Category: Budgeting

By John

Most of us are concerned at the size of our utilities bill, and the amount we have to pay for electricity, and would love to pay less. Readers often ask us questions such as “Do dimmer switches save electricity?” or “How do you save money on electricity?” The truth is that simple steps and precautions can save electricity — lots of it.

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You can very easily cut the size of your electricity bill considerably using any or all of these strategies:

• Investing in new appliances that are more economical with electric energy
• Making more efficient use of the energy your household consumes
• Adopting economical habits

Spend to save electricity

The top energy-guzzlers in most homes are heating, cooling and lighting. Technological advances produce increasingly efficient appliances which will recoup the cost of their purchase in a few years or less through the savings in your electricity bill.

For instance, central heating is comfortable and convenient — and expensive too. Do you really need heating in rooms you seldom use? A space heater may set you back $100 but will have paid for itself within a matter of months. You only need enough space heaters for areas that actually need to be heated. Do the math and you can see the enormous savings that can be achieved.

Central air-conditioning is a similar case. In some parts of the country air-conditioning can account for more than 50% of the summer electricity bill. Again, you should ask yourself the same question: Do you really need the whole house to be uniformly cooled? On the same energy used by a central air-conditioning system you could run up to seven small window units or four medium units, and have the flexibility to control when and which rooms are cooled.

Lighting is the third-biggest energy user. You can cut the amount you spend on lighting by nearly 75% right now by exchanging your old incandescent light bulbs for new Compact Fluorescent Lamps costing maybe $2 to $3 each.

New models of other appliances you use at home will reward you with savings — refrigerator, washing machine (a front-loader is more economical than a top-loader, and uses only one-third of the water), dishwasher, water heater. You should look for Energy Star-rated appliances if available.

 

Make it more efficient

Staying with the top energy-guzzlers, you can achieve significant electric energy savings by reducing leakage. Doors, windows and other cracks should be sealed — an HVAC inspection will help to identify where leakage is occurring. You should certainly consider insulating your roof if it is not already done. Your water heater and the first few feet of piping should be insulated. Appliances should be regularly cleaned to ensure they operate at their optimum efficiency — condenser coils, filters wherever fitted, in the pool pump and washing machine for instance.

Change your habits — be economical

There are numerous ways to cut back on wasteful use of electric energy and save electricity and money on your electricity bill. They do require conscientious effort in order to become routine. Here are the Top Ten:

1. Turn off lights when you leave a room.
2. Turn off equipment when not using it, don’t leave it on standby.
3. Unplug all equipment or use power strips when going away, as items like cellphone chargers and microwaves may still consume electricity when switched off.
4. Use thermostats to control heating and cooling when you are away from home, and time switches or motion sensors to control outdoor lighting.
5. Decide what you want from the refrigerator before opening the door.
6. Cool hot food before putting it in the refrigerator.
7. 7.      Defrost food before cooking.
8. Put full loads in the dishwasher and washing machine.
9. Use cold water for laundry when possible — 90% of the power used by a washing machine goes just to heat the water!
10. Line-dry your laundry whenever possible.

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By John

The average American adult spends upto $150 per month on grocery bills alone, and in some cases per person. If you are that American adult, would you prefer to cut your monthly food bill  in half without sacrificing quality? No-brainer: of course you would and here’s how you can…..

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Before going anywhere near the store

Make a budget

• Know what you are already used to spending
• Cut that to the level you want to achieve and set that as the budget
• Plan your menus for at least the next week
• Research recipes that use less meat — in the US, the average scale is one pound of meat for three to five people, in Oriental dishes it stretches to seven to eight people or more
• Plan to do at least a week’s worth of shopping in one trip –  save trips, save money
• Make a shopping list of your needs that fits with the budget you have just set — smartphone apps can make this a breeze, and keep a tally of item prices at different stores if you have the patience to input the data
• Have a meal before going to the store (no impulse-buying to satisfy those hunger pangs)
• Leave the kids and spouse at home — they will wreck your budget if they tag along
• Get to know which stores consistently have competitive prices for the items you need. Bigger stores may have better prices because of their higher volumes

To coupon-clip or not?

It takes a lot of effort to search for all the deals available, but avid coupon-clippers report saving $50 or more per month on their grocery bills. Just make sure the coupons are for things you actually need, otherwise you’re in fact spending more on grocery bills and not saving at all.

At the store, canny shopping can make you big savings in your grocery bill

Do’s

• Do get a store card for discounts
• Do buy generic brands, especially fruit and vegetables and staples — they taste the same as name brands and don’t wreck your monthly food bill as much
• Do check the discount bins
• Do compare unit prices, not just packet prices
• Do buy big, in bulk if possible — certainly not individual portions
• Do look high and low on the shelves — the more expensive items are normally placed at eye level
• Do buy in-season produce
• Do buy frozen items unless fresh is important to you — they can be just as tasty and are a lot cheaper
• Do buy a stock of non-perishable items on sale
• Do watch for good deals after Thanksgiving. Good time to stock up and fill the freezer
• Do watch the register ticking up at the checkout, and check your receipt. Sometimes the shelf price of sale items may not register correctly, and checkers can sometimes make mistakes

Don’ts

• Don’t buy non-food items at the grocery store — they are probably cheaper elsewhere
• Don’t necessarily buy your meats at the grocery store — you will possibly get better choices and prices at a Farmer’s Market, or a deli, or from a farmer. Try to buy big and cut it up at home
• Don’t buy bottled water unless it is really important to you
• Don’t buy prepared and convenience foods – prepare them yourself
• Don’t buy items beside the checkout counter

And a last word on impulse-buying. Do you want it or need it? If you need it, it should be on the list. If it’s not on the list you don’t need it! Stick with the plan!

