Lint in your clothes dryer trap can cause your electric or gas bill to soar
. The dryer has to work twice as hard and double your electric usage. Electric dryers cost about 48 cents or more an hour to run. Cloths lines and drying racks will be more economical
Visit the thrift shops like Goodwill, Market Mission, hospital auxiliary etc regularly while you consolidate errands along the way. Go to garage sales. The wide variety of good useful items, many of them near new or brand new, for just a couple dollars is an amazing bargain.
Stretching your trips in between barber shop visits by trimming your own hair saves dollars. Duplicating the barbers' approach and procedure is all you need to get started. With a sharp set of scissors, a guy can stretch out visits for months between cuts.
Save money by avoiding local coffee shops when you bring your thermos to work. Save hundreds of dollars a year by cutting loose the Starbucks habit. If you take the time to grind your own coffee you'll furnish you own gourmet treat.
Use fans for cooling to avoid high air conditioning electric bills. A large window air conditioner uses 1.5 kWh. A 42 inch ceiling fan uses .24 kWh in 10 hours. At an average charge of 11 cents per kilowatt hour, cost mount. Fans are the best money saving cooling device by far. Fans use one-tenth the electricity of air conditioners so use them to circulate the air. Attic fans are another great way to exhaust hot air trapped in the attic and pull cool air through the house at night.
Summer spells free entertainment as many orchestras perform their mastery locally. Even college or high school plays at less than ten dollars a ticket beat the price of a Broadway theater production price. It's the exact same story line. Also there usually is an arboretum or nature trail nearby for an inspiring trek.
Every bank marks up their price of checks by a hundred percent or so. That's because they purchase their checks from an outside source. You can buy discount checks direct from the check printer and save 50% and even get a larger choice of designs.
Another tip is pre-treating stains when washing. Hydrogen peroxide is a great stain remover when mixed one part with detergent and one part with some water in a spray bottle. No need to buy expensive stain pretreatments. Also white vinegar is an inexpensive fabric softener.