Saving Tips
By snowflake5
@snowflake5 (1579)
United States
13 responses
@zack_3004 (1207)
• Malaysia
9 Jan 07
I used to wash my dishes with liquid soap, and since I wash a lot of dishes everyday, I have decided to try something new that works great! There is this soap, that is called Lido. It comes in two colors, white and pink. Most people think that it's just for laundry, but it's not. So what I do, and thanks to the help of baking soda, I wash my dishes, save money and in the end i have a sparkling clean load of dishes. When washing the dishes, I use the pink soap bar, rub my sponge across it a couple of times, and then I take some baking soda, rub that on the sponge as well, and it makes for beautifully clean dishes that are squeaky clean, no grease stains, or greasy feeling. And it even helps my sink stay white while I'm washing my dishes. Just remember to use the pink colored Lido soap, to put the baking soda in a glass or plastic container and you are off to saving a ton of money. I saved over $50 just this year that passed by using this method!
@snowflake5 (1579)
• United States
9 Jan 07
Baking powder used to be used a lot in the 1940's and earlier. I had not heard of Lido though.
1 person likes this
@rainbow (6761)
•
10 Jan 07
Turn lights off when you leave the room
Turn your heating down 1 degree
Switch off plug sockests and remove the plug, enen swithched off they use power if the plug is in there
Turn your washer down 10 degrees
Get a copy of 1001little ways to save our planet by Esme Floyd it has some very good ideas on recycling, reducing use of detergents and chemicals, recycling, cleaning etc.
Fantastic little book that lives in my kitchen so I can add a new saving each week.
3 people like this
@snowflake5 (1579)
• United States
10 Jan 07
Switching stuff off at the plug instead of leaving it on standby is a very good idea. Standby on your TV for instance uses as much power as when the TV is on.
1 person likes this
@mythmoh (3984)
• United States
10 Jan 07
dont ever switch of the heater/cooler once for all.though you leave the house for vacation,dont switch it off.keep it in very low temperature.because i switched off when i was going for vacation and when i came back i switched on and for that month i got a huge electricity bill.i asked the concern authority regarding this.they told that it will take long time to come back to the temperature fixed when it has been completely switched off.so will take lot of electricity.
2 people like this
@snowflake5 (1579)
• United States
11 Jan 07
Good point. It often costs less to maintain a certain heat,than to get there from scratch.
1 person likes this
@vivasuzi (4127)
• United States
9 Jan 07
Good tip! We save on heat bills by shutting all the vents in our basement since we are hardly down there. This saves from heating the whole empty space! Plus, we shut doors to room that don't need heat and turn the vents off in there also. This means that only the rooms that need heat will get heated.
Don't turn everything on at once - we had an energy guy come to our job once and discussed how some plants were losing money on energy b/c they would all start up their machines and tools right at 8am. This caused a huge spike in the electricity usage, so when their bill came, it would average in that huge spike. So instead, they changed the schedule so a third of the people started at 730, and another third at 830.
I take the same philosophy home with me. When I walk in the door after being out all day, I just turn on a few things at first. Than after it's been 10-20 minutes, I'll flick on something else I need. It seems to make sense so I keep doing it :)
Oh and lastely,
3 people like this
@snowflake5 (1579)
• United States
9 Jan 07
Thanks for that. You are right - most people tend to turn everything on at once.
1 person likes this
@blueskies (1186)
• United States
11 Jan 07
In order to save on our heating bill, we have placed a sign on our front door asking people to use the side door. The front door is in the same room as the thermostat, so every time someone opened that door, the heat would kick on.
We also keep the heat at 65 all the time. An extra blanket and night and a sweater during the day keep us all comfy.
One other way we save heat is by using our electric dryer. I purchased a filter that fits on the dryer's exhaust hose. This filter blows the heat from the dryer into the house. This helps to increase the humidity in our home, as well as helping the furnace to run less. We are paying to heat the air anyway, to dry our clothes, so why not keep it in the house to keep us warm instead of blowing it all outside?
@snowflake5 (1579)
• United States
12 Jan 07
I agree that turning down the heatinga and wearing sweaters and socks is a good idea.
