Archive for the ‘Household Savings’ Category

Ramit’s Tip#2: Turn Your Thermostat Down

By: Green Panda | Date posted: November 02, 2008 (9:16 pm)

 

 

Photo Credit:  Ramit Sethi

I got my second tip on Ramit’s Save $1,000 in 30 Days Challenge. The tip is turn your thermostat down by 3 degrees. I’m a bit happy he brought out how you can save with a small change. Turning your themostat takes less than a minute and according to Ramit’s source it can save 10% for a 3 degree decrease. Not bad.

 We try to keep an eye out on the weather forecast to see if we need the air conditioner or heat. Our electric bill has dropped fom $125 this summer to $70 this last month from not having the air conditioning on.

Here are some more tips on cutting your electric bill from FrugalMom:

 

 

  • Replace old shower heads. According to federal regulations, new shower heads can pass no more than 2.5 gallons per minute. By replacing old shower heads with new ones, a family of four can save around 15,000 gallons of water per year, which amounts to savings of over $150 and $60 for electric and gas heated water respectively.
  • Keep the refrigerator door closed. Shut the fridge! Opening the refrigerator door accounts for $10 – $20 of a typical family’s electrical bill each year based on 40-60 openings per day.
  • Keep your refrigerator cool. A 5° F difference in room air temperature can impact your refrigerator electricity consumption by 20%. To reduce your refrigerator’s work, keep spare refrigerators or freezers in the coolest part of the house, like the basement.
  • Turn your computer off. You could be spending well over $100 per year on electricity by always leaving your computer on! Turn it off when it’s not in use.

 

 

Check out the rest of the post on cutting your electric bill.

For those keeping track , tip#1 will save $45/month and this tip will save $10/month.

Pack Lunches for the Rest of the Week,Really?

By: Green Panda | Date posted: November 01, 2008 (4:32 pm)

Photo Credit: Ramit Sethi

I got my first tip on Ramit’s Save $1,000 in 30 Days Challenge. The tip is to pack lunches for the rest of the week. Really? Um,ok. I was a bit surprised at first with the title, but after readig the post through, it makes sense to stat off with this tip. 

I don’t eat out for lunch everyday. If I do, it’s to socialize with some others. I also try to keep it $5 or under. My favorite lunch? Panera’s bowl of broccoli and cheddar soup with some bread and a cup of water. It’s $3.98 and it fills me up pretty well. 

I written about some quick and easy recipes that can be used as brown bag lunches the next day like pizza, nachos, chili, and stew. My husband tends to do sandwiches for his brownbag lunches. 

Eating out isn’t the problem, but eating out without a ballpark figure can take a chunk out of your budget.

I noticed from the 30 or so comments left on the post  that many are already doing this regularly. Good for them. It’s nice to see that some people are saving money as a habit and not a knee jerk reaction to the recent economic conditions. They’re more likely to stay on the course. 

I really liked some tips given by the readers:

  • Susan : Save lunch-sized paper sacks when you get them (Chipotle has nice thick ones — I use them over and over).
  • Mike: When you shop at the store, be sure to buy the munchies you might normally get from the snack machine at work. 

Today’s tip showed how beneficial this series can be. Even though many reader have already started doing this, spreading some tips amongst each other gives incentives to continue. Sure, I’ll only save about $16 this week, but the reader feedback helps a lot. Susan and Mike’s tips, for example, can help me to recycle, get healthier food options, and save some money.

Check out the rest of the brown bag post!

»crosslinked«

Join Ramit’s Save $1,000 in 30 Days Challenge

By: Green Panda | Date posted: October 31, 2008 (1:13 pm)

Photo Credit: Ramit Sethi

 I checked my inbox today and I got an email from Ramit Sethi on a challenge to save $1000. 

Here’s how it works: Each day in November, I’ll post one suggestion to cut your spending. If you spend time each day working on the day’s post, the vast majority of you will save over $1,000 each month. Even if you don’t, saving $700 is sure better than nothing. I’ll post tips for the first 15 days. For the last 15 days, I’ll turn to I Will Teach You To Be Rich readers to submit your best frugality tips.

Here’s why I’m excited to try this out:

  • Practical and usable tips. What I enjoy about Ramit’s site is that he is very focused on giving advice that many people will actually do. 
  • The goal amount is big enough to motivate me. We could use an extra $1000 to go into our pockets (actually saving account).

 

Starting tomorrow, I’ll be participating and blogging about the 30 Day Challenge. Every couple of days, I’ll be sharing how I’m doing with challenge. For the last 15 day, I’m going to share my thoughts on whether it’s feasible for me to use the tips or if I have to tweak it a bit. 

