Ways To Save Money Around The House - Part 2
Welcome to the second installment of the ‘Ways to save money around the house’ series!
Saving money around the house takes some strategy. It isn’t all so simple as people make it out to be. Together with the information in our articles, you’ll be able to make a substantial dent in your debt problem and maybe even lay those problems to rest for good.
1. Energy Saving Light Bulbs
Choosing the right light bulb can help you make small savings throughout the year
You may not have been aware of it, but traditional light bulbs are a huge waste of money. They make you spend more than you normally would to light your house. Let’s look at the cost of a traditional light bulb VS. the more efficient energy saving models. You’ll find that even something as small as light bulbs can be effective means to save money in order to invest or pay off bills.
Traditional Incandescent Light Bulb:
Cost of electricity: 11.5 pence per kWhr
6 bulbs X 100 Watts per bulb X 8 hours per day
This comes to 4.8 kWhr total energy usage per day X 30 days = 144 kWhr of energy usage per month.
11.5 pence per kWhr X 144 kWhr of energy usage per month = £16.56 per month in energy cost from light bulbs alone!
On a yearly basis, this will cost you 1728 kWhr X 11.5 pence per kWhr for a total of £198.72 for a yearly cost.
Traditional incandescent light bulbs are being phased out by governments all over the world. They use too much energy and can possibly be dangerous. The UK is set to do away with using incandescent light bulbs altogether and has already started phasing them out since 2009. Using these bulbs will not help your debt situation at all, but there is hope! Let’s take a look at one of the more common energy saving bulbs and see how the savings stack up.
Common Energy Saving Light Bulb
Cost of electricity: 11.5 pence per kWhr
6 bulbs X 20 Watts per bulb X 8 hours per day
This comes to .96 kWhr total energy usage per day X 30 days = 28.8 kWhr of energy usage per month.
11.5 pence per kWhr X 28.8 kWhr of energy usage per month = £3.31 per month in energy cost using the more efficient bulbs.
On a yearly basis, this will cost you £39.72 in total energy usage!
So lets compare the two! With a traditional light bulb you’ll be spending £198.72 for a yearly cost. With a set of energy saving light bulbs you’ll be able to reduce that cost by an incredible £159! You’ll only have to pay £39.72 as long as your electricity costs 11.5 pence per kWhr. Plug in the correct figure for what you’re paying, the correct amount of light bulbs, and how long you use them per day using the above calculation method to reach your households energy usage for light bulbs per day, month, and year.
Exciting isn’t it? Look at how much money you’ll be saving simply by screwing in a common energy saving light bulb! It’s really incredible to know that anyone can do this in every household. All across the United Kingdom electricity bills we be lower than they’ve ever been before. The phasing out of the incandescent light bulb is one of the new innovations the United Kingdom is using to help people with their debt problems.
Ways To Save Money Around The House - Part 1
We have tons of ways to save money around your flat, house, or residence in general. Check out money saving tips and rejoice! You can use these tips to help remedy your debt problems for good.
Electric blankets can save your heating bills!
1. Electric Blankets - You should have one of these for every household member you have. Electric blankets can save you lots on the cost of your heating bill. To help you figure the cost of using the blanket, they use roughly 60-100 watts every hour. Multiply the amount of hours you’re going to be using the blanket per day by 60-100 watts. The wattage will vary depending on the heat setting you use. 75 watts per hour is a safe estimate. Divide the total number of wattage you use per day by 1,000 to realize how many kilowatt hours of energy you’ll be using each day you use the blanket. Then you’ll be able to calculate the seasonal costs of using the blanket through experience.
Tip: Wrap the electric blanket in an additional blanket to retain the warmth. Regular blanket on top, electric blanket underneath.
