Being energy efficient is great for the environment, but it’s also wonderful for your wallet. One of the best ways to start your frugal living life is by cutting out some of the excess spending in your life. And we all use way too much electricity. Luckily, we can easily reduce the waste by using simple tricks. With a little investigation and a few simple fixes, you can reduce your environmental footprint and reduce your electric bill at the same time.
- Save money by keeping your window blinds, shades and curtains closed. During the winter, you can prevent the cold air from seeping into your home, so you reduce the amount of energy it takes to reheat your house. In the summer, you can prevent the hot sun from making it too hot indoors, so you reduce the amount of air conditioning that you need.
- During the hot months, use a crockpot to cook your meals. It cooks foods slowly and it doesn’t heat your house, so you won’t have to pump up your air conditioning. Likewise, you should use your oven to make baked meals in the winter, since you can heat the house and cook your meal at the same time.
- Microwave everything. And, if you can’t cook your food in the microwave, try using the toaster oven. Both use a lot less electricity than your kitchen oven, so you’ll save money every time you use it.
- When you cook meals in the oven, double your recipe. Instead of roasting one chicken, roast two and use the second for chicken salad or cold cuts. When you make meat loaf, make two or three batches, so you can freeze the rest. Then, when you are too busy to cook, you can simply pull it out of the freezer and you have a quick meal in minutes.
- Whenever possible, wash your clothes in cool water instead of hot water. Warming the water in your hot water heater requires extra electricity, so using cool water reduces the excess spending. Remember, though, that there are times that you will need to use hot water. Just choose wisely.
- Also choose when to hang your clothes dry. Electric dryers require a lot of electricity, and you can significantly reduce your electric bill by hanging clothes dry. If you are not allowed to have a clothes line in your neighborhood, try drying your clothes on your deck, or try an indoor drying rack.
- Have your air conditioning and heating unit checked yearly. When your unit is operating correctly and is clean, you will save money since it is operating efficiently. In really hot weather, use your hose to spray cool water on the unit. It helps it run more effectively.
And here’s an extra tip, just for the fun of it:
- Add extra insulation. We have saved a lot of money by spending some cash on insulation. We added some lightweight insulation to the inside of our garage door. We also purchased special insulation that was blown into the garage ceiling and all of the walls, as well as the walls in the room above the garage. While we had plenty of insulation in the attic, not everyone is as lucky. These extra steps have helped us lower our electric bills for years.
