Sunday, September 18, 2011

Saving Money on Utilities

For the first time in our married life, my husband and I are living in an apartment where we are responsible for all the utilities.  Assuming we keep things under control, we should be paying nearly $100 less to live here than we did at our previous apartment. 

Here are a few things I am doing.

First of all, I bought this tripod-style clothes dryer to dry clothes.  It was reasonable, and since I used my Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks, it was $10 cheaper.  I don't use it as often as I'd like because right now it's only useful for shirts.  I've not tried blue jeans on it, assuming they will take too long, and what's a load of blue jeans every so often.  Also I've not used it yet for small items, but this weekend I am getting a package of clothes pins.  They are cheap and will be well worth the electricity savings.

Next, we are being more aware of the electricity we use in a day.  The lights are out when we aren't in a room, and when I'm home by myself, unless I'm reading or something similar, I tend to leave the lights off during daylight hours.  The air conditioners (almost) always are turned off when we leave.  The printer, computer monitor and speakers are turned off when we're not using them.  The computer itself isn't shut off as often, but much more than it used to be.  All of our TV items (TV, Blu-Ray, Roku) are plugged into a power strip, and we shut the whole thing down when we aren't using it.  I thought about doing that with the computer, but the wireless is connected and it takes so long to boot back up, and we use the internet connection pretty regularly, with the computer, iPhones, and Blu-Ray. 

The gas bill is not much seeing as it is winter, but one thing I am looking into is instead of buying a whole uncooked chicken from the grocery store, I'm going to price the cooked chickens from the deli and if the are close in price, not only does it save me a bit from not having to cook it, I also save the two hours and some that it takes to bake.  Sounds like a win/win situation to me! 

The water bill is difficult.  When we got our most recent bill, I looked it over very carefully.  Most of the bill was for trash pickup and sewage.  There was a $10 minimum water charge, and above that, we had a charge of about $5.00.  Any amount we would be able to get it lower, would be pretty negligible.  That being said, we certainly don't want to let it get any higher.  Probably the place where I waste water the most is doing dishes.  While looking for a way to make homemade dish soap (still looking for a good one), I found these instructions on how to conserve water while doing dishes.  It sounds pretty common sense, but I wasn't doing it so maybe you aren't either!

That's all I have for now.  Help me out and let me know your best tips for saving on utilities!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Chicken Chicken and More Chicken

If you're like me, my best coupon deals are not on food.  That means great prices on toothpaste and shampoo, but what about the food you put on the table every day?  Recently, I've tried to focus a little more on getting that grocery bill down.

Keep in mind that I am currently only shopping for two.  Don't use my numbers for your family of four or six!

The last two times I've been grocery shopping, I have been able to get my total near $50.00.  One week was $55, and another was about $60.  My shopping trips before were closer to $100, and often over.  The last couple of weeks I haven't had to buy many household products or bath products (thanks to my stockpile!) so that has helped keep my total down.  This week will be higher because I'm getting a few out of the ordinary items, but I hope that it will still be lower than normal.

What I've been doing:  The biggest thing is that I'm PLANNING!  Simply choosing the recipes you are going to cook for the week or two weeks between shopping trips makes such a difference!  I've found a free recipe organizer online called ReLiSImple that can sync across multiple computers if you have more than one.  There is also an iPhone app, but you have to pay to download it.  Besides storing your favorite recipes, there is also an integrated shopping list so you don't forget anything.

The other important thing I am doing is planning meals for the week that have similar ingredients.  My favorite way to do this is to use multiple recipes that use either cut up chicken or browned ground beef.  I buy a whole chicken or a 5 pound roll of hamburger, and when I get home I cook all of it right away and then separate it into the portions I will need throughout the week.  This website teaches you how to boil ground beef so you don't have to brown the whole roll of beef and suffer the grease popping on your arms!

I've also been cutting up all my vegetables (onions, bell peppers zucchini YUM!) right after my shopping trip.  This isn't a money-saving tip, but it sure saves some time when I get home from work each night.  Cooking is a lot less trouble when the meat is cooked and the veggies are ready to toss in the pan.

The last tip is something that shouldn't be new to you as a couponer.  Check the grocery ads!  If zucchini is at a rock-bottom price this week, start looking for recipes that use zucchini.  Research which vegetables freeze well and if you find a really great deal, you can freeze what you won't use right away.


Go check out the Facebook page for one of my recent favorite frugal recipes and post your own recipes or tips for frugal cooking!