The savings accumulate because most people use their electric blankets during sleep hours. For the UK citizen, that’s a full 8 hours of savings over the cost of heating the house full blast at night. Many people turn their thermostat completely off during the night time because they are warm with their electric blanket. They don’t even notice the difference. Most people would agree that getting up to go to the restroom in a cold house is worth being a little chilly if you save hundreds of pounds per year on your heating bill. Even if you aren’t willing to turn your thermostat completely off, even reducing the thermostat by 10 degrees at night can yield a substantial savings. The best thing you can do is figure how many kilowatt hours of electricity you use with the electric blanket per night, month, and year.
Write that kilowatt hour figure down.
The cost savings of not using central heating at night so much because you’re using the electric blanket is substantial.
Calculate the actual cost the furnace usage is running you at the reduced usage amount and compare that to running the furnace the way you would normally.
Based on your monthly calculation, you’ll be able to see how much using the electric blanket is saving you.
2. Ginger Instead of Medication For Inflammation And Sore Muscles
NB: I am not a doctor, so do seek medical advice before doing anything that may impact on your health. These tips are for reference only.
Ginger has been used for centuries for its medicinal properties.
Ginger is a wonder root for inflammation. Whenever your muscles feel tired and run down, you may run to the medicine chest for your favorite pharmacy cure. Don’t do it! Ginger is MUCH cheaper and more effective. So how do you use it properly? Ground ginger works wonderfully well when rubbed into sore muscles. Make the ground ginger into a thick paste with some water and rub it into a sore neck. Then wrap your neck in a wet wash cloth to keep the ginger “activated”. Otherwise it will dry up quickly and not work well. We don’t recommend it for the groin area. That’s just too sensitive of an area to use ginger on. You’ve been warned on that.
A second way to use ginger is also easy. First buy some powdered ginger from a good supplier online. Turn a long sleeve shirt inside out, wet it with hot water, wring it out, then sprinkle enough ginger to moderately dust the whole inside of the long sleeve shirt, front and back, and dust the front and back of the arms as well. Turn the long sleeve shirt from inside out to normal and put it on. You should have a jacket you don’t care much about that retains warmth well to wear over the top of the wet shirt. This will allow the ginger to work with the water in the shirt as it’s pressed to your skin to reduce inflammation. The jacket will keep the otherwise wet and cool shirt warm and to your body. You’ll be amazed at how cheap this is and how much money you’ll save over the cost of anti-inflammatory medications. It’s truly a wonder cure of natural medicine.
More money saving tips around the home to follow tomorrow.
Why a credit card can be a bad idea for debt management
Credit cards can do more harm than good. If you weren’t aware of this before then it’s really time to put it into perspective. Credit cards not only tempt you to make exorbitant purchases, but they also can have high interest rates that are detrimental to your financial situation. Acquiring a credit card is exactly what credit card holders want you to do when you’re in debt. What they don’t tell you about is the loan sharks and harassing phone calls that could possibly await you when your cards get canceled and you’re left with an incredible amount of debt. As illegal as harassing phone calls are, they still happen in this day and age.
Bottom line, credit cards aren’t the answer to your debt problems. They only create more debt! Let’s look at an example of how a credit card can be detrimental to your financial situation. The average person has 2.7 credit cards to their name. The average amount of debt a consumer has to their name through their credit cards is way more than they should have. It runs into the thousands of pounds! If you don’t pay off what you owe each month the interest starts to pile up. How so? Well, credit card companies are clever. Let’s say you charged £1,000 in purchases. If you don’t pay back the full amount you charged on the cards, the full £1,000 within the grace period, then you would owe the interest on the full £1,000 in purchases until you paid back every cent. Even having 1 measly pound left in debt on the £1,000, after the grace period, would cause the full £1,000 to accumulate interest until the balance of the debt is paid back in full.
So you see, even having a measly £1 in debt from purchases can cause the entire £1,000 to incur interest charges. If you must own a credit card, which we highly disapprove of, then you must pay back every penny you owe within the grace period. Otherwise, all of the purchases, every single one, will acquire interest charges until it is paid back.
So you see, this is just one way that credit cards have you trapped. They know that the average person is never going to pay back within the grace period. You can be sure that they are counting on you making purchases that aren’t within your means. Anything you can do to save money without having to own a credit card would be a wise decision. Therefore ensure you check the small print to ensure your card has interest free purchases for a set introductory period.
Don’t fall into the credit card trap, and if you’re already part of it, check out more of our articles on how to save enough money to cancel them for good. We have tons of money saving tips and ways to live frugally. Not only that, but we show you how to live frugally and use it to your advantage. The more money you can get saved and invested, the better your debt situation will become.
Some Simple Debt Management Tips for Christmas
Remeber that Christmas is not all about the money or gifts - don't lose site of the real meaning of Christmas!
While it is exciting to watch as someone opens an expensive gift from you, the excitement dies quickly when the bill comes due. Christmas has gotten out of hand. There is no need to spend £100 on each person you buy presents. Instead of going into debt this year, try a few of these
tips.
1. Make your own presents. You do not need to be an artistic genius. Homemade gifts come from the heart and will be cherished much longer than anything you could buy. Set aside a couple of days and make sweets and cookies to give to friends.
2. Set limits on the amount everyone spends. Talk with your family and set a limit for the amount to be spent on each gift. Fifteen pounds is a reasonable amount for a gift.
3. Draw names from a hat. Instead of buying a gift for each and every person in yourfamily, have everyone draw a name from a hat and only buy for that person.
4. Impress upon your children that Christmas is not all about the presents, but about spending time with those you love.
5. When buying for your children, Santa only needs to buy one special gift for each child. A few small, inexpensive gifts can be added to the special one. Again, set your limit, and stick to it.
6. Plan ahead for next year. Start a Christmas savings account. Put £10 in the account
every week. By the time next year rolls around you will have the money you want to
spend and will not need to charge anything.
7. When using your credit cards for Christmas, only spend what you know you will
pay off in the next month. Do not get any new cards and charge them to the limit. If you
cannot pay it off in one month, it is too much.
It is hard to change everyone’s expectations, but it is time to start. Take the commercialism out of the holidays. Spend time together playing a few games, what you get out of an evening with family can never be replaced. If you instil this in your children while they are young when they are older they will keep themselves out of debt by knowing the Christmas is about giving vs. receiving. But, at the same time they will also know that they do not have to go broke in the process while trying to please others.
Making your money go further for Christmas
As Christmas is just around the corner i felt it was appropriate to share a couple of quick tips you can think about to get a little bit back into your bank accounts during a particularly expensive month. There are numerous quick debt busting tips to share that can help you reclaim some money back or reduce your outgoings.
Making use of 3-2 offers, store discounts and promotional items
During the festive season, there are numerous companies clambering for your attention and will try this by offering numerous deals and offers in major supermarkets. Take advantage of these deals whilst they are on to extend your shopping budget further.
Use cash back and voucher sites
Use popular cashback sites like Quidco and Topcashback to help earn a small percentage back on your online purchases. Every time you click a link through from Quidco to the merchant site you may earn a percentage back on your shopping.
Cashback percentages range from 0.5-2% for big ticket items like iPads etc to over 10% for groceries and shopping with some of the bigger highstreet retailers like Boots.com and Argos.
Also, lets not forget the voucher sites like MyVoucherCodes.co.uk and Vouchercodes.co.uk etc.
Get money back from mis-sold Payment proection insurance.
Look out for specialist PPI claims companies that can help you reclaim fees from unscrupulous or missold payment protection plans. These commonly include loan and credit card payment protection that is sold in on a policy unnecesarily.
The PPI claims companies often handle the claim on your behalf if you think you have been unfairly sold such insurance on your credit product. They will then take a percentage from your lump sum before paying the rest back to you.
Trade in old items on Gumtree or eBay
If you have lots of unwanted DVDs, games and CDs etc, why not consider using auction and classified sites like eBay and Gumtree to sell them. The advantