Living on Less Than $28,000 A Year: Save On Utilities How our family of six survives (and even thrives) on an income that is less than half the national median income, and what the government calls “below the poverty line” (less than $29,990 annually) for our family size. Read other posts in this series here.
_____________________________________
Join me on Twitter or Facebook for instant updates or subscribe to my FREE e-newsletter to get posts right in your inbox!
____________________________________
One huge part of the typical American budget is utility costs, and it’s the same for us. Fortunately, we live in an area where our water bill is not very expensive. Previously we paid between $30 and $40 a month for water, and now we pay around $15 a month. That $15-$25 difference makes a huge impact when money is tight. [UPDATE: Since the date of this post, we have moved from our condo into a house and our water bill now averages $50 a month.]
Electricity is another issue. In our area, electricity costs are very high. Even for our small 3 bedroom condo, the previous owners spent an average of $275 per month on electricity (I know because we had to pay a deposit based on their average usage.). By being diligent about power usage I have kept our bill to between $85 and $125 a month during the winter, and around $185 during the summer months. We do live in a more temperate climate, but our summers are very hot.
The primary way that I save on power usage is by hanging my laundry to dry rather than using the dryer, which saves a minimum of $50 a month!
Before you discard this idea, read how I do it (and read some other utility bill reduction ideas at the bottom of the post.) 
I start one load of laundry every morning. The baskets above the washer and dryer are sorted into towels, light colored clothes and dark colored clothes. I can easily see which one is full and ready to be washed.
After the load finishes, I have one of the children move the clothes to the dryer, start it on high heat and set the kitchen timer for 10 minutes. By drying the clothes for a few minutes I eliminate most of the wrinkles and get the drying process started.
{I use a kitchen timer because my dryer has a cool down at the end of every timed cycle, so if I use the dryer timer my clothes cool down before I take them out. This means it will take longer for them to air dry.}
I remove my husband’s work slacks first and hang them on a hanger to minimize wrinkles because I HATE ironing! If you require a crisp crease in your slacks then you will still have to iron. (Notice my homemade laundry detergent on the dryer. )
I then hang the remaining clothes on a wooden drying rack. (I purchased mine at Walmart, but the racks that I have seen lately are made of plastic.). I start by hanging small items on the bottom rungs and work my way up to the top. I hang socks on the sides where the hinges of the rack are located.
Once I’m done placing the clothes on the rack, I slide it into this space between the wall and our computer desk. By the next day, the clothes are usually dry and the rack is ready for the next load.
If heavier items are still damp, we leave them on the rack or we place them in the dryer for a few minutes with a dry towel. Even though we are using the dryer, it only takes a few minutes to finish drying them.
The key to making this work is to make it a part of your routine, but if you don’t want to hang your laundry, why not set a timer to keep the cool down cycle from running at the end of the drying cycle, or try these ideas:
(There are lots of ideas for saving on utility costs. These are some that we actually use.)
Adjust the thermostat-We keep our thermostat at 65 in the winter and wear more clothing. We use a small space heater to heat the bathroom before showers.
In the summer we keep the temperature between 80-82 and use ceiling fans, drink lots of water and keep the blinds down in the afternoon.
You may not want to be as drastic as we are, but adjusting the thermostat just a few degrees can save $30-$50 or more on your power bill.
Avoid the Drying Cycle On Your Dishwasher-If you cannot automatically choose a non-dry setting, set a timer for the end of the cycle and slightly open the dishwasher door.
Adjust Your Cooking Methods-In the summer we use a crock pot to cook and we eat a lot of salads and fresh produce. In the winter, we bake a lot and let the oven heat keep the kitchen warm.
Unplug-Appliances and electronics that are plugged in are using electricity because the plug is forming a closed circuit that the electricity constantly runs through. By unplugging unused appliances, you open the circuit and stop the flow of electricity (which you are paying for.).
What ideas do you use to save on utility bills? Share in the comments.
next post: When Life Goes Wrong
Click here to see all the posts in this series.
You May Also Enjoy:
More Money Saving Ideas!
Frugal Family Fun
More Laundry Room Savings
{ 157 comments… read them below or add one }
Next Comments →
I’m trying to get our monthly utilities down as well. We live in Las Vegas and the summers are just soooo stinking hot and in the afternoon we get all the West sun. I close all the blinds and turn off all lights to try and keep it cool with the thermostat set on 79. We also have solar screens and the 2 rooms on either side of the patio have windows and doors tinted to help with the heat. Our bill is averaged at $175.00 monthly and we have 2550 square feet…..so that’s pretty good. I’ve been reading “The Money Saving Mom’s Budget” and I purchased a retractable clothes line from Walmart today. I like your idea of putting clothes in the dryer for 10 minutes….in this Las Vegas dry desert climate the clothes are so stiff if you just air dry them. We are also taking the grass out in the front yard and replacing it with rock to cut down on our water bill. It can get pretty hefty in the summer months, sometimes around $100. YIKES!!!! Maybe I could ask everyone to bath twice a week??? Thanks for the tips!!!
