Frugal living for large families on a tight budget

[Ali_formerJW]

Well, at the breaker box we turn off the stove, ovens, dishwasher, clothes washer and dryer. We unplug the microwave, computer, toaster oven, can opener and never leave a charger (i.e. cell phone, Nintendo DS, etc.) plugged in after the item is finished charging. I have read that anything that uses a remote, such as a t.v., dvd player, cable, box etc. uses “vampire power” because it is waiting to be turned on. Definitely unplug those. The little things such as the clocks really add up too. You can check your meter then go unplug or turn off the breakers and check your meter again to see quite a difference. Some of our friends turn off their hot water heaters and a/c units overnight as well. I had heard of doing this on Oprah one afternoon. We tried it and were really surprised at how much we saved. I am a sahm and my husband’s work has really slowed down so we were looking at ways we could save to make what we have stretch. Let us know how this works out for you.

Shari

Ohhh, Shari, I don’t know if I could do this! LOL I have my priorities after all, a hot shower first thing in the morning is one of them We do the little things like unplugging chargers, and stuff. It seems like a lot of work, lol.

But $150 a month (right?) is a lot of money! Man, now I’m thinking about it.

 

[TamM]

it’s a little thing but it’s all I can think of right now :

To save on gasoline, check your tires air pressure regularly, and pump early in the morning when the temperature is lowest. Also, pump slowly and you get less air and more gas. I’m not making this up…it was broadcast repeatedly on the Canadian Weather Network just last winter. And of course…carpool when you can and plan your route…or if you can and it’s not minus 40 outside…walk!!

 

[Teachinmine]

Ohhh, Shari, I don’t know if I could do this! LOL I have my priorities after all, a hot shower first thing in the morning is one of them We do the little things like unplugging chargers, and stuff. It seems like a lot of work, lol.

But $150 a month (right?) is a lot of money! Man, now I’m thinking about it.

I didn’t say that WE turned off OUR hot water heater LOL! Just others that I know do. Right now, we have saved between $50 and $100 dollars for the last 3 months that we have been doing this. It’s kind of a pain to have to flip the breaker back on to run the dishwasher or bake a pizza I have to admit but things are really tight for us right now and every $1 saved helps tremendously! With our large family, things like washers and dishwashers are running quite a bit but at night after everything settles down, or if we are leaving for quite a while, we go to the breaker box and turn everything off. It works!

Shari

 

[lifeisbeautiful]

I didn’t say that WE turned off OUR hot water heater LOL! Just others that I know do. Right now, we have saved between $50 and $100 dollars for the last 3 months that we have been doing this. It’s kind of a pain to have to flip the breaker back on to run the dishwasher or bake a pizza I have to admit but things are really tight for us right now and every $1 saved helps tremendously! With our large family, things like washers and dishwashers are running quite a bit but at night after everything settles down, or if we are leaving for quite a while, we go to the breaker box and turn everything off. It works!

Shari

I really like this idea, and am kicking myself for not having turned off most breakers before we left our home. We travel often, so this is definitely something I am going to try out (like I said, our last bill was $75 and we weren’t even there).