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Tuesday, December 02, 2008

10 On Tuesday...Ways to Save Money

I saw this over on Carole's blog and decided to participate here:

So here some of the 10 ways I try to save money:
1. I set the thermostat on 64 when I'm not in the house or when I go to bed. It's at 68 for about 5 hours in the evening. The thermostat is right next to the plant light, so when I turn it OFF or ON, I can easily adjust the temperature. I'm pretty good about not forgetting it...
2. All flourescents...all the time. I changed the bulbs last spring...Love it! And I turn OFF the lights when I'm not in the room.
3. I pack my lunch every day. Sometimes it's soups, sometimes it's leftovers, mostly it's a sandwich, which I make while I make my breakfast in the morning. On Sundays? I put 5 cans of V-8 in the fridge, so I pull that out and 3 of my vegies are taken care of for the day! (yes, I recycle the cans and I use fabric napkins!)
4. I do not take a newspaper - I get my news from TV, NPR, and online.
5. I use the library, I don't buy books (except for knitting books).
6. I use My Coke Rewards and have gotten two free magazine subscriptions as a result of tallying my points from the Diet Coke I drink every day...(yes, I'm an addict, but since I don't have much of any other vice - unless you count fabric and yarn - I think I'm okay).
7. I trip-chain. And I drive as little as possible. My commute is less than 10 minutes and I try to stay right near my home for errands. I moved into town to make that possible.
8. When I wash my clothes, I don't run my tops (or my handknit socks) through the dryer. I hang them up to dry. Saves on the electricity to run the dryer, but it also saves the clothes. A BUNCH.
9. I wash my dishes by hand using two pans - one for soap, one for rinse. The rinse water goes on my plants.
10. I use meat as a condiment (mostly) in my cooking. Tuna casseroles, beef stews, chicken quesidillas, any kind of soup - they all rely heavily on the vegies and noodles and much less on the meat. Since I spent several years as a vegetarian, I don't mind meals without meat. At least once a week? I'm a tomato soup (yes, Campbells! it's a weakness) and grilled cheese sandwich gal...to keep the food bill under control! (it's also easy)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG! I'm a tomato soup freak too. LOVE IT.

I try to trip chain as well. Keep things lined up in one direction and go when I'm out, have a plan... it helps. My commute to take the girl to school is 15 miles a day total, so we already have more mileage on the car than I'd like. I try to pack it all into that commute if I can.

Ally Jay said...

Love your money saving tips. It makes sense not to buy things we don't need. Obviously yarn is never in the latter catergory.