Haha-I say avoid baths all together. Just send them to the pool-lol!
The rocks can also make it hotter because they keep the heat in. What about watering at night?
I live in Las Vegas too and we try not to turn on the air conditioner until at least 5pm. The electricity is half the price after 7pm so that’s what we shoot for. With it being SO hot here we run the air conditioner all night at 79 to sleep comfortably. With the air running all night and keeping the blinds drawn after 11am the house stays cool until around 3 or 4. Our bills have been under $100 June and July and regularly around $125 in August and September.
Oh and we have our TV, Roku (no cable bill for us), Surround Sound and Wii connected to our light switch so every night we cut off the power to them.
Great tips! I am a new follower to your blog and have loved every post so far! Me and my hubby are both students living on part-time jobs so were living on an extremely low budget. We don’t own a dryer because of the hydro, we use a clothesline in the summer and a similar rack to yours in the winter, we also have a wood stove which saves us a lot of money on hydro and helps to dry the clothes if we place them beside it. We also avoid doing laundry, having showers and cooking during peak times if possible.
I will also often cook two meals at once so I don’t have to use the stove twice and then just reheat later. And use the bbq a ton in the summer to avoid using the stove at all. Plus we usually leave our lights off during the day and open all the blinds to let light in.
Thanks for the helpful tips! I look forward to more posts.
I only air-dry a few items of clothing right now, but maybe I’ll give it a shot for more of our wash. We lowered our utility bills quite a bit just by being diligent in turning off lights and shutting down the computer when we’re not using it!
we are in an area where I can hang some of our clothes outside.( we live in the country) I can’t hang all out because of the severe allergies that some of us have. we still use the dryer but am thinking about buying another rack so we can hang more on it. also we turn our heat way down @ nite in the winter. the air we turn up @ nite but not as much so we can still sleep:)
We live in an apartment. It costs $1.50 per wash and dryer load. I purchased a hand crank Wonderwash from Amazon. I do our underwear and socks in that machine…and then hang them on a plastic rack similar to your wooden one. OF course, every time I do this, I am saving $3. Winters are brutal here–but our heat is electric. We opted to buy an oil filled radiator heater. Amazingly enough one has been enough to heat our 750 square foot apartment. That has saved us a ton. So if you have a smaller place-try these small portable heaters. Once spring has sprung our laundry will all be hung to dry. We keep it 69 in winter and around 80 in the summer. Anyway, for those who can (we are a family of three), I really do recommend the Wonderwash. It is great. I am fairly new to that and hanging laundry… but we too live on an incredibly tight budget. We cook A LOT in the crockpot–and my baking days are always on the coldest days. Using the heat from the oven to help in heating the apartment. We have also cut down on showers, and we use the same towel until it gets washed again. After all, if you are clean when you get out of the shower, is your towel dirty?? We have tried to cut just about every corner we can. Thanks much for you blog–I am thoroughly enjoying learning how I can save our family even more.
I recently bought a Wonderwash and love it! It takes a few uses to get the hang of it, but its great! Especially since we don’t have our own washer and dryer.
careful with reusing towels, staff infections can occur if you do pop them in a dryer before washing it out…I remember it happened to a friend of mine in high school. It was gross.
If you really washed towels after one use, you’re spending a ton of money and putting so much wear and tear on your towels, only to spend money buying new ones too soon.
I hang things like sweaters and other clothes (mainly tops) that need to be washed on cold/delicate. It works pretty well unless the humidity is out of control, but that’s not terribly common. I have not thought of the combination of dryer for 10 minutes/hanging the rest. I guess I’m an either/or thinker.
I HATE the feeling of line-dried towels and jeans because they get so stiff!! When you combine the 2 methods, how does their softness compare? I’m all for saving money and we have an awesome drying rack that only gets used about once a month (when the “delicates” basket is full), so I’m definitely open to the possibility of using it more.
BTW, I LOVE that you’re doing this series! Your honestly is very refreshing and it’s so nice to be able to gain some fresh insights and wisdom. Thanks!!
Thanks Valerie!
We too hang dry as much as possible. I have always used the dryer after line drying outside. I thought it would help with allergens. Will have to try a few minutes before too.
I try to keep lights off and things unplugged. It’s hard to get the rest of the family to care about saving on electric sometimes. It is a constant battle.
Enjoying your series and can’t wait to read more.
