Dang! Electric Bill

If you follow this blog at all than you most likely already know what I'm doing to cut electric costs.

MY ELECTRIC BILL WENT UP $7 this month.

Now sure, I know-- it's summer in Texas. And yes, we had our in-laws here for a week in June, during which we had to lower the A/C temp. I was really hoping for a decrease.

Here's some of the things we've done: (with fees, our electric works out to 13 cents per KWH.

• Not using the dryer.
• Ditched the outside fridge
• Not using the "heat-dry" cycle of the dishwasher.
• Washing clothes on mostly cold/cold cycles.
• Turned AC up to 85 degrees all the time.

Although rationally I know it would have gone up even more. (Even at 85-- the AC cranks on frequently in Texas) but I was REALLY hoping to see a drop. OH WELL!

On the positive spreadsheet side, I've snagged a few more secret shops this month. These included another grocery shop and a movie shop. I'm going to add them to the July total once they are paid.

Cutting Cable to Save Money

I wanted to pass along a site which is FILLED to the brim with information on couponing. FREE information. No clubs to join, no nothing. These women share their advice and helpful hints and you learn bundles about saving money.

As you know by now, I won't spend a buck to save one.

The site is called hotcouponworld.com in case you were wondering, this isn't a referral link. As mentioned, the site is FREE. It's helped me, so I'm including it here. If you are interested in a for pay couponing link, feel free to email me-- and I'll pass that along, along with my referral code!

Giving Up Cable

When I told my sisters we were cutting cable, they looked at me funny-- like maybe we were living in cardboard boxes and eating out of dumpsters to save money (hey!....) But I decided to give it a try. When you are truly nickel and diming your budget, drying clothes outside to save 60 cents a load-- it's like a $60 chunk you can save all at once. That's a lot of coupons!

Now before you start whining, I kids too. They get bored too. So this week, they are watching a few Disnet movies to get over the hump. No what, I haven't heard ONE "I want Sponge Bob" complaint, not one. And a funny thing happened--- I'm managing to make it without HGTV ot the Food Channel, too.

Next month, instead of paying the $60 bill, I'll buy a TV antenna. (A good one.) Then we can add back PBS for the girlies. In the meantime, we are finding new games to play. Here's just a few thing we can do for $60 a month as a family:

Eat at CiCi's - $16.00 (one still eats free)
Go to the local Pool/water park ($6/pp) twice
Buy new sidewalk chalk 50+ times. (not that we need to!)
Blow a full container of bubbles 120 times.

You get the idea...

Wash Your Crocs in the Washing Machine

Money saving tip for today - Did you know you can put Crocs through the washing machine? You can! This will prevent your kiddos from needing a new pair before they are outgrown.

I washed a pair yesterday, and they came out looking brand new! (Tip-- take any Jibitz out first.)

Do not put Crocs in the dryer!

Here's a bonus $ tip isn't for everyone.... POTTY TRAIN!
I have one who has been less than willing, but we went after it over the last two weeks. By going ahead and being consistent and persistent with training, we can now save $20/week by not buying diapers!

July earning update.

Published another article through AC. (warning: If you're a Dave Ramsey junkie, you might want to take a deep breath before reading...) Here.

Asociated content : $23.06 updated 7/12
Secret shopping: $104 (updated 7/12)
Surveys through Survey spot: $15 (updated 7/12)
Loads dried outside : $6.80
eBay sales:$59 (this is only selling stuff that would be bound for the garage sale pile, but the kids are worried...)

Updated 7/9- added a grocery secret shop, plus another movie secret shop. TIP: Grocery secret shopping is not worth going out of your way for! I ONLY take the ones I would shop near anyway. Otherwise, it is too little money for too much work!

Today's secret shopping: I ge tto buy 3 packages of candy on my way home, and they are paying me $12 to do it, plus picking up a movie rental-- $6 for doing that, on top of the movie. This weekend I have a grocery shop-- which will add $9 to my very tiny grocery budget for the week.

7/12 update - Got a SUPER secret shop at a high end department store (purchase/return) paid $27! Plus another movie shop, and a lunch. I also got another article published with AC- it's on (what else?) Secret Shopping! I have several more lined up this month.

100 Ways to Save a $1 without paying for anything

There are many, many money saving ideas on the web. And we are in need of saving money. (Really?) But what I find myself becoming frustrated with, is that most of these ideas COST something!

Now when you are truly living on a shoestring budget, you can't pay for money saving ideas. Like buying a new energy efficient dishwasher. Sure, that would help the electric bill, but how is shelling out $800 plus going to help my bottom line? Not saying it's not a good idea, just saying this is not my focus.

So what is my focus? My focus is to finish Dave Ramsey's baby Step 2 by applying every available cent to pay off debt. This requires living on an extremely tight budget for a while. Every penny counts. So I started looking for ways to save $1 a day, without spending any money. I'm not talking about "cut your morning latte and save $4" kind of advice (c'mon, really? If I had $4 to blow a day on a latte, would I need these ideas?) I'm talking about serious STRETCHING here.

So I'm starting the list. Real things that real people with no extra money can do to save $1/day. Sometimes, it might be more. But $1 a day, combined with the CrashCrate, Associated Content and Secret Shopping Dollars, hopefully will make a $10/day difference, and that starts to add up.

Today's $1 tip: Stop your dishwasher before the "dry" cycle. If you have an older dishwasher, you have to do this manually by opening the door to the dishwasher. If you have a newer dishwasher, do not choose the "heat dry" setting. Almost all of the cost associated with running your dishwasher has to do with heating the water, and the dry cycle. Now this little tip is probably only going to save you 50 cents for today. This of course doesn't take into consideration how much it heats up your kitchen, requiring extra A/C in the summer. Here's our way to get the other 50 cents. We have started using 1 cup and 1 plate per day, per person. Each person has a cup they use throughout the day, that gets washed at night. And one plate. After breakfast, they use their napkin to clean their plate. (We are still using paper napkins for now, I wouldn't recommend this if you are using cloth napkins.) I usually have to wipe my kiddos down after waffles with a baby wipe in the morning, so I use this wipe to wipe their plate at the end. Not impressed? Well in the summer, this move is allowing me to do only 1 load of dishes a day, instead of two. We occasionally have to get out a second plate or fork, but not often.


Bonus tip: You can stretch your dish washing detergent by adding regular baking soda in a 50/50 ratio. Baking soda is in most households, and so is dishwashing detergent- so hopefully that one won't cost you anything.