One thing you can do to get ready for changes in our easy everyday life is cut back on our use of utilities. It will have a reward of it's own. You will see a savings on your bills and enjoy spending that money on more important things.
The first and easiest way to cut back on utilities is to stop wasting what you have. Waste accounts for almost a third of most of our bills. That dripping water faucet is really dripping money down the drain. It is eroding the fixtures as surely as the river polishes rock. With the exception of hard freezes when you must let water drip to prevent pipes from freezing, dripping faucets are an assault on logic and the wallet.
For a few dollars, you can unscrew a faucet, replace washers and re-wrap threaded screws with teflon tape and save 'buckets' of money! If you do not know how to fix a leaking faucet, ask a friend or family member and trade them a skill of yours in payment.
As long as we are in the bathroom, look at the rubber fittings in your toilet. That commode can leak as much as a gallon a minute and not even be heard. Take off the lid to the tank and look. Does the water stop moving, does it auto flush, can you adjust the water level lower and still do the job? If it leaks, fix it with a replacement kit under $20 at your hardware store. If it doesn't and you can lower the water level, do that. You don't really need a double flushing five gallons to flush away waste.
To stop the waste of electricity, unplug things that aren't being used. I counted my appliances with clocks that run all the time. I rarely use the coffee maker so I really don't need it to know what time it is. I unplugged it and put it in a cabinet until I need it. I counted my son's kitchen appliances and the three of them average four clocks running and half of them didn't need to be plugged in either. We all have DVD players and I have a VCR. Mine are plugged in to a power strip that gets turned off when I am finished using them. I don't need them on standby. I can push the same strip button to turn them on when I want them and the neither heat up my home, themselves or the power meter.
Also on a power strip are all the chargers for the phone, I devices and tablets. They are in one place and that strip gets turned on when devices are charging and off when they are not. These charger cords plugged in and leaching electricity are called vampires or pirates. They are draining your wallet. Turn them off! Save your money for things you can use.
Helpful sites to help you cut back painlessly and save:
www.canadianliving.com/.../7_ways_youre_wasting_m... - Canada
www.care2.com/.../are-you-wasting-electricity-probably-more
In future, I will post more on saving and putting your money elsewhere. If you have a good idea, post a comment.
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