iz Pulliam Weston posts an article on 50 Ways to Trim your Budget. The points in this series of posts will be taken from her list in this article.
This installment will round out the “utilities” section in the article. I hope you enjoy this series! Part I is here.
9) Investigate whether bundled service (phone, high-speed Internet and television) might save you money.
We currently have bundled broadband and cable TV. We were given a special deal until the end of the year. We actually weren't looking for the TV (we hardly ever watch it) but it was cheaper to get the bundle deal for now that to not get cable TV because the cable company tacks on a $10 maintenance fee if you don't bundle the cable TV. This is a bit unusual, because you usually don't have to pay more for less. In any case, evaluate what you're using and go from there.
10) Wash only full loads of dishes or clothes.
If the washer is too full, though, the clothes won't get clean enough, especially if you have baby clothes or cloth diapers in the mix.
Another trick: When the liquid detergent bottle is near empty, dunk the detergent bottle in the wash water before the wash cycle starts, swish the water around in the bottle, and pour out the (now diluted) soap to sneak an extra load out of the bottle.
11) Use a clothesline and use your dryer just to soften air-dried clothes.
The sun also does some natural bleaching. If you have strong allergies, though, you might want to be careful about this because you'll be getting all kinds of allergens in the fabrics while they're on the line.
12) Use shades, blinds and drapes to regulate your home temperature: Keep them open in the winter to let in light and drawn in the summer to block the sun's rays.
Another suggestion: If you have heat/cooling vents right under the windows, like we do, you can buy plastic covers that divert the air from the windows. If warm air is allowed to run past a cold window, some heat will be lost through the window and it will take longer to heat the room. Blowing the air away from the window when it's its hottest reduces this heat exchange.
13) Install a programmable thermostat so your home is heated or cooled only when you're actually there.
Maybe sometimes, but not always. I was told by an A/C repairman that turning a heat pump on and off every day is hard on it and that it will actually take more energy to heat or cool the house than if it were left running most of the time. Now, if you're going away for a week, you'll probably save money. But otherwise, maybe just reduce the temperature a little bit (in winter) or increase it (in summer) while you're out for the whole day.
(Does anyone have any additional comments on this one?)
14) Don a sweater in winter and shorts in the summer so you're not overheating or cooling your house.
This is good advice. I had a roommate in graduate school who was in our shared apartment a lot. He liked wearing shorts in January (in New York) and had the heat cranked up to 75 degrees F. Ouch!
15) Douse unneeded lights and turn off TVs, computers and other electronics when not in use
CRT monitors eat a lot of power; flat-panel ones, not quite so much. Compact fluorescents shouldn't be turned on and off too quickly because the energy to “light” them is substantial. Once they're going though it's a lot cheaper to run than an incandescent light.
That's it for Part II! Part III will dive into the transportation tips.
Those are very good tips, alot of them are things I already do instinctivly but it's great to share this with everyone. 😀
Good ideas!
Just one comment about turning off entertainment equipment: many of them still draw power when they are "off." If they have a lights display or have a remote with an "on" button, they draw power. A better idea would be to hook up these applicances to a power strip then turn off the strip when you're not using it.
Ironically, bundling telecommunications services may not save you money, especially if it tempts you to pick a more fancy bundle than you would otherwise get. My cable TV "package" is really the bare minimum available, because I don't want to deal with the super-expensive "bundle" deals.
Judy Fudge celebrates being wrong (she was sceptical as to whether the court would go this far!) and wonders:
Moreover, it is an open question as to whether collective bargaining can be limited to the duty to bargain in good faith. Grounding its decision in international law, specifically International Labour Organization and United Nations Conventions that Canada has ratified, the Supreme Court of Canada has opened the door to the question of whether freedom of association also includes the right to strike. It is in this context that the s.1 analysis may play a more prominent role, as it did in the dissenting judgment of Deschamps J.
While it is heartening for people who are concerned with the dignity of workers that the Supreme Court has elevated collective bargaining to a constitutional right, it is unlikely that defensive battles fought in courts can turn the economic and political tide that has undermined the basis for transforming these rights into job security and improved wages for working people.