserly Moms
Miserly Moms
You Can Afford to Stay Home With your Kids
You can Afford to stay Home WIth your Kids
