Home is where most of our time is spent. We choose to stay home instead going elsewhere. We prefer to done our work-related or school-related stuffs by web surfing in our home than to use public library. We rather make whatever we need in our own home than to hire someone to do it for us.
As we are living most of our life in our home, our expenses are always an issue. Every half or end of the month, we are constantly shocked with how much our utility bills are. Every half or end of the month, we are mostly worried on where we will get the money to pay those bills. And also in every half or end of the month, we are thinking on how to slash off a part of it.
To live cheap in our home, we must take into consideration the appliances we are buying and using. We must also become skilled at the different energy saving techniques to cut off a certain part of our monthly bills. The following are the different tips to learn in our own home in living cheap:
1. In buying appliances, first do a research. Take your personal computer and do a research about the different models and features of a certain product. Your focus in researching the item to buy must be the reliability of the product. Will it last longer? Is it made by a good-standing manufacturer? Is it energy efficient? Does it do a good job at the task you want? These are only some of the questions to ask and must be answered before buying. As what they say, it is not to the quantity but to the quality.
2. In washing clothes with a machine, do it only with a full load. Why? Because these appliances are designed to handle full loads. Dashing partial loads is a sure strategy to wash away the money out of your pocket. But if you really need to clean some of your clothes, wash those with your hands.
3. Instead of using the dryer, air-dry your clothes. At the most current energy costs, the average dryer consume 40-50 cents worth of energy each time you dry your clothes with a dryer. The best cost-cutting technique for this is to do the out-dated clothesline. By letting your clothes to air-dry, the cost amazingly reduce to zero.
4. Use the microwave oven, if possible. Microwave ovens are 75% greater energy-efficient than the cooking stoves. Microwave ovens also reduce 20% of your cooking costs. Plus, it adds less heat to your house. Use microwave ovens for tasks like boiling water and steaming and browning vegetables.
5. Do not set up your refrigerator next to any heat-producing machines. The natural heat produced by other machines in your kitchen can add heat to the refrigerator if those machines will be placed near the refrigerator. Thus, the refrigerator runs more frequently to maintain the low temperature. By avoiding a faulty layout, your electric bill will be much lighter on your pocket.
6. When not in use, unplug electrical devices. When not in use, you need to unplug mobile phone chargers, laptop chargers, and other home electric devices that you do not use daily like blenders or toasters. By not unplugging these electrical devices, it uses phantom load. Phantom load, also known as vampire power or standby power, refers to the very small amount of electricity (about 4 watts) used when the electrical devices are plugged while they are switched off. Unplugging is saving cost.
7. Use hibernate mode or the sleep mode on your computers or laptops. Placing your computer in hibernation/sleep mode means that it copies your current computer state to the hard drive, then powers down your computer entirely, just as if you had turned it off. When you power up it again, your computer will return to the exact same state that it was in before you place it in hibernation/sleep mode. Through this, it allows you to save up huge energy in switching off your computer when not in use and quickly starting it up.
8. Get shorter showers. The average showerhead uses 9.8 litres of water per minute. Per 4000 litres of water used, it costs about $1.50-$2.00. If you wastefully use ten minutes’ worth of extra water flow each time you take daily shower, you are throwing away about 3000 litres of water every month. And that adds up to about .75 cents a month or $9.00 a year. By shortening and not wasting time while taking shower, you can save up. Even it is only a small amount to slash off in the bill; it is still worth to do. You are saving your money plus you are saving water too.
9. Plant trees. Planting trees increases your property value. It also efficiently block direct sunlight from hitting your house thus reducing the amount of energy needed to keep your house cool.
10. Build good relationships with your neighbours. Having good neighbours will lend you stuff in a snap, will keep an eye on your house when you are away, and help you out whenever you needed. With these good neighbours, you will not need to hire someone to take care of those tasks. Hence, you can save up some which can be used to pay your monthly bills.