Please come join the challenge and leave your thoughts on it as you come along.

Update:

  • Tip#1 $45/month
  • Tip#2 $10/month
  • Tip#3 has brought me $15 for two books I haven’t used.
  • Tip#4: $10 for an ING Referral bonus
  • Tip#5: $7.25/month
  • Tip#6: $235/month once the car loan is paid off
  • Tip#7: $80/month
  • Tip #8: $20/month *note we did this before the challenge
  • Tip#9: $240 this month * this also include items we got for the dining room
  • Tip#10: $420 for the vacation *I’ll update this as we finish up the car rental and ticket purchases.
  • Tip#11: $50/ for a pair of glasses  *estimated, but not purchased
  • Tip#12:  $25/month (being conservative) *after we use the 3 coupons to break even
  • Tip#13: $0/month

  •  Grand Total Saved:$1,002.25 *what I actually save during the challenge, not including future purchases
  • Monthly Savings: $292.95

Carrying Loose Change Saved Me Some Money

By: Green Panda | Date posted: September 30, 2008 (1:21 pm)

 

I cleaned up my car last week with some help fro my brother. I found some money buried under the seats and carpets. I have a little change ‘jar’ that I placed the money in. Twice I was going to pick up food and use the money and I instead got treated from my car pool group (I was driving by the way). Sweet.

Having a change jar can be an asset

I wasn’t doing using the change jar because I was poor, but I want to use the money I actually already have instead of pulling from the bank account. Since I started last week, I have about $9 in my coin jar.

Photo Credit: jswieringa

What’s a Better Deal, Rebates or a Lower Price?

By: Green Panda | Date posted: September 08, 2008 (4:35 pm)

Photo Credit: richardmasoner

I think having a lower price is a better deal, but sometimes rebates offer huge discounts. When we joined Cingular, they had a great rebate deal on a phone that would make it free. It had the features we wanted and who could beat free?

The problem? We didn’t redeem the rebate. So while we got a decent deal, we left some money on the table. We fell into the trap of rebates: we were too lazy to complete the paperwork.

Why do retailers offer rebates?

  1. Most people are too busy (or lazy) to complete the rebate forms.
  2. It’s a wonderful way to get information on the demographics of their customers.

Here are some tips to work through rebates:

Read the rebate conditions. See if you will get actual money back or a coupon for another of their products. It still happens time to time. You also ant to see how much paperwork is due. Is it simply mailing a form out with receipt or does it involve more legwork?

Send the rebate through certified mail or get a delivery confirmation. You don’t want to do the process more than once. This proves that they did receive the paperwork.

How often do you use rebates? Who has the best rebate programs?

Update: This article was included in the Carnival of Money Stories #77 at My Daily Dollars.

Welcome Alpha Consumer Readers!

By: Green Panda | Date posted: May 06, 2008 (5:24 am)

Photo Credit: by alborzshawn

Welcome!

If you’re visiting from US News’ AlphanConsumer, thank you for visiting my blog. The post was inspired by my last 2 apartments.

Here’s an overview of some of my most popular posts to get started:

Banking

Budget & Savings

Credit Cards

Debt

Education

Life

Here’s a series describing our struggle to get our money back from a car mechanic’s negligence.

Car Repairs Gone Bad Series:

Feel free to subscribe to my site to get the latest delivered to your inbox.

Weekly Round Up: Washer and Dryer Edition

By: Green Panda | Date posted: April 27, 2008 (10:34 am)

 

 

Yesterday my husband and I got a washer and dryer for the apartment. The total cost was around $190. We got the pair from Craigslist for $150. We asked a friend if we could borrow his truck and we paid $20 to cover using his gasoline.

The gentleman who sold the washer and dryer kept them in good condition. His wife just bought a new set and they needed to get rid of the older one. We just needed to get a new hose for the dryer and another hose for the washer. That was about $20 to get them from Lowe‘s.

The hardest part was getting it to our apartment which is on the third floor! To be honest, my back is a bit sore from the move. A kindly neighbor helped us move the washer, which was very much appreciated.

Installing a washer and dryer wasn’t too bad. You just need to put the hoses and plugs in the right spots. I’m happy we got this used set, as the cost of renting one for the apartment would be $20/month or more (depends on who you rent it from).

Since I’m relaxing at home for a bit, I decided to share some of my favorite post from his week:

I hope everyone’s weekend is going well. My brother is coming to visit this afternoon so I’m looking forward to hanging with him.

Photo Credit: A Princess

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