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August 26, 2005
Tightwad Living
I nearly doubled over when I opened my latest electricity bill. (OK, not really, but it was a shocker) I was expecting it to be high since we are cooling a whole house in Texas instead of an apartment in Boston. But I wasn't expecting it to be that high!
I would like to think we are more conscious than average. I'm super careful about turning out lights and the ceiling fans. We keep the thermostat set at a pretty high temperature and I turn it way up when we go out. I checked out my local utility provider's website and got a couple of tips on lowering costs: be careful about power usage during peak times when the rates are higher and using lower wattage bulbs in lamps.
So while I stopped doing laundry and running the dishwasher between 3 and 7 pm, I still wanted to do better. I decided to check out what the money-saving classic, The Complete Tightwad Gazette had to say about conserving electricity. I found that I already followed most of their tips for reducing electricity consumption, except the big one: using a clothesline. My dryer has a moisture sensor and our coffee stays warm in a carafe all day instead of on a warmer.
I also discovered that we already practice a fair amount of their other suggestions. Eric often cuts the boys's hair himself (and it shows), the boys use many of the things that could end up in the recycling bin or garbage for their "projects," and we buy a lot of food in bulk and rarely buy processed or convenience foods.
However some of the advice is a little over the top in my opinion.
Making balloon-like decorations for your child's birthday party out of brown paper bags. (balloons are really cheap)
You can use toilet paper for wrapping paper. (I'd like to see the look on the recipient of that gift)
Placing cut-down-to-size styrofoam meat trays behind your switch plates for added insulation.
Instead of using your hot water heater, you can take old plastic milk jugs, paint them black and set them out in the sun all day. By evening you will have warm enough water for a bath. (My personal favorite)*
Scraping out the remaining deodorant at the bottom of the container and storing it in a little dish. When you have done this with 3 more almost-empty containers you then microwave all of it and it will melt. Pour all of the melted deodorant into one of the empty containers and you will have half of a deodorant stick. (Does anyone else find it a little scary that deodorant melts?)*
*Found in The Tightwad Gazette II
Posted by Julee at August 26, 2005 08:11 PM
Comments
eek, i KNOW what you mean about the electricity bill..i have to keep myself from making insane noises during the summer months when i see the bill creep higher and higher like the temperature.
Posted by: letti at August 26, 2005 10:37 PM
Argh! Welcome to Texas in the summer.
I have to say that using a clothesline when the weather allows has saved us more money than I imagined. It also spares me a fair amount of ironing, which I despise doing.
We've got one of the Brabantia lines that you can take down and put away when you're not using it so it doesn't have to be on display when decent folks are over.
Good luck in your quest to cut back -- we're always looking for ways to keep the house cool without paying more.
Posted by: kcb at August 27, 2005 03:38 PM
WOW - those are some pretty crazy suggestions!!! I just HAVE to use my clothes dryer though... I think it makes the clothes nice and soft as opposed to kind of stiff and not-so-soft if air dried! I suppose our electric bill is also high as we run the A/C a lot (as do you in Texas!) ... but I cannot STAND to be hot!!!
Posted by: Lisa at August 27, 2005 08:44 PM
That's a great book. Not all of the tips are for everyone -- if you're in an apartment you can't afford the space to by a year's worth of flour. But there's something for everyone in there.
Posted by: mbhunter at August 27, 2005 09:40 PM
I concur- Texas summers are the worst for electricity bills. Cool book I'm really trying to be more of a tightwad nowadays with rising everything prices.
Posted by: EbonyMom at August 28, 2005 03:31 PM
I'll admit that we have styrofoam behind our electrical outlets on the outside walls. Granted, I did not cute them from meat trays, we actually bought them from the home improvement store. We live in a really really really old house and there was a very very noticeable draft in the winter coming from the plugs and outlets, so we just needed that "extra" insulation.
Erich also switched out all of our light bulbs to the halogen lights. They paid for themselves within 2months and ended up saving us something like $20 to $30 a month! (Erich did all the calculations, not me!)
Posted by: Suzanne at August 29, 2005 05:29 PM
Hi! I just found your site and you are cracking me up. I have only read a few posts, but they are great! Thanks for the laughs!
Posted by: Erin at October 11, 2005 10:59 PM