It seems these days that everybody is always talking to somebody, either on a cell phone, or at home on the phone. Let's take a look at ways to save money on our telephones.
First off, let's take a look at cell phones. Cell phones are truly handy to have in an emergency, but do we really NEED them? Everyone has a different answer for this one. For me, it's a no. After having one for years, I decided I didn't really NEED one and let it go. This saved me $100 per month right away! I did get a prepaid Net10 phone when I was clearing our land for our new house to ease my wife's mind(and mine) just in case I cut my arm off or something. Now, I don't even spend the $30 every 2 months on that. There is still more to be saved on phones, but how do you ask?
Our HOME phones! Yes, there is quite a bit of money to be saved on our home phones. There are many good options out there now for VOIP's, or voice over internet protocols. It all started with Vonage and their Woo! Hoo! song, but it's gone so much farther. I had Vonage for a couple of years and I really did like the service, but I wanted to go even less than the $24.95 per month that they charge. Enter Skype ! Skype is a free Pc to Pc voip that let's you talk to other Skype users on their computer from your computer. It works great and it's crystal clear, BUT... you have to pay extra for a phone number if you want land lines to be able to call you. You can also call landlines, but you have to pay extra for that. By the time you're done, you might as well have a landline. I found something that fixes these problems and is even CHEAPER! It's called MagicJack, and what a little miracle this box is. You plug MagicJack into your computer and plug your phone into it, and for $19.95/year...not month, YEAR, you can call anywhere in the USA for free. Buy 5 years at a time and it's even cheaper. I have 5 years of phone service prepaid with MagicJack for only $69.95. I have fired my phone company! The only thing I don't care for with MagicJack is that it won't let my computer go into sleep mode, but in the long run I think it saves me more than my computer going to sleep would save in electricity usage.
So, my communications bills have gone from $130/mo.($100 cell and about $30 landline/mo.) to about $14/ year with MagicJack. That's a savings of over $125/ mo!!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Money Saving Idea #2: Electricity Savings
The household's biggest utility is probably electricity. This is especially true for rural areas that have an electric co-op as they have higher rates than electric companies in city limits. Let's look at some ways to slow that meter down!
The biggest thing you can do in either summer or winter to cut your electricity consumption is to take a look at your thermostat setting. For energy savings in the summer, set your thermostat to 74 or 75 when you are home and turn it OFF before going to work. You can also install a thermostat with a timer to turn it on an hour before you get home so you don't come in to a hot house. In the winter, Set your thermostat to 67 or 68 degrees and lower it to 60 or so before leaving for work. You'll be surprised how much this small action can save you on your bill. Besides, if no one is home, why keep the house warm? Also, if you have an old round dial type thermostat, it might be worth your while and $20 to get a new, more accurate digital thermostat. An innacurate thermostat can actually cost you more if it is off by 2 or 3 degrees!
Another thing you can do to save electricity is change your light bulbs. After changing all my light bulbs to compact fluorescent light bulbs, I noticed a dramatic decrease in my next bill. It was almost $20 less than usual with no other change. For even more savings, use LED bulbs in lamps and other "focused" lighting. I say this because LED's will disappoint you if you try to light a room with them. They are bright, but they are very directional lights. Think beam of light as opposed to glow of light. Nonetheless, if you have a lamp to use them in that aims down, they can save you even more as they use less than 1 watt of electricity.
A basic practice that everyone needs to do is lower the temperature settings on their refrigerators to a cold enough setting(do we really need slushy milk?) and lower water heaters to 110 to 115 degrees. While we're on appliances: use cold water in the washing machine and only dry clothes until they are dry then take them out.
Also, you can trade your porch light for a motion sensing unit that will only come on when you need it, or if someone is in your yard, LOL.
Keep windows closed and blinds drawn when cooling your house. Sunlight does in fact heat the air inside your house through your windows!
Turn off the lights EVERY time you leave a room.
Set your computer(s) to sleep after 30 mins. idle time and turn them off at night. Same goes for televisions.
