Comments on: 10 Ways to Conserve and save Money

By: brandy

brandy — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:15:52 +0000

hahaha i used this for my drama pentathalon presentation. (:

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:57:45 +0000

These are some great tips on saving energy and money. I'm always looking for ways to cut down my energy bill as it is quite expensive and just keep the lights off when I'm not in the room isn't helping any more. I also read a good article here about saving energy as well.

By: anjelina

anjelina — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 23:15:57 +0000

this is gonna help me with me science fair

By: bob

bob — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:27:18 +0000

Paula,
thanks for sharing about the brick thing – that is a good warning – I had no idea… and I have heard so many useful things about vinegar – I need to use it more than I do…

By: Paula

Paula — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:34:28 +0000

A few things:

1)if you use a brick in the tank BE SURE IT IS WATER SEALED! If not, it will dissolve slowly and bad things will happen to your toliet. The previous owners of our house did not have a water sealed brick in the toilet, which is how I learned about this.

2)just turning off the TV is not enough. Do a google search for VAMPIRE APPLIANCES (I have some good links from my blog) and you will see just how much your turned off TV is still costing you. We set up a power switch we can turn off and on the whole entertainment center (we watch so little TV and don’t record anything that we don’t care about losing presets).

3)we use cold water on all our washes (unless someone got sick). We put vinegar in the rinse cycle (it makes a GREAT fabric softener replacement!), and vinegar is a natural anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti- …well you get the idea. We put it in the automatic fabric softener release and our clothes are just as soft and, no, they do not smell like vinegar.

BTW-I have really been enjoying your blog (and it’s archives). Thanks!!

By: bob

bob — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 22:55:09 +0000

@daydreamr
in addition to the financial savings gained, many people could gain back countless hours of their lives, rather than wasting them in front of the TV. (of course, not all TV watching is worthless – i.e. The Office )

By: daydreamr

daydreamr — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 07:06:08 +0000

Scott isn’t too far off, I’ve heard of putting bricks, etc. in the tank so every flush uses less water.

Regarding the idea of washing clothes in cold water, I use cold water 98% of the time and my clothes last a long time. Hanging clothes on the line is great too. Unfortunatly, I live in an apartment so I use a clothes rack. I also put an extra shower curtain rod in my shower to hang more clothes. If you don’t like the stiffness, throw the clothes/towells in the dryer for a few min. to ‘fluff’ them up a bit. Also, those dryer balls have cut down on the drying time by about 20 min. They work better with 4 balls though.

My favorite suggestion is to shut the TV off. I don’t use mine (it’s mostly for display). One month, I had company and we watched a handful of movies. I noticed that my electric bill went up about $20 for a handful of movies, imagine what that would save for the chronic TV watcher?

By: bob

bob — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:11:43 +0000

@Scott – you are probably joking, but I never cease to be amazed by people and some of the unique things that they do. So, I am sure there are some that adopt that policy

By: Limewater

Limewater — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:55:34 +0000

@Minimum Wage:

I think the idea is that it saves quite a bit of energy and chemical use involved in water purification. And while we have plenty of water on the planet, we do have a limited supply of freshwater. Water desalinization is a particularly expensive process.

Though, to be narrow-sighted for a moment and only worry about the U.S., the Southeast is under a pretty severe drought right now. Water lost to the ground really isn’t becoming available for reuse, at least for the forseeable future.

By: Minimum Wage

Minimum Wage — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:01:01 +0000

Water does not disappear simply because it is used to wash a car. Ultimately it goes back into the ground and becomes available for re-use. So what is the basis for the idea that 8.8 billions of gallons of water would be saved if everyone washed their cars commercially?