Be More Efficient — 12 Universal Ways To Save Money At Home (2/2)
Hello dear,
Last week’s letter was my longest. I cringed when I saw the ‘9min read’ at the top (especially when I try to keep all my letters at 6min reading time).
“C’mon, you know a letter needs to be as long as it needs to be.” I thought to myself. Besides, I couldn’t remove anything else (trust me, I tried).
So, I covered my eyes and pressed ‘publish’.
Boy, was I surprised at your reaction!
Every recommend, tweet, comment, and e-mail (my favorite) made my day. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Ok, enough sentimental stuff (I love you).
Ehem… Ok now for real, enough sentimental stuff. Let’s get back to the letter (I promise to keep this one short 😉).
Last week, we talked about 6 ways to save money at home. Today, we’ll finish with 6 more ways.
Onward.
1. Cut Your Electric Bill
Here are a few (easy) tips to help you reduce your electric energy use.
- Lights:
Stop leaving them on everywhere! If you’re out of the room for more than 1min, the lights should be off.
Which bulbs you should buy? I suggest you take a look at this graph. If you still have incandescent bulbs, you’re making a huge mistake (MMM recommends you grab every incandescent bulb in your house and smash them to pieces). Instead, look for LED bulbs with low wattage (they use less energy and last longer). This one’s highly recommended.
- Air conditioning:
I barely use A/C since I moved to the US. Thankfully, I grew up in some really hot climates (Southern Africa for example), so California summer is child’s play.
However, my tip here is simple; don’t use A/C all day!
During the day, wear shorts and drink a lot of ice cold water. Close your doors and windows so the heat doesn’t get in. Even if you live in Nevada, you don’t need more than a big fan (that’s what my family in Brazil does, and it’s worked fine for years).
However, sleeping when it’s really hot is quite annoying. You may turn on your A/C then. But don’t push it!
- Clothes Dryer:
I still don’t understand why people dry their clothes using a dryer. Not only does it burn a ton of money, it also ruins your clothes! (think about how much lint the dryer picks up, yuk!)
The best option is to hang-dry your clothes (you could use a clothesline or a drying rack like the one I have).
This goes beyond saving money. By hang-drying your clothes you can keep them for longer! This is a no-brainer.
- Gadgets:
Unplug them all. DVR, game consoles, cable boxes, computers, microwaves and television. You know what that little red light means when it’s “off”? That it’s still using electricity!
As you can tell, I find this website pretty fun to calculate the electric costs of most of these appliances. Separately, these costs don’t seem like much but together they add up pretty quickly.
- Heating:
This is similar to the A/C. Try not to use it.
Feeling cold? The best solution is to wear warm clothes.
Another good solution is to lose fat. Why you ask? Because this will bring your skin closer to the heat-generating sources in your body (your muscles and organs), aka you’ll feel warmer.
2. Switch Phone Plan
This gets tricky. Especially for an iPhone lover like myself.
The main lesson here is no matter what, stay away from AT&T and Verizon!
Personally, I use Sprint. What made me fall in love with them was this promotion they had; no matter what Verizon and AT&T would offer, Sprint would give the same service for 50% off (ah, capitalism ❤️).
My phone bill is $60/month for unlimited data. Which is good compared to most (and you can do it easily too).
However, if you ask Mr. Money Mustache, he’d disagree.
He would tell you to go a step further and switch to Republic Wireless where their plans start at $15/ month (the catch is you need to use one of their Android phones).
I think Republic Wireless is great, but I can’t live without my iPhone (especially when I work on building apps).
Other good options are Google Fi, Ting, and StraightTalk.
Pick depending on personal preference, your work, and how much debt you have (if I was drowning in debt, I’d obviously leave the iPhone for later).
Sidenote: If you know of an awesome service that allows me to use the latest iPhone and has unlimited data for less than $60/month. Please please let me know.
3. Use The Library
I love this quote:
“I have several hundred thousand of [books], and a paid staff who roams through my modern curved-glass 20,000 square foot book storage facility, automatically maintaining them and buying more for me constantly. I have so many books that I share them with everyone in my entire city, and we’ve even come to an agreement where we ALL pay just a few dollars per year each for the facility, and yet any one of us can borrow any of the books. By pooling our buying power together like this, everyone wins, and yet none of us have to waste space in our house storing books that we are not currently reading! We love our book sharing facility so much, we decided to call it the ‘Public Library.’” — Mr. Money Mustache
Once again, I have to agree and disagree with our favorite blogger.
I read a lot. It’s my superpower. It’s what has allowed me to read so many blog posts and distill their lessons into these letters for you.
However, I am ashamed to admit I buy many books on Kindle (hey don’t look at me like that! They don’t occupy any space, I can bring my library with me wherever I go, I can highlight full pages AND take notes that are easily retrievable).
Another cool thing about Amazon is many times you’ll find used books selling for $2 (look it up, it’s awesome).
Again, this does not mean everyone should do the same! If you have any debt, the library should be your default since buying books can add up.
… But I won’t cast too many stones.
4. Set Automatic Payments
Remember to set your utility bills, credit cards, 401(k) deductions, and other investment programs to automatic payment. Don’t risk late payments.
I know the main worry is being overcharged. To protect against this, make your payments using a credit card. This way, if anyone charges you more than they should, you block the payments (and the credit card companies will happily protect you, for once). This gives you time to dispute the charges.
5. Pick Your Showerhead Wisely
Here’s an useful post to know how many Gallons-per-minute (GPM) your showerhead uses. Anything over 2 is too much (the average showerhead in America uses 2.1 GPM).
As much as I fantasize about Y Combinator’s company, Nebia (0.75 GPM), their $499 price point is beyond ridiculous.
You can find something great for $11 that uses 1.5 GPM (this one has good reviews on Amazon).
The less water you waste, the more money you save. Cha-ching!
6. Don’t Use A Silly Storage Unit
This may surprise you. Sometimes, when people get tired of keeping objects, they don’t sell, give, or throw them away.
Instead, they pay someone else to store their useless stuff! These odd places are called storage units.
The average storage unit costs $100 per month. $1,200 per year!
Remember this; if you’re going to store something, it simply means you don’t need it. It’s better to sell it (and make some extra dough), or give it away.
And that’s it for today!
Today, we learned 6 new says to save money:
- Cut your electric bill.
- Switch your phone plan.
- Use the library.
- Set automatic payments.
- Pick your showerhead wisely.
- Don’t use a silly storage unit.
Add these lessons to last week’s letter, and you’re looking at some serious savings.
See you next week (follow the series here to be notified).
Be well.
R
Thanks for reading! 😊If you enjoyed it, test how many times can you hit 👏 in 5 seconds. It’s great cardio for your fingers AND will help other people see the story.You can follow me on Twitter at @richardreeze to find out whenever others just like it come out.📚 Do you like books? If so you might enjoy my latest obsession:
Most Recommended Books.📚
Since I write about finance, legal jargon is obligatory (because the guys in suits made me). Before following any of my advice, read this disclaimer.