1 person likes this
@butterflygirl (498)
•
13 Jan 07
We have just had loft insulation fitted in our house and it definately makes a huge difference, before we put it in the upstairs of our house was always cold and now it feels warmer than it does downstairs.
We also make sure that the tv is turned off and not left on stanby as well as turning all plugs off at the wall.
@pinktulips (549)
• Pakistan
11 Jan 07
thanks for your tip...:)
are u talking abt flourescent incandesent bulbs? (i hope i spelled that right:D)
@tahiyya123456 (534)
• United States
10 Jan 07
Well i buy from the thrift store and i also shop at $1 stores . you can be surprised at some of the items you can get from the dollar store just be careful try to look for what you need and run out real quick because it is tempting to rack up sort of speak and that will put you in trouble.
1 person likes this
@snowflake5 (1579)
• United States
11 Jan 07
True, it's amazing what you can find in penny shops.
1 person likes this
@faylinn_chaeli (1619)
• Philippines
16 Jan 07
For the saving tips, always timer your aircon everytime you open it so that when it is already cold you can easily turn it of. That way you will conserve electricity.
@winter_man (407)
• Malaysia
10 Jan 07
As for me,I love savings. Every month I'll keep in my mind that I must put aside my money at least 10% from what I earned for that month. Let say,this month my income is $500,so I will put aside $50 first in my investment account. The keywords to be a good saver is CONSISTENT. So,as for me, I never failed even one time to put aside at least 10% from my income each month for the last 4 years. =) Its all about your mind setting and aim.
@snowflake5 (1579)
• United States
10 Jan 07
Yes, putting aside money each month is also important.
1 person likes this
@dmillman (2273)
• United States
11 Jan 07
I have MANY ways to help you save. Go to http://thrifty.lifetips.com and chek it out. I used to be the Thrifty Guru there and most of the tips are still mine. There are articles too that you may want to check out. Here's a list of categories that I put there:
Automobile
Babies
Children
Crafts, Projects and Supplies
Entertainment/Recreation
Finances
Food
Freebies
Getting Started
Healthcare
Household
Miscellaneouse Information
Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle
Shopping
Special Events
Weddings
I put a lot of good stuff there. I'd still be doing it if they didn't change their set-up. They now charge the Gurus a monthly fee to be a guru. It's not like you make too much money. I'd end up losing money in the end, so it just wasn't worth it for me.
Take a look and tell me what you think!
@dmillman (2273)
• United States
12 Jan 07
I have thought about it, but my life is way too busy right now. I'd probably focus more on the reduce, re-use, recycle part of it, as that's important to me. I do everything that I can to keep as much junk out of the landfills as possible.
@trouble4u2avoid (2915)
• United States
19 Jan 07
I adjusted the setting on my hot water heater. I did not realize (should have known) that it works the same as the heating/ac, if it's set too high, it will keep turning on to keep the water heated. Do I really need super HOT water all day long?
1 person likes this
@snowflake5 (1579)
• United States
19 Jan 07
Yes, good point. My water heater is gas-powered, so I switch it on just before I have a bath, otherwise it's off.
@trouble4u2avoid (2915)
• United States
19 Jan 07
Duh, I should do that or do you think it costs more to hit it up if its been sitting all day? I have an electric water heater?
@snowflake5 (1579)
• United States
20 Jan 07
Gas heaters work differently to electric heaters.
With electric heaters you have a great storage facility with an electric element in it, - it's like a giant kettle - so it takes a while to heat up, and hence the setting is really important, and leaving it on at the correct setting means that once it gets to the right temperature, it just needs a little more power to maintain the heat. So you are doing the right thing to focus on the setting.
With gas heaters, there is no storage, the water passes through a pipe that is heated and you use the heated water immediately - it's the same principle of turning the heat on under a pan.
I did used to have electric storage heating, but switched to gas-central heating with a combi-boiler, as described above. Housebuilders tend to like electric heating as it is cheaper for them to instal the units. For the householder though, I found it was more expensive running the electric system, and I always felt cold, so I coughed up to get the gas system installed, which I find works better for me.