As soon as there’s enough daylight, ALL lights are out. they don’t come back on until it’s not bright enough to read by. usually by 6:30-7pm now. I’m working on setting the thermostat lower. As we’re on oil heat. our furnace is also our water heater- it’s on demand- which is a blessing and a curse. we don’t have to wait for it to heat up, but it’s hard to regulate a temp. I’ve limited the kids to 10 min showers, and cut those back to 2-3 times a week to save on the oil bill. 100 gallons is nearly $400! Our electric bills are also quite expensive here. another reason i try to not run excessive lighting – even switched all but a few to florescents. My house is 2200sqft so cutting costs wherever i can i’m doing it.
As for the dryer..that’s an awesome tip! though i really hate stiff clothes, how do you get around that?
Drying them for a few minutes in the dryer seems to do the trick.
We spent a ton on heating/electricity our first year in our townhome. The we got a new thermostat (not expensive, maybe $15 or so and it was digital and programmable, etc.). That thermostat paid for itself in one month (not a very hot or very cold month, either)! Just a thought for those with older thermostats that can’t seem to get their bill down and their house is still uncomfortable temp.
I wanted to mention that I read that using the large “flour sack towels” as bath towels is a better option if you hang your laundry. They don’t get as rough as the other kind of towels. I am going to try this once spring is here and I can hang my clothes out without them freezing!
Just a thought for all of us who hate rough towels! 
Don’t love the idea of hanging laundry, but I do love $600 in my pocket per year, so I tried your method today. I was surprised how dry they were after 10 minutes in the dryer! Thanks for your brave series and the intentional way that you live. It is an encouragement.
Way to go Bec for trying something new! It’s not my favorite either, but I love that lower power bill.
We have a drying rack like that – when I’m not using it on the back porch, I use it in the bathtub – for some reason, the bathroom has the BEST air circulation, and stuff dries pretty quickly!
I also bought an extra shower curtain rod and put it parallel to the “real” one inside the tub, so that I can now hang LOTS of stuff over the tub on hangers, and also really big things like sheets! It’s also great to use for “drippy” things like raincoats and snow-covered stuff, all the water goes right down the drain!
I am really appreciating these posts – I’m getting so many great ideas – thank you!
I am so glad Kimberly!
I only put the better shirts into the dryer, and only for about 5 min., but we are in a fairly dry climate. Then, I hang shirts onto hangers and put them on the shower rod – they dry nicely and they are ready for the closet! Drying racks are in the basement, and things dry quickly there – I give everything a good shake with a ‘snap’ at the end, and that knocks out the wrinkles too.
I have explained to my daughter that if it’s light outside, we don’t need lights inside, and she’s good about using natural light when it’s available. We have CF bulbs in the most heavily used light fixtures – we’ve purchased them over time with the savings we have from our efforts. We don’t have air conditioning, but we really don’t need it here. If it’s a really hot day we spend more time in the basement where it’s cooler.
We heat with firewood and our furnace (which is propane) is back up, and usually only runs in the middle of the night. Our kitchen stove is propane too, and we’ve discovered that propane prices are much lower in the heat of summer, so that’s when we have our tank filled. It really helps a lot. Our electric bill runs $65 max, and we use verly little propane too. We don’t have a water bill because we have a well and septic, so we pump our own water (it’s an electric pump) and that’s part of that bill.
In winter when it’s very cold, I fill milk jugs with water and leave them outside overnight. We do a lot of gardening, and then freeze a lot of what we grow (I do canning and dehydrating too). So through the winter, the chest freezer starts to empty out a little, and I fill those empty spaces with frozen milk jugs, frozen by Mother Nature.
We wear sweaters in the winter, and rather than heat up the entire house by several degrees if someone is chilled, I encourage them to pop a hoodie in the dryer for 5 minutes. Putting on a warm hoodie, drinking a cup of tea or washing dishes by hand are all great ways to warm up!
Hope that helps,
-Laura at TenThingsFarm
GREAT ideas Laura, especially the freezing gallon jugs of water to fill up the freezer as it empties.
Thanks!
I love the idea of the extra shower idea inside the bath tub. I knew that darn guest bathroomn would coe in handy for something other then having another toilet to clean!
I’ve been hang drying my clothes ever since moving to AZ (from OR where there are very few not rainy days to hang them outside!). I stopped for a few months when I was very pregnant and nauseous and just couldn’t handle being in the heat long enough to get a load hung. I use vinegar in the washer as fabric softner and I think it works pretty good for hang drying clothes. I try to add a couple drops of essential oils to scent it too, but that doesn’t always happen. I don’t even turn my heat on in the winter, I think we did only a couple days when my husband was sick, but for the most part it’s not even needed. BUT I am not looking forward to summer when our electric bill gets to almost $300, which in talking to other people is apparently good. Last summer we kept our thermostat at 82 and tried to keep blinds shut and heat producing things off and I would mostly cook in the crock pot and plug it in out back. It just gets so stinkin hot that the AC is going 24 hours a day pretty much.
