No-Cost Ways To Reduce Your Energy Bills

There are small ways around the home that can be done to help you reduce energy costs. They are easy to do

• You can save quite a bit each year just by washing your laundry in cold water. You can buy special detergents for cold water washing if you want to. I very rarely use hot water to wash any of my laundry anymore. 
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• Make sure when you do laundry it is a full load. 
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• Air-dry clothes when you can and air-dry dishes.
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• If you must use the dryer , always clean out the lint filter. Clean it out after every use. This also helps reduce the risk of fire.
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• Dry heavy items separately from lighter-weight items. This helps with efficiency of the dryer.
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• Take a shower instead of taking a bath. Uses a lot less water. Get a Low flow shower head to help even more.
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• Fix any leaky faucets or pipes. Even a little drip can waste a lot of water.
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• Insulate all of your pipes and water heater. This will really conserve energy and make the water heater work better. It won't have to heat up the water so often because the heat is staying in it better
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• Turn off anything when not in use and unplug them if you can.
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• Use natural light as often as you can and get used to sitting in the dark. Sometimes you do not need lights on. 
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• Change the filters in your a/c and heater as often as you can. I was very surprised at how much better our a/c worked this past summer when I changed the filter once a month. 
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• Keep the freezer full. It won't work so hard when it is totally full. 

Lots of simple ways to save money!! 

 

DIY Milk Jug Seed Starters

This is a great way to make a low cost, actually free,  cold frame for your  outdoor seeds that winter outside or to do seed starting inside for starting seeds indoors for the spring. We are doing this one. Getting our seeds started very soon indoors so they will be ready for planting outdoors. Or planting indoors in 5 gallon buckets. I have a few items that I want to do indoors. Will be easier for when we get our land to be able to take the plants with us.

But this simple and free milk jug seed starter is a great way to start...

• Cut a gallon milk jug in half horizontally. Leave one edge intact so that it will act like a hinge. 
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• You can throw away the cap. But, my creative son is wanting to save them to somehow make an outdoor "rug" with. Have them bottom up so that you can use it to scrape mud off shoes.
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• Punch several drainage holes into the bottom of the jug.
  
  
  
• Fill the bottom with a few inches of potting soil.
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• Moisten it well and plant the seeds.
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• Close the top cover and secure with some duct tape.
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• Place the jug inside a clear plastic bag and twist tie closed. Since it is in a clear plastic bag it is like its own greenhouse. 
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• Place in a sunny spot outside out of the way , so it will not be bothered or have to be moved.
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• Before transplanting , harden off the seedlings by taking the jug out of the bag and propping it open.

This is a frugal way to start your own garden or to garden indoors. Easy and fun to watch them grow.

Protect Your Money

This time of year there are many ways that you might lose money or be conned. A lot of bad people take advantage of others during the holidays. Here are some ways to easily safe-guard yourself and your money.

• Ignore any junk mail that comes to your home. Just trash it. 
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• Buy a shredder. Shred any paper that you plan on throwing out. Shred it before you throw it out so no one can get into your trash and find personal information or anything else they could use to steal your identity.
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• Don't have checks mailed to your home. Have them directly deposited to your checking account. 
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• Get referrals before you have any home repairs. You should be the one looking for a repairman, not them just randomly knocking on your door. This is something that happens a lot when there is a disaster. Con artist repairmen know that people are needy when something bad happens and take advantage. 
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• The government, IRS, or utilities will not call your home randomly wanting money. This is a tricky scam. There have been some here lately in our town where the local power company calling people and saying that the person has to pay a huge amount of money to keep their power on. A couple of people have fallen for it and not long after phone call their bank accounts were empty. Sad! So watch out for any phone calls from someone saying you owe a bill. Even when a actual bill collector calls say that you will wait on the paper bill and then pay it that way.
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• Stop and think before you act. Never give out credit card info or write a check until you are absolutely sure that it is for the right thing. 

Check out scams on http://www.snopes.com.

Check out businesses on https://www.bbb.org/.

 

Bake A Cake In A Jar

This is such a cool idea. Bake the cake in the canning jar and then you can store it. You can use box cake mix or make your own cake.

• Always use the wide mouth straight sided glass canning jars.
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• Lightly coat the inside with vegetable oil or cooking spray.
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• Fill the jars only about half way to give the cake room to rise.
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•  Keep the mouth clean to ensure a good seal.
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• Be careful when removing the jars from the oven.  
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• Store in the fridge or the freezer for up to 6 months.

Let The Sun Do The Cooking!

Use the free heat of the sun to cook your food. It is easy and energy efficient. It saves on fuel cost and  in the summer helps to keep you cool by not having to heat up the house with your stove. With solar cooking it is cooked with lower temperatures that will not burn the food and makes it easy to just let it cook away without stirring or checking all of the time. Set it in the heat of the sun and come back after a few hours to a well- cooked meal.

A great idea is to set it up on a table that can spin so that you can make it follow the sun during the day. Makes it easy for us with bad backs, also. Don't have to pick up the whole cooker, just spin the table the bit that it needs turned.You can easily cook all year long with a All Season Solar Cooker.  You can bake bread, cookies, and cakes in a solar cooker. The best thing to make , since it is set and cooking all day, is stews, beans, soups, and casseroles.

You can easily make one. The links below have plans for making them and recipes.

• http://www.solarcooking.org
• http://cookwiththesun.com

Having a solar cooker is great for kids , also. They can learn to use one easily and be cooking in one in no time. My son was 7 years old when he made one out of a pizza box. It worked pretty good. He baked cookies in it and did some hot dogs. It was fun for him and he learned a lot about the sun and how it works.
Get the whole family involved.

COMMENT BELOW WITH YOUR FAVORITE THING TO COOK IN A SOLAR COOKER>>>