Recently, my husband and I have been looking for ways to save money by changing some of our daily habits. With a bit of thought, we've found ways to save money every month by changing a few of habits, as well as eliminating some unnecessary luxuries in our lives. Here's a list of the changes we have made- and once I find out how much it has saved us, I'll let you know!
Don't turn on the dishwasher unless it is completely full.
Okay, this may seem obvious, but we never did this! We always turned the dishwasher on whenever we were running low on bottles or sippy cups, but now that baby is out of bottles and has more sippy cups, we can stop. We've gone from running the dishwasher at least twice a day to running it once every other day!
Similarly, we've made sure to move the laundry to the dryer in a timely manner. There is no sense in having to wash the same load of clothes 3 times because you never got around to moving it to the dryer. Wasting money!
Okay, this may seem obvious, but we never did this! We always turned the dishwasher on whenever we were running low on bottles or sippy cups, but now that baby is out of bottles and has more sippy cups, we can stop. We've gone from running the dishwasher at least twice a day to running it once every other day!
Similarly, we've made sure to move the laundry to the dryer in a timely manner. There is no sense in having to wash the same load of clothes 3 times because you never got around to moving it to the dryer. Wasting money!
Limit showers to 15 minutes or less.
I don't know about your husband, but mine tends to take showers of at least 30 minutes. That, to me, is absurd. Just wash your hair, bathe, and get out!!! When you just stand there and relax in the shower it is wasting money! - At least, that's what I want to tell him. Anyway, we've decided to limit showers to 15 minutes or less. If I can get husband to stick to this rule, we can save (15x7=105) 105 minutes of running water each week! That's 420 minutes of water a month!
Find a temperature that you can live with, and agree not to set your thermostat below it.
We tend to keep the thermostat set at 69. We are crazy. We know. We live in Louisiana where it is a humid 104 on a normal summer day. Sooooo... we decided that we could live with agreeing not to set the thermostat under 72. (I didn't actually think we would be able to stick to this rule- but we have!! Yay!) Sometimes I get all crazy and turn it all the way up to 75! Look at me, living the wild life! (Hardy har har.) In the winter, we agreed to not set the thermostat above 69. (Normally we probably would have set it at 73- maybe up to 75.)
Evaluate subscriptions and decide what you use and what can be eliminated.
In our home, we had 2 movie service subscriptions, and frequently rented movies on our PS3 (at $3.99 a movie!! Geez!!). We cancelled one subscription, and reduced the other one. We've agreed not to rent anymore movies off of the PS3 (or at least not 2 or 3 a week like we were before.
We also had a home phone subscription which I had INSISTED upon getting when we moved into this house. "I don't want to be a pregnant woman whose cell phone won't work when she goes into labor or has an emergency!" Well, I got over it and decided to cancel our home phone. Haha. I decided, we have 2 cell phones and live within an hour of nearly all of our loved ones. We will be fine.
We also had a home phone subscription which I had INSISTED upon getting when we moved into this house. "I don't want to be a pregnant woman whose cell phone won't work when she goes into labor or has an emergency!" Well, I got over it and decided to cancel our home phone. Haha. I decided, we have 2 cell phones and live within an hour of nearly all of our loved ones. We will be fine.
I'm still looking for more ways to cut costs. What do you do to make ends meet each month? Please, let me know!