Try talking to your electric company to see if they have an “average bill pay” or something similar! We have the exact same problem in Oklahoma, so we set up for that. We end up paying something like $110 each month for electric (which includes our water heater and stove in addition to heat/air conditioning). We pay an extra $10-$15 more in winter, when we don’t use as much electric (too warm for heat) but it averages out so instead of paying $180 a month in August, we pay $70-80 less than that!
I love this series you are doing! We also keep it cold in winter (63 degrees day/59 degrees night) and warm in summer (78 degrees) but I confess I only hang laundry in the summer! Thank you your indoor clothes hanging tip. We time our showers, especially in the summer to help with the water bill. Keep the water heater turned down to 115 degrees, insulate the water heater, close all blinds/curtains at night in the winter, use a low flow shower head and toilet, etc. just a few ideas anyway.
Hi. I just stumbled across this site through Pinterest today and I am so glad I did. I am a single mom living on way less than $28000 a year so I am grateful for any tips and advice. I had tried hanging my clothes to dry before to save money, but was faced with the same stiff problem that everyone else seems to have. I can’t believe I never thought to do the dryer for only a short period of time. Thanks for the tip and all the others! I’m looking forward to reading the rest of your posts.
we live in a tiny apartment without a washe/dryer hookup. The laundry room downstairs charges $2 to wash and $1.25 to dry for single load machine. I have discovered that there is a laundrymat/gas station/casino close by that charges $1.50 to wash and .25 per 10 min of drying (and I never need more than .75 for dry clothes) for DOUBLE load machines! It is a HUGE savings and I get my clothes done in much less time.
For our utilities, I cook in a slow cooker about 6 nights a week because of time. My husband and I joke about being electricity nazis because we turn EVERYTHING off every night, unplug appliances/chargers etc and even started turning things like our tv/entertainment center off at the switch. We don’t run lights unnecessarily and keep the curtains closed on really cold days. We also plastic ALL of our windows in the winter. (which is extra necessary since one of the windows doesn’t close all the way and we live in Montana!) Our heat is gas, so that is a seperate bill. To cut that expense I turn down the thermostat during the day when no one is home. That’s about it. Fortunately the weather is getting nicer and our landlord is fixing up the building which has cut down on drafts A LOT, which means a lower heating bill!
We purchased a solar oven 6 years ago and it is wonderful. There are cookbooks available and, if you or someone in your family is gifted enough, you can even make your own solar oven. We purchased ours and it has paid for itself several times over.
I use my Crock Pot to make awesome meals that save on energy and I often make double the chicken or beef, etc. in one days cooking to use for the next days meal…2 meals from 1 use of energy!!
I love saving money, I am ALL for saving money and being frugal and doing these money saving tips but the problem is getting my husband on board.
He even complains about air drying the dishes- like seriously, how does that even effect him? It’s really frustrating but I would love for us to be a team when it comes to this.
Any tips?
That is a difficult situation AJ. I would first try having a direct conversation with him about why saving money is important to you and the fact that you would like to have some financial goals together. I heard Dave Ramsey say once that wives have to be more direct with their husbands than they are sometimes comfortable with. Woman like to hint at things and hope that the men get it. Many times they don’t–LOL!
If he is still unresponsive I would try to take a class together (Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace is a good one, and actually helped to save our marriage and our finances) or get some marriage counseling.
If you are a Christian, prayer truly does work and is sometimes the best route of all to bring change to our marriage. Stormy OMartian has a great book called The Power of A Praying Wife that has specific prayers to help you get started.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Hang in there!
We live in an older house in a very hot area (110-115 degrees during the summer). The windows are old and not energy efficient and a majority are on the south and west sides of the house. We found 1/2 inch sheets of foam insulation at the hardware store and cut them to fit into some of those windows. We also hung large outdoor shades over those windows to limit the amount of direct sun into the windows on that side of the house. During the warm winters we roll up the shade and remove the foam sheets and allow the warm sun to heat the house. This has kept the those rooms cooler in the summer and helps lower the electric bill.
I only turn on the lights once it gets to dark and I have to squint at my computer screen. lol
I also don’t own a television (my co-workers tell me I might as well be Amish, but you have no idea how nice it is not having one) which also means no cable.
I wash most of my laundry on cold unless it’s heavily solid clothing.
I close off the spare bedroom so I don’t have to heat or cool it.
Has anyone done regular vs. HE washer and dryers? Do you still save with line drying??? My dryer only runs roughly for 20 minutes at a time to dry a full load so I’m wondering if that extra 10 minutes does anything. I’m still struggling to get our bill down. I turn off lights, rarely use the AC or heat if I can help it, and definitely turn that sucker off when no one is home. Of course then I find that my husband has the AC on at random times. Our biggest issue is that we are in an upstairs apartment so the insulation is awful. Right now our electricity bill is on leveled billing, which means it takes your last years bills and averages out how much you pay so that one month you aren’t getting nailed with a $300 or $400 bill out of the blue. I still don’t know if it’s helping or not. We spend an average of $140 to $150/month for a 1250 sq. ft. apartment. Am I paying too much? I’m in Arkansas, if that helps.
