Not long ago our power company was proactively offering a time-of-use pilot program. I was naïve, and didn’t spend enough time researching it before I enthusiastically signed up. I had originally thought that we would be able to cut our electricity costs, as long as I used our oven, dishwasher, and washer and dryer only during the less expensive periods throughout the day. Unfortunately, I failed to understand how the program actually worked.
Recently we have been paying a lot more than we’d like for power. So we decided to find some ways to cut down our electricity costs. Here’s what we found.
Washing your clothes
Pick permanent press – this dryer setting generally uses the least amount of energy and it’s also easier on your clothes.
Operate your clothes dryer with full loads.
Run dryer on automatic cycles – use an automatic cycle as over-drying wastes energy and damages your clothes.
This past spring was the first time we ever had chickens in our back yard. I had ordered 5 one-day old laying hen chicks, but when I went to pick them up, I was told the order fell through for some reason. We still wanted chickens, so we ended up going to a local neighborhood where a family was selling chicks. However, there was no guarantee that we would be getting any laying hens. The chicks were absolutely adorable. We picked out a speckled one, a black one, a brown one, a yellow one, and a grey one.
If you have a fixed rate mortgage, your lender most likely provides options that will allow you to pay off your mortgage faster without being penalized. By doing so, you will be able to significantly reduce the amount of interest you have to pay, and you will be mortgage free much sooner. What follows is a quick discussion on some of the most common options.
Shopping at second-hand stores, also referred to as thrift stores, can save you a lot of money. Especially these days with high inflation, your hard-earned money doesn’t go as far as it used to. Everyone is looking for ways to save money and provide for their family. Below is some food for thought – some pros and cons of shopping at thrift stores.
Pros of shopping at thrift stores:
It saves you money.
You can save a lot of money on items such as clothing, kitchenware, toys, DVDs, and much more. Most thrift stores sell donated items so they don’t have to charge sales tax. Where we live, sales tax is very high, so not having to pay sales tax saves us a lot of money.