Saving Money on your Electric Bill

When it comes to saving electricity the little things do add up. Not everyone can cut out big things, but the little things count too. Have you taken a walk through your house recently to see what things are plugged in unnecessarily? These days there are so many tools and gadgets to make our lives easier, and in order to make things easier for us, they use electricity. All these energy suckers add up. Let's take a look at a few.

electric can opener - really unnecessary unless you have arthritic hands or something like that, plus it can't be used if you lose power and it takes up space on your counter, something I don't ever have enough of

curling iron - these things use a ton of energy - can you make any changes to reduce the amount of energy they use? I was able to rearrange the way I did things in the morning and reduced the amount of time my curling iron was on by 10 minutes a day - which equals 300 minutes a month if I use it every day. It still gets plenty hot in time, so this little change saves me money and really doesn't affect me at all

hair dryer - this is another small thing that uses a ton of energy - can you make any changes here and use your hair dryer less? Towel dry your hair for longer before blow drying, or avoid drying your hair every day?

digital clocks - we had 2 in our room, which came in handy during those many years of middle of the night feedings. These days I don't get up much in the middle of the night and can easily sit up and look at Kevin's clock if I need to know what time it is.

chargers - cell phone, camera, rechargable batteries, etc - these things still use energy even when you aren't charging something. Unplug them and put them in a drawer or something until you actually need them.

lights - I do consider these necessary, but there are plenty of ways to save. First only turn on what you need and turn them off when you no longer need them. Second, switch your bulbs to fluorescent. Third, rather than have an outdoor light on all night, get motion lights for security purposes, they will only come on when there is movement in the area and will probably not stay on all night. Fourth, use a lower wattage light bulb, especially in fixtures that use multiple lightbulbs.

TV hookups - when I look at my TV area I cringe, we really need to get a power strip for it. We have a VCR, DVD player, Playstation and TV all plugged in all the time. These things all use energy even when they aren't on. There are clocks that are running and lights that are on, even when not in use. They also use energy so that they will be ready to turn on at the flip of a switch. I think I will put that power strip on my next shopping list.

Coffee pot - this uses an enormous amount of energy. We only plug ours in when we are getting ready to use it and when Kevin is done with his coffee for the day he unplugs it. Actually it is safer to have it unplugged when not in use, this will help prevent electrical fires. Another way we are going to be cutting our electric bill is that Kevin finally has his own room at school again. We found him a coffee pot for $10 that he will keep at school. Now he won't take the time to make it here. We will save electricity and he will be able to get to school earlier and get work done while having his morning caffeine kick.

Have you walked through your house yet? I bet you can come up with some other ways to save on energy. See if you can spot some things that are plugged in, but that don't need to be. Don't forget to let us know in the comments, because I am sure I have forgotten areas.