I would contact your power company and check your actual usage, then you should be able to make a decision.
If you have central heat and air, don’t turn it off and on. When it is turned off for extended periods of time it has to work long and hard to get everything warm or cool in the home. Remember the floors, furniture, everything takes on the temp of the home. Turn the thermostat up or down. I work for a heating and air company and this is rule number one when people speak of their bills or that their equipment is not functioning to its best ability.
Heather is right. We are in a very rural area where we have no choice but to pay VERY high electricity costs. We were turning the air off during the day when we weren’t home and turning it back on (at 74 degrees) when we came home and we weren’t seeing much of a difference in the bills. (I’m in South Florida by the way so AC is a MUST all year long.) We set the AC on 78 permanently and now our bills are about $40 cheaper every month. The AC doesn’t have to work so hard to cool down the house. Also there are some sites that show you ways to clean your AC or build a shade over it to help it run more efficiently.
I put an adjustable shower rod in the closet above the washer & dryer, and it’s especially easy to hang up all our permanent press, then it all goes straight to the closets.
A few years back my husband and I lived in Kazakhstan for a few months. Clothes dryers are extremely rare there, so it is a very common sight to see clothes on the line everywhere, even in the dead of winter — Freeze-dried blue jeans! The trick to making line dried clothes softer is to iron them. I know it sounds awful, but if you don’t have a dryer, and can’t stand the scratchiness of air dried underwear (and really, who can?), it’s totally worth the time to iron and smooth down all the fibers.
Drying them for a few minutes accomplishes the same thing, but if you don’t have access to a dryer, ironing is a great idea (except that I hate to iron).
My husband and I live in a small 1 bedroom in southern california. We have NEVER used our heater, we don’t even know how! If it gets chilly in winter we will cook dinner in the oven and then leave it open to heat the house (as your suggested) or we will put a pot of water simmering on the stove. This humidifies and warms the air several degrees in a small space. The only catch with this is that you must have a pot designated ONLY for simmering water for warmth as the water minerals will deposit on the pot and you won’t want to cook with it. If it gets too warm in summer, instead of running the air, we will hang wet towels over the screen doors and set a fan in front of them blowing cool air into the house like a swamp cooler. Running just a fan is MUCH cheaper than running the air and works most days of the summer. We also don’t watch television during the day in summer because the plasma screen gets too hot!
I love the wet towel idea Stephanie. Thanks!
Love your ideas! Thanks- We have 4 kids too and I can’t figure out how you only have 7 loads of laundry a week?! We would be buried alive if we only did one load a day! We hang sweaters, dress clothes, jeans for the 2nd half do the dry cycle and towels that are too bulky to dry in 1 cycle (dryer is old) and it seems like we never have enough room. I just can’t fathom hanging everything! Is it really only 7 loads????
My oldest two were doing their own laundry for the past two years, so I only had to do one load a day for the four remaining family members with one of those loads being towels. I did do two loads on the day I wash sheets. Now all the kids are doing their own laundry so I only do about three loads a week plus towels and sheets. We also have fewer clothes so the laundry pile can’t get too big before we have to wash.
Even if the kids are doing their own laundry, doesn’t that still count towards your total household utility usage? Do the kids also hang-dry their clothes? I’ve got five kids (two are twin infants) so I’m trying to figure out how to implement this idea into our own family routine. Thanks!
Hi Amy! I was speaking to the question about how I do so few loads of laundry.
Yes, the children do sometimes hang their clothing. I think when the kids are smaller, it is probably easier to do all the laundry yourself. If it were me, I would probably do a small load with all the baby clothes and just dry them in the dryer with a dry towel. It would make me crazy to hang all those little things–haha!
If you dry your other clothes for about ten minutes and then hang them, you can probably get by with one load a day as well unless your children are changing clothes multiple times a day. I also dry my towels and washcloths in the dryer because, again, I hate hanging a bunch of little things on the rack.
Hope that helps.
The electricity running through a cord to an appliance does not “use” electricity, any more than the wires in the walls do. They are only a “stream” that channels electricity to where it’s needed. Then the power waits there like water behind a dam until something is turned on and uses the power. It is the teeny bit of some appliances that stay on, such as an “On” light, an internal timer, a clock, etc. that use electricity. Don’t go around unplugging your desk lamps and your cellphone charger thinking it will save you anything.
Sorry, I meant to say, the WIRE running through a cord, in that beginning sentence.
