I'm not the greatest coupon-er or frugalista or repurposer of worn-out items. The one area (besides personal hygiene . . . mostly kidding) where I consistently and successfully keep costs low is with utilities.
Our first utility bill in the new house was significantly higher than anticipated. It was unsustainable without making sacrifices elsewhere in our budget. I was frustrated. We're already conservative with our air conditioning; we're conscientious when it comes to turning lights off; we bought energy-efficient appliances; we air-dry whatever clothes we can. What more could we do?
How did this bill get so high?
So I began a house-wide hunt for the utility suckers. What I discovered was . . . well, pretty surprising.
The sprinkler system. We hadn't touched the settings since moving in. We figured the previous owners must have known what they were doing more than we did. (hahaha! Silly naive homeowners that we were!) What we discovered was that certain parts of the lawn were getting watered for 2 hours at a time 4 times a week, when what is generally considered generous watering is 20-30 minutes. So we went through and changed the settings to be a bit more rational.
I had a conversation with Analiesa around this time and she mentioned how her mom (a single mom with nine kids) had been able to cut their utility bill drastically. She gave me some good ideas that I've started implementing.
Computers. We've always been pretty good at shutting them down, but now we also turn off the power strips.
TV. Well, we actually just cancelled Netflix, so the TV's not getting much use nowadays. But I also make sure now that the power strip is off.
Phones. I try not to leave my cell phone plugged in for longer than necessary.
Appliances. I've started unplugging appliances when they're not in use.
Natural A/C. Toward the end of August I started cracking our windows at night to help naturally bring the temperature down. Our air conditioning has only kicked in once or twice during the month or so that I've been doing this.
I was a bit skeptical that the unplugging of appliances and turning off of power strips would make a difference. But I'm happy to announce that our latest bill was much, much lower. The water cost was cut in half. Electricity was also significantly lower. I actually look forward to seeing the next bill where it will be the full month (not just the part month) with all these changes implemented.
2 comments:
Paying for utilities is painful. Everything costs so much more in California too. Ouch! I wish that our AC only turned on once or twice. We spent most of the month of August in the 100 degree range and almost every day in September between 90 and 100. Then the first few days of October right around 100! We are finally getting a break with this week only supposed to be 70's. Phew!
Oh gosh! It was mainly July and August that were scorching here. I was glad the morning I went outside and I could tell it was in the 60s.
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