How do you save money around the house if you do?

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Do you keep the air up and the heat down?

Open windows like dearest Pink

Hang laundry? Wash by hand?

Keep lights off?Have LED lights? All ours are LED.

Minimize shower time to save water?

Buy generic cleaners?

Hub or you fix your own plumbing or broken appliances or car(I will include car).

What do you do? Or dont you?
 
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BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Ok i will go first.

We do the LED lights. Even tje outside motion lights are LED.

Hunb is very handy and fixes a lot of everything. If he cant we are careful about who we hire. We do research.

For car, hub knows all the car people in town and uses hos friendships and connections. This is often a big savings.

May start hanging some laundry.

Buy cheap cleaners.

I love my showers so no savings there. Hub likes long ones too.

Mostly copk at home, not much eating out.

Are thinking of buying a hybrid car for future savings. Jumper has one. Ots great to hardly ever have to fill up

Ok. Now its your turn.
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
As of current...
  • I like to buy when things are on sale
  • Hand-washing and drying dishes
  • Hang-dry laundry outside
  • Very little in the way of eating out
  • Reuse whatever I can, i.e., plastic bags, Ziploc bags, sandwich baggies, etc
  • Planned trips to town to keep fuel costs in check
  • Regulate temps in the home to maximize savings
When the kids were little...
  • Cloth diapers and rubber pants
  • Homemade baby food and formula
  • Second-hand store shopping (kids clothing, toys, etc)
  • In-family babysitting when possible
  • Hand-me-downs
  • Home-packed school lunches
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
Do you keep the air up and tje heat down? We try and keep the heat at a lower temp, both from the standpoint of savings and for comfort. Neither dear husband or I like being warm.

Open windows like dearest Pink Oh yes, open windows and doors when at all possible.

Hang laundry? Wash by hand? No washing by-hand, but line-drying, yes. All the time.

Keep lights off?Have LED lights? All ours are LED. Absolutely, leaving needless lights on in and around the home is a no-no for us.

Minimize shower time to save water? Dear husband and I, have been practicing sailor showers for forever.

Buy generic cleaners? Not so much, but do buy occasional generic goods when it comes to food related goods.

Hub or you fix your own plumbing or broken appliances or car(I will include car). Oh, yes... dear husband is a hands-on kind of guy. He fixes and repairs wherever he can.

What do you do? Or dont you? I try and maximize the use of whatever I can, reusing the likes of plastic bags, cooking from scratch, and so on. have always loved being frugal and practicing frugal living. Must find the picture of my youngest wearing diapers, with a big diaper pin sticking through the front of his rubber pants, because the elastic waistband was gone (worn-out), and instead of tossing the old pants, this frugal momma decided to pin the pants to get extra added mileage out of them!
 

ahhjeez

Active Member
I try and be thrifty and I hardly ever pay retail for clothes etc. I do a lot of thrift store shopping for my business so that has sort of bled into my own purchases for my house/self.
We keep the heat really low in the winter and shut it off entirely at night. I love a cold bedroom.
My husband is an HVAC tech so he does our heating system repairs & clean outs.
He's very handy so he fixes our plumbing, maintenance etc.
Our food bill is a total loss because he insists on going grocery shopping with me like it's a date night. He buys everything and anything so saving there is tough.
I unplug everything that I can every night to try and save on our electric bill. I even unplug the microwave when it's not in use.
In the summer when it's really hot I close all the drapes to try and help keep the house cooler.
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
I try and be thrifty and I hardly ever pay retail for clothes etc. I do a lot of thrift store shopping for my business so that has sort of bled into my own purchases for my house/self.
We keep the heat really low in the winter and shut it off entirely at night. I love a cold bedroom.
My husband is an HVAC tech so he does our heating system repairs & clean outs.
He's very handy so he fixes our plumbing, maintenance etc.
Our food bill is a total loss because he insists on going grocery shopping with me like it's a date night. He buys everything and anything so saving there is tough.
I unplug everything that I can every night to try and save on our electric bill. I even unplug the microwave when it's not in use.
In the summer when it's really hot I close all the drapes to try and help keep the house cooler.
Cold or cool air sleeping is the best.

At least you eat well! :)

Yep, our house, too... blinds/drapers always closed throughout the day, regardless of AC.
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
I definitely keep the heat down, but the cool up...can't do it. We only cool half the house at a time, with a window a/c in the living room and one in the bedroom. I do my best to stay out of the half that's not cooled.

I buy stuff on sale, Hubby is capable of fixing some things, and what he can't, we hire someone. I'm working on not overbuying food; I hate having to throw stuff out because I didn't use it quickly enough. I only run the dishwasher when it's a full load, same with laundry.

I started reviewing books to feed my reading addiction, since I get them for free, often before they've even been published. That has cut way back on my book buying obsession.

As I said in another post, for clothing and shoes, I look at cost per wear rather than initial outlay, and I'll save up for what I want. Just took one of my favorite pairs of Birks in to be rebuilt - $85. I expect I'll get another twenty years out of them.
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
I definitely keep the heat down, but the cool up...can't do it. We only cool half the house at a time, with a window a/c in the living room and one in the bedroom. I do my best to stay out of the half that's not cooled.

I buy stuff on sale, Hubby is capable of fixing some things, and what he can't, we hire someone. I'm working on not overbuying food; I hate having to throw stuff out because I didn't use it quickly enough. I only run the dishwasher when it's a full load, same with laundry.
Excellent point related to full-loads, KT. I do the same.
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
Have a budget (and stick to it).

Know what I have so that I don’t buy duplicates or things we don’t need (clothing, cleaners, food, etc.)

Don’t shop unless I need something.

Use what I have so that I don’t waste anything.

Don’t carry any household debt.

Shop the sale ads and use any discount cards, coupons, etc.
 
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