Honestly, I did see a savings when I unplugged things rather then leaving them plugged in. I’m talking major stuff like microwaves, bathroom electrics (hair straighteners and blow dryers), and my powerstrips that had my entertainment system on it. It wasn’t much maybe $2 a month but every little bit helps.
Actually many electronics, especially tvs and other entertainment equipment, uses electricity while plugged in. Even cell phone charges do. My father is an electrician and I have been lectured time and time again on the properties of electricity. If there is a closed circuit for electricity to flow through then it will. It does not know when the appliance is turned “off” for it to wait. It can only tell if it is an open or closed circuit and if it can flow it will. It may be slower than when the item is turned on but it will still flow. Also with cell phone chargers and such, air is a slight conductor (just look at lightning) and even if it doesn’t look like a closed circuit the air will cause some (very small amount) electricity to flow which will raise your bill. So for people on an extremely small budget this is a way to decrease your electric bill a few dollars and the more you unplug the more you will save. think of how many kitchen appliances, electronic devices, and other electric items that remain plugged in at your home. Each of those could be a money saver to just unplug them for a little while.
Generally if an appliance has a clock (like the oven) it will still use electricity when not “in use”. Unfortunately I don’t have physical access to my oven or microwave’s plugs, so I can’t unplug them. But I put my TV and DVD player on a power strip and I turn them off each night.
I also don’t use the second floor of my house at all, and it’s on a seperate A/C unit. I keep it at a steady 82 degrees. I keep downstairs at 78 and it often goes over 100 here in the summer. Every little bit helps! I’d like to get a programmable thermostat.
We still have an older style upright washing machine, with a laundry tub beside it. It is not a “suds saver”, but we run it as though it is. When I start a load of laundry, I put the hose that would otherwise go into the drain into the laundry tub and put in the plug. The soapy water goes in here and makes some noise. When the machine moves to rinse, I switch the hose so that it goes down the drain pipe again. When that load is done, I empty the machine and then scoop the saved water back into the machine with a large bucket. Ready for a second load. I do whites or sheets for the first load and darks for the second one. I am blessed to have a clothesline outside in warm weather and lines hanging from the ceiling of my laundry room for the winter.
With this method I have overflowed the laundry tub by forgetting to switch the hose in time, but setting a portable timer to alert me when it is “switch time” helps.
Sounds like a lot of work, but a great way to save money!
Any suggestions for trying to line dry clothes when living in a more humid climate?
Sometimes my towels aren’t even all the way dry 24 hours after using them to dry after a shower. I couldn’t imagine my clothes drying properly!
Maybe a fan blowing on them while hanging on a drying rack?
This is all new to me… so any advice would be helpful.
This is a great site with lots of great ideas! Thanks everyone!
I actually live in a very humid climate. There have been times when some of the clothes are not all the way dry, but if I need something I can stick a few things in the dryer for 10 minutes and they’re done. It still saves money compared to drying the whole load in the dryer. I find that clothing dries much faster than towels, plus your bathroom is probably the most humid room in the house.
Do you have a ceiling fan with a light kit? You can hang four items on hangers – one from each light stem – and turn the fan on low. It works for me!
We don’t watch TV, really… we have one, but we typically keep it unplugged unless we have a show that we enjoy watching. We keep our AC off unless it’s too hot to sleep. In the winter, we keep it around 63-64. We get all of our oven-baking done in one day during the summer and pre-make meals for the week. We shower cold (it’s a choice that we make based on our own principles of health). We keep certain rooms (our guest room and office) closed off and shut out the heat/AC to those rooms because we don’t use them much.
I have spent the last hour perusing all your tips and I love them! I’m a single mom with 2 toddlers. I make a great income as a nurse but being saddled with half the marriage debt when I got divorced has made things very, very tight! A couple of years ago I started making some small changes to save on utilities and last year I really made some drastic changes. I live in Alaska so our winters are loooooong and dark (only a couple hrs of meager light a day). So I started burning more candles for daytime and really enforcing the lights off to the kids whenever they left a room. I also kept my heat at only 68 degrees. We just wore more clothes and I have lots of throw blankets! And in the summer, we have almost 24 hr light so I rarely use the lights then. With this I have been able to keep my electric bill <$100 even in the winter. Usually around $75 in the summer. The most important thing though is that I stopped showering at home. I teach Jazzercise and attend classes on almost all my days off so I just do my daily shower there after my morning class and on the days I work I simply go earlier to shower there. I realize I'm lucky that I have that option so I take full advantage of it. It also means I use less electricity as I don't use my blow dryer every day at home like I used to do! So that just leaves the kid's bath every evening they are with me (3-4 nights/wk) and my Sun morning showers before church. I was able to bring my water bill from about $170 down to about $110. (I can't even fathom only paying $15/mo for water!!!) I do own a duplex and pay for my tenants water as well, which accounts for most of the water cost. I also cut cable out, which saved me another $60/mo! Thanks for all your tips here, it's always good to get reinforcement that what I'm doing will eventually lead to a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm already noticing that there is starting to be "leftovers" at the end of every month I can start putting into savings! Hallelujah!!
