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It doesn't save much with the old-style incandescent bulbs, but it would save a lot with fluorescent lights. They take a big surge of power to fire up, then very little to run once they're on.
So if you have a fluorescent light in the kitchen and are baking something in there while also doing something in another room, better to just leave the kitchen light on until you're finished in there rather than turn it on and off every time you go in there to check the oven or something. Fewer starts helps extend the life of the bulbs, too.
I also keep an LED nightlight on at night in the bathroom so if someone has to go in the middle of the night they don't have to flip on the light to see (which is a bigger deal for men than women, of course). The cost to run the LED all nigh is less than the cost to run the ceiling light for even a minute or two, plus turning on a bright light can release melatonin in your system which can make it hard to go back to sleep.
We're retired. Because we were able to get the house and cars and some other properties paid for we are debt free and over 65. The reason I pointed out we are over 65 is that we get all sort of little tax breaks by being older.
Property tax goes down; in our area we don't pay property tax on the first 75,000 value of the house. The end result is, we only pay $900/year property tax.
Income tax goes down. We get an extra $7600 deduction for being over 65.
And then we pay less for movie tickets, senior coffee at McDonald's, and so forth.
We're not taking distribution for the 401(K) yet. When we do it will count as ordinary income, so I'll take the minimum allowed. It looks as if the insured savings we have will last us forever, though. It hasn't gone down at all since I retired in Dec, 2010.
It'll go down some next month, though; we're going to Bermuda Ok, that's not frugal. But we can afford it.
To all you younger people:
You've got some great ideas and good spirit. Keep working at it and everything you want will appear. Make a goal book and put pictures of things you want in it. You'll be surprised at what you can do.
Just wanted Dan to say that again. Look at the original and memorize the ingredient. Like diphenhydramine, which is Benedryl. Then trot yourself over to Dollar General and buy about 60 of them for $4.00.
I did not leave the house today so no spending outside of the home and no shopping online for about 5 days now. I shop a lot online during the winter months but I only purchase things we do actually need so I'm not shopping just to shop.
Just wanted Dan to say that again. Look at the original and memorize the ingredient. Like diphenhydramine, which is Benedryl. Then trot yourself over to Dollar General and buy about 60 of them for $4.00.
Personally I would not do this, some of the products sold at Dollar General are not made by US Pharmaceutical companies and are not FDA approved for the ingredients, but that is just me and I don't know that for an absolute fact but I did read it somewhere at some point not long ago.
Like every morning, let water run hot in the shower and catch it in a bucket. For watering my flower garden.
Good idea!
I eat my breakfast at home but I did end up buying tea for .75 cents.
I also brought my lunch.
Going out to eat later with a living social deal.
And hopefully will get into a free comedy show later tonight. If not I will go to the movies with discount tickets.
Ate leftovers all day yesterday. Opened the windows late at night instead of using the A/C. Didn't buy the coffee drink I wanted. Continue to use an antenna for t.v. And continue to use the cheapie cell phone plan and the "dumb" phone that everybody teases me about.
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Ok, that's not frugal. But we can afford it.