We hope you liked our article “Grocery Bills: How To Cut Your Monthly Food Bill In Half”. If so, please let us know your comments below.

Click here to compare offers and save hundreds of dollars every month on credit cards, cell phones, Internet, shopping, and more. Use our free comparison tools.

Taking care of a household and budgeting its monthly expenses is not a joke. Every homemaker has gone through the pangs and pains involved in making ends meet and this has now become a very common issue, thanks to the current economic conditions and escalating costs.

Irrespective of our economic status, most of us are wondering how to cut an household budget and associated costs. So here are some useful suggestions that can be put into use.

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Use store brands

We have become accustomed to using branded products and have somehow developed a mentality that they are the best and the only choice when it comes to buying groceries. Well that is not entirely true. Nowadays, stores are coming out with their own product line of groceries. These are quite good in terms of quality and are much cheaper than branded products.

Switching to store products can save anywhere between 30% to 35 % of your current grocery bill. If you are concerned about quality, do check out reviews of store brands before purchasing them.

Stick to a shopping list

It is very easy to pile up items on your shopping cart when you visit a shopping mall. Maybe the sight of others buying those things gets you into shopping more. Doing so can only inflate your shopping bill and most of the times you will regret having bought those items as soon as you reach home.

If you prepare a shopping list and then discipline yourself to stick to it, you can save yourself the trouble of future remorse and also take off a few dollars from your shopping bill each time you use a list. This is a highly effective strategy to cut an average household budget by double digits.

Stock some quick snacks

The more time we spend outside our homes, the more we are tempted to spend on eatables. Convenience stores, fast food restaurants, and vending machines are all easy sources to access food on the go. But spending money on buying food is a sheer waste and quickly adds up to a considerable amount when you spend lots of time outside on a regular basis.

A good and healthy alternative is to carry some homemade food (a sandwich or some homemade cookies) and a water bottle every time you step out of your home. This ensures that you do not eat unhealthy stuff and also helps with saving money that would have been otherwise spent toward buying wholesome food.

Save money during sales and discount offers

There is a sale or discount offer going around at some corner or the other. You only need to look closely to find one. It is recommended that you stock up on regularly used household items during these sale and discount offers. While you may not be able to stock up a lot on food and edibles during such offers, you definitely can stock up on other stuff like detergents, soaps, toothpaste and so on.

When you add up the savings that you have managed to gain by combining two or three or all of these tips, you will see a considerable savings gain in your monthly household costs.

Click here to compare multiple offers and save on your household budget. Save hundreds of dollars every month. Find out how.

We are all hooked to online shopping nowadays. With each passing day, more and more people are shifting their shopping from the regular and tried offline and traditional methods towards the Internet. This information also brings an important fact to our attention that we need to find ways to save money on our online shopping because that way we will be saving a considerable amount.

Check out price comparison sites

Yes, DontSpendMore.com is a great price comparison site where you can compare offers and save hundreds of dollars every month. Click here to get started.

There are many other websites online that take advantage of the basic human desire to find a better deal. These sites know how desperate online consumers are to find cheaper prices and better discounts or bonus offers.

True to the description, these sites display price rates for every consumer item from the top five or top ten shopping sites. So if you are interested in buying a vacuum cleaner for example, you only have to look up the site to find the prices of the same brand/same capacity of vacuum cleaners displayed side by side for you to review.

You can get an instant idea about the prices at all five/ten sites by looking at the listing and you do not have to take the trouble/spend time and effort in checking each shopping site independently. It is now up to you to select the site that provides you with the maximum savings.

Get your daily dose of deals

Some popular websites, including DontSpendMore.com, display all the deals from various brands and companies. You can check out these websites and take advantage of the deals on the product that you are interested in buying. Finding a deal for the product or service that you have in mind may not always be possible, but it is still worth a try. More popular the website, more are the chances of finding deals for all commonly used products.

Use Google for personalized deals

A simple search on Google can lead the way to fabulous discount deals and coupons. If you could not find any deals on your favorite product on the websites mentioned in the above section, then you can search for them on Google.

Just type in the name of your product followed by the term coupon or discount or deals (you can choose a different term each time you search) and if there is any mention of related deals or discounts, Google will ensure that they are displayed to your in your search results. What more could you ask for in terms of personalized search results?

Become loyal fans of your favorite brands

Social media sites nowadays have a huge share in helping you save money online. You could start following your favorite brand/product on Twitter or become their fan on their Facebook page and you can be assured of getting many a discounted deal from them. Usually the current trend is to keep fans happy and loyal by presenting them with various discounts and deals and savings. DontSpendMore.com has its own Facebook page at facebook.com/dontspendmore. Like us to receive daily updates and deals.