Yay for leftovers! Thank you so much for sharing Richelle. You are a perfect example of how people can find ways to save no matter how desperate the situation seems. It just takes commitment and some hard work. I am really proud of you for taking the initiative to make your income work for you!
My husband and I are CRAZY when it comes to saving energy. We replace every dead bulb with cfls so we aren’t wasting the good bulbs (tryin to be green), we have everything in our house on a serge protector and turn stuff off at the switch every time we aren’t using it (not just at night) so our computers, gaming consoles, tv, etc don’t take up power. If we are going away for a weekend (we used to live several hundred miles apart so this was almost constant), we turned off the water heater at the breaker box. No need to heat water we can’t use!!
I had heard about turning off the water heater, but I know that I would forget to turn it back on and end up in a cold shower–haha!
We are recently down to a single income and economizing wherever we can. A tip I have not seen yet is to run the spin cycle on the washer TWICE before drying. It really gets out the final drips of water before drying. I am going to try some of your indoor line-drying. That will help! Thank you!
GREAT idea Linda! Thanks!
We are also a family of 6 and for the life of me I cant figure out how you get away with just one load of laundry a day! Between clothes, towels, sheets, etc I would get so far behind. Please share any tips! Thanks.
It helps that my oldest two were doing their own laundry at the time of the post. Now all four of my children do their own laundry, which is usually one load each per week. Since the bath towels are only used on clean bodies, I wash them every other week. The kids use a bath poof instead of washcloths. They also don’t change their clothes a lot–maybe that helps. I don’t know what else to tell you.
Well that makes more sense. My oldest is 7 so I’m pretty much doing all the laundry.
I think little ones create more laundry too. They like to spill things and get dirty.
I hang dry all my clothes as well, but I don’t put them in the dryer because we would have to go to the laundromat. I noticed you put your shirts on the drying rack. I’ve started putting my shirts on a hanger and hanging them on the bar in the shower. This frees up more room on the rack for smaller items and not having to overlap items.
I’m glad I discovered this blog!
Hi Becky! I do hang some shirts on hangers, but my husband doesn’t like the hanger marks in the shoulders of his knit shirts.
Great tip to save space though.
I took foam pieces out of the packaging for something (maybe a printer or DVD player… I forget) and cut them to the shape of the hanger and slid them over the ends of the hangers and superglued them to make padded hangers. It solved the problem of hanger shoulders on my knit tops.
Thanks for the tip Eilene.
I have found that too, but if you line the hanger up with the stitch lines, it’s not too bad. I’ve had to get on my husband to make sure he takes his time to hang them.
When we put a new roof on we choose the most expensive energy efficient asphalt one. It is a light gray white & at first I hated it, but now it looks just normal. We re-insulated the attic with the highest R rating. We have the thermostat set at 79 in the summer & around 72 in the winter. Our gas & electric bills run $220. per month year around- yes year around and our house has 4,400 square feet. We have changed most of our light bulbs to energy efficient “green” ones. We live in the midwest.
We also hang our laundry to dry, and have done so for many years!
I am a 25 yr old domestically challenged recovering spendaholic. But despite some of my reforming wanton ways, like our $300 monthly electric bill (I keep the thermostat at 70 and I live in FL) – I am the ultimate laundry guru. Lol, but in all seriousness ladies, the dryer is not your friend!!! It strips color from your clothes, shrinks /stretches them out of shape, makes fabric all fuzzy and pilly, and, as we all know, is an energy hog. The only things I dry in the dryer are also the only things I wash in hot water: white dress shirts, socks, towels, and sheets. Everything else washes in cold and hang to dry. Yes, I even hang up my unmentionables. If I splurge on nice VS undergarments, I’m sure as heck not going to ruin them with the dryer! We invested in a double hang rolling garment rack from Wal-Mart for about $30 and it has been a life saver for air drying. I spend a lot of time on doing laundry, I have different mixtures of detergents, vinegar, borax and the like, but it really makes a huge difference on the look and feel of your clothes!
I too use a clothes line (huge savings!) My husband calls me the electricty nazi : I have everything in our home on Surge protectors (slightly expensive to set up but works great they don’t draw as much electicity and save time turning things off) we turn off lights in rooms we are not in no matter what! and in the winter we set the temp to 60 and summer to 75 our weather in tx is more extreeme it sounds than yours…also in the summer i go out and “water” the ac unit a few times durring the heat of the day it keeps the unit from working as hard and helps to cool the air more rapidly. I have also bought vinyl window covers that I installed on all the windows to keep drafts out in winter and heat out in summer…I also made heavy drapes to cover the windows where the sun hits the most it helps to keep the rooms more tolerable.! Just some IDEAS TO SHARE!
