How to Save on Your Utilities

Power and water bills can take a huge chunk out of your budget if you’re not careful. Learn How to Save on Your Utilities with these helpful tips.

Are your utilities costing you too much? Heating, water, and power can all take a huge chunk out of your budget if you’re not careful. Luckily, it’s easy to save money by making a few simple changes around your home. Just check out these tips on How to Save on Your Utilities. Don’t make the mistake of setting these money saving tips into practice and never looking at them again, though. You’ll need to stay on top of them to save the most money.

How to Save on Your Utilities

Put an end to phantom electric. Your electronics still use power even when they’re not turned off which means that you’re paying for power that you aren’t using. Instead of continuing to pay, put all your electronics into power strips then unplug when they’re not in use.

Use a water bottle. Your toilet uses a ton of water when it flushes; more than it needs to flush which means you’re sending your hard-earned pennies down the drain. To combat that, fill an empty water bottle with rocks or sand then add to the back of your toilet tank. Doing so will displace water and cause it to use less with each flush.

Set it and forget it. Playing with your thermostat is a fantastic way to increase your heating or cooling costs. Instead, set it at 72 degrees and leave it sit all year long. 72 is plenty warm enough in the winter and perfectly cool in the summer. By keeping it at the same temperature, you’ll avoid running your furnace or a/c when you don’t need to. If you don’t think you can set it and forget it, install a programmable thermostat instead.

Keep filters clean. Most of your appliances have filters on them and when they’re dirty, they won’t run the way they’re supposed to. Your furnace filter is especially important. Check them monthly and make sure they’re clean and you’ll save when you run them.

Time your showers. Showers pour an average of 2 gallons per minute down your drain and those gallons are costing you a lot if you’re just standing in the shower. Instead of wasting all that water and money, time your showers. Try to keep them as quick as possible and you’ll save quite a bit each year.

Put the lights on timers. Lights and fans being left on in a room are usually the cause of high power bills. Putting them on timers is a sure-fire way to save. You can pick up outlet timers for around $8.00 each. Once they’re installed and being used, they’ll save you much more than that over the first year.

Open a window. Don’t run your a/c when you don’t need to. Instead, open a few windows and let nature cool your house if the temperature isn’t too hot. Not only will it save you money on your electric bill, but it will make your home smell better and help you be a bit healthier too. Breathing in stale air isn’t good for anyone.

Use your crockpot more. Your stove and oven use a lot of energy, but we all need to cook, right? Use your crockpot more. It uses much less energy to do the same thing. If you have a gas stove, you can save $100 or more each year just by making the switch twice a week.

Make sure you’re getting enough sleep. This one might sound silly in a blog post about saving money on utilities, but it’s true. Making sure that you get enough sleep can help you save on your bills. When you’re up late, you are running more electronics and other money drainers when they otherwise wouldn’t be used. This costs you money in the long run and if you make staying up a habit, it can become quite costly.