Unplug, computers, TV's, DVD players, etc. when not in use. Electronics draw a "phantom" load even when turned off. Unplugging them remedies this problem.
I could go on, but basically, anything that makes heat is going to run up your electricity bill. Use it conservatively and it will show on your bill. You don't even have to apply all of these tips at once. Just try some of them and see what happens!
The biggest thing you can do in either summer or winter to cut your electricity consumption is to take a look at your thermostat setting. For energy savings in the summer, set your thermostat to 74 or 75 when you are home and turn it OFF before going to work. You can also install a thermostat with a timer to turn it on an hour before you get home so you don't come in to a hot house. In the winter, Set your thermostat to 67 or 68 degrees and lower it to 60 or so before leaving for work. You'll be surprised how much this small action can save you on your bill. Besides, if no one is home, why keep the house warm? Also, if you have an old round dial type thermostat, it might be worth your while and $20 to get a new, more accurate digital thermostat. An innacurate thermostat can actually cost you more if it is off by 2 or 3 degrees!
Another thing you can do to save electricity is change your light bulbs. After changing all my light bulbs to compact fluorescent light bulbs, I noticed a dramatic decrease in my next bill. It was almost $20 less than usual with no other change. For even more savings, use LED bulbs in lamps and other "focused" lighting. I say this because LED's will disappoint you if you try to light a room with them. They are bright, but they are very directional lights. Think beam of light as opposed to glow of light. Nonetheless, if you have a lamp to use them in that aims down, they can save you even more as they use less than 1 watt of electricity.
A basic practice that everyone needs to do is lower the temperature settings on their refrigerators to a cold enough setting(do we really need slushy milk?) and lower water heaters to 110 to 115 degrees. While we're on appliances: use cold water in the washing machine and only dry clothes until they are dry then take them out.
Also, you can trade your porch light for a motion sensing unit that will only come on when you need it, or if someone is in your yard, LOL.
Keep windows closed and blinds drawn when cooling your house. Sunlight does in fact heat the air inside your house through your windows!
Turn off the lights EVERY time you leave a room.
Set your computer(s) to sleep after 30 mins. idle time and turn them off at night. Same goes for televisions.
Unplug, computers, TV's, DVD players, etc. when not in use. Electronics draw a "phantom" load even when turned off. Unplugging them remedies this problem.
I could go on, but basically, anything that makes heat is going to run up your electricity bill. Use it conservatively and it will show on your bill. You don't even have to apply all of these tips at once. Just try some of them and see what happens!
Money Saving Idea #1: Stop Buying Cigarettes
I don't know about your local prices, but in my "neck of the woods" cigarettes are a huge expense for many local families. I know my family alone was wasting over $360 per month on our smoking habit! Cutting back, quitting or finding an alternative to cigarettes can save the average American Family HEAPS of money. Let's break it down: A pack of cigarettes is on average, $5 per pack. If you smoke one pack per day, you will smoke over $150 PER MONTH!! Chances are if you're smoking, you're spouse smokes too, so double it. Now you're burning up $300 per month! So cutting this out will pretty much buy you a new car. If you can't quit or at least cut back, let me shamelessly plug my other blog: All the Best Electronic Cigarettes and Reviews Here you can learn about the electronic cigarette, it's ups and downs, and how it can save you hundreds of dollars every month as a smoking alternative! My wife and I use one and instead of $360 per month, our nicotine now costs us about $15 per month.... for both of us, not each!
So, look into quitting cigarettes or finding an alternative and you can save a ton each month.
So, look into quitting cigarettes or finding an alternative and you can save a ton each month.
Money Saving Idea: Introduction
In these tough economic times it is more necessary than ever to try to save money wherever and whenever possible. This blog's purpose is to hopefully help other families such as my own to find new ways to save money in our everyday lives. The ideas I would like to present in the coming posts will be ways to save money on food, transportation, entertainment, communications, and just about anything pertaining to our everyday lives. I hope you find something here that perhaps you hadn't thought of to put a little more "green" in your pocket!
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