I never heard of watering your ac unit. Interesting! Thanks for the ideas.
What a brilliant idea to cool off the A/C unit!
I used to hang clothes on the line when I was younger. I am going to try this kow that I have a family and a high utility bill.
One way I reduce my utility expense is by avoiding using my stove and oven as much as possible. Propane is our highest bill and also happens to be what the stove and oven run on, so I do as much cooking and baking as possible in a toaster oven or the microwave. You’d be surprised how many things can be made in one of the two.
I always do an extra spin cycle after the washer is finished. It takes about 10 minutes, draws very little power (and no water
and it cuts between 15-20 min off the time in the dryer. For those of you that want to hang clothes but don’t like the stiffness try using the Air Fluff cycle on your dryer. Once your clothes have line dried, toss them in the dryer with a couple tennis balls or dryer balls and set it to air fluff or tumble only (no heat). This will soften your clothes and because the dryer isn’t making any heat it draws very little power. Hope this helps!
GREAT tip Lynnsy–thanks!
My husband and I are very tall and we can’t dry most of our shirts or pants since then they will shrink too much. So I hang everything up on hangers and hang them on a rod in the laundry room to air dry. Then when everything is dry and stiff, I toss it in the dryer on “air fluff” for about 15-20 minutes. If I then fold or hang everything up promptly, I never have to iron anything (except the few dress shirts my husband has that he irons himself). If I wasn’t washing clothes for three little ones, then I would definitely consider expanding this idea to all of our clothes.
I know what you mean Karen. It would take a long time to hang all those little clothes.
I live in the Northeast and we get some chilly nights from September through May. I found I can lower my thermostat even more at bedtime since I started using fleece, yes fleece, not flannel sheets on my bed! If you’ve never tried them, they are absolutely awesome, don’t shrink, and Walmart carries them in all sizes at a very reasonable price.
That is a good idea, but doesn’t sound so pleasant with our recent 90 degree weather–LOL!
There are 5 of us living here and our water bill is $119 every other month, no matter how much or how little we use it. It nearly kills me to pay that. Even when I hauled 6 baskets of laundry to the laundromat twice a week, and showered at the gym, it didn’t change. Bleh.
Anyway – we had our house weatherized 2 years ago. It didn’t make a huge difference in our expenses, but we are much more comfortable inside now. There’s no drafts in winter and in summer the downstairs living area is quite nice. We do use a fan in the evenings upstairs in the bedrooms which makes it cool for the mornings as well.
Looking forward to learning more cost-cutting tips. Household income is slightly less than yours, so we need all the help we can get.
Sorry about your water bill. That seems a little crazy!
Agreed. It works out to $59.50 a month. Just nuts.
I forgot to mention that the gym membership was a Christmas gift from my mother for the 2 of us – for 6 months. While I loved it, I’m too much of a tightwad to shell out for something like that regularly!
I too so much admire and appreciate this series. Family finances are much more touchy and emotional than religion or politics:) We are a family of 7 living on 3,000 a month. I wanted to add something wise and helpful but I think you and your readers have touched on everything we do.
My biggest prayer right now is cutting down on our water bill. We live in southern Ca and pay $175. month. I do have three teens that I am trying to get to take showers but the problem isnt our usage it is the cost and the way it is figured…BUT we dont have heating or coolign expenses. AT ALL.
I did not take the time to read through all of the comments so perhaps someone said this already – but A/C is not like heat – turning it up and down is not as efficient as finding a temp that you can live with, both day and night and leaving it there. I’ve had two or the HVAC guys tell me that – if I want to save money on the bill, quit going up and down – pick a temp and leave it there. (we do 78 -but perhaps we could even go a tad warmer – it’s just that I’m doing alot of re-organizing right now, and I kept getting sweaty, so I bumped it down a couple of degrees) Use fans if that is too hot to sleep at night. Heat is not the same – it takes WAY less energy to generate heat, than to generate cool… going up and down will not be as obvious in the power bill, as it will with the A/C.
Thanks Sharon.
A friend (from England) showed me how she saved on her water bill. Keep jugs by your sinks and bathtubs. When runing the water to heat up, fill the jugs with the cool water from the tap. This you can use as drinking water, watering house plants or outdoor plants, or garden.
I tried some of your tips (Hanging all my clothes and drying towels for 5 mins in the dryer then hanging to dry). I also realized that my wireless internet was plugged in and transmitting even for the hours that I wasn’t home, I now unplug it everytime I leave. With these small changes I was able to take $9 off my already super reduced monthly bill.
THANK YOU !!
Yeah! That’s great.
Next Comments →