These are many ways to save money online and you can choose the best one out of them that suits your preferences.

By Dr. Kavita

If there is something more electrifying than electricity, then it has to be the power bill that arrives each month. Power has become so costly, that people would give anything in exchange for information on how to save power and thus money on electric bills.

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Here are some effective tips that can go a long way in cutting back your power bills:

Avoid wastage

We all have to pay for what we use, but paying for wasted electricity is simply moronic. Taking a little time and effort to switch off all the lights, fans, television, and any other electrical gadget that is not in use at the time will ensure that you save some money in the long run.

Another mistake that we all are guilty of making is that we tend to use our remotes to switch off our electrical gadgets. But this only sends the gadgets to stand-by mode and they are still consuming some electricity (albeit lower amounts) to stay in that mode.

Instead of wasting electricity and then paying for the wasted power, it is better to avoid wastage in the first place.

It is time to change your bulbs

We all have become accustomed to using incandescent bulbs for the past few decades. But little do we realize that these bulbs have been sucking power and inflating our monthly electric bills. It is better to change to CFL (Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs) at the earliest.

But before you start using these CFLs, please bear in mind that they contain mercury within them. So it is recommended that you handle them and dispose them (after they break) with utmost care. These CFLs are best used when you anticipate prolonged use of light bulbs, for example in the kitchen or maybe in the bathroom.

If you use them where you are going to switch off the bulb within five minutes of putting them on, it is better to use your incandescent bulbs, because CFLs typically take up a lot of electricity while being switched on and then again when being switched off. So unless the duration of usage is going to be long (1-6 hours) do not even bother.

Don’t be lazy when it comes to maintenance work

Majority of us delay or put off the cleaning and maintenance work that most of our commonly used electrical gadgets demand from us. For example, our freezers usually accumulate a pile of ice before we bother ourselves to defrost and clear it away. But such acts of laziness can only increase your electricity bill. Never allow the ice to pile up more than a quarter of an inch in your freezers.

Never allow dust to accumulate on the coils of your refrigerator. Clean it regularly.

Buy energy efficient gadgets

Nowadays electrical gadgets come with an energy star marking / rating. Try to buy only those electrical gadgets that have between 5 and 7 energy stars and CEE III ratings.

You may need to use one / two different tips mentioned here or maybe combine all four tips to get effective results.

We hope you found our article “Save Power: How To Save Money On Your Electric Bill” useful. If so, please let us know in the comments.

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When you travel, you often hear well wishers, friends and many a times airline company too advising you to travel light, claiming that less is more. But when it comes to saving money, more automatically becomes less. No matter how much you save, you always look forward to saving more — and then some more.

If you too are of such a mentality, then this is the best post you will ever read on saving more money, for the simple reason that all the changes / tips suggested here are simple and easy to implement.

Start with your kitchen

Food is one of the basic requirements of human beings and a great leveler when it comes to the financial status of people. No matter how rich or how poor you are, you need food to survive. So why not start from this basic requirement to save some money? If you have the least knowledge about monthly household budgeting, you will know that the most expensive items are all the non-vegetarian food stuffs.

Try switching to vegetarian food for a change. If you find it tough to eat vegetarian every day, then you can use it only four times a week. This simple change in your daily menu is going to show a considerable amount of savings in your household expenses for the month. Health first, so if you feel that the new menu choices are not giving you as much nutrition don’t continue. It may be a good idea to consult a nutrition expert before redesigning your food plan.

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Save money on your electricity bill

If there is anything more expensive than food, yet used by a huge majority of the population, then it has to be electricity. This means that even a little effort put into saving electricity can translate into big savings, especially if you add up the savings every month.

Use energy-efficient electrical gadgets, change to CFL bulbs and shut down the devices that are not in use by switching off power to the main electrical cord.  All these steps can help you save valuable resources every month.

Buy in bulk

Buying in bulk is a good idea if you like to save money. But make sure that you time your bulk shopping when your favorite store or mall is feeling generous and giving out discounts and savings deals.

Keep collecting coupons

You never know when you will come across shopping coupons offering discounts on your purchases. Make a habit of collecting them and utilizing them before the last date. Another great idea is to have a few friends or colleagues collect coupons along with you. Most of the times you may have a coupon for a product that you do not need but someone from your group may need it. Coupons can be exchanged among the group members to purchase stuff that each one needs.

Click here to compare multiple offers and save hundreds of dollars every month

Use rewards credit cards

Collect reward points on credit cards and redeem it when necessary and wherever relevant. This is a favorite savings method for many folks.

Save on your cable TV

Many times your cable TV subscription is just a waste of money. In this day and age when you have so many cheaper and viable alternatives, who needs to pay money to expensive cable operators? Consider researching cost-effective and equally entertaining options in your local area.

Finally, if you feel you are paying too much on gas every month, do consider reading our tips that will help you save on gas every month. Simple changes in your driving habits will produce great results.

Combine one or two or all six of these tips to save money without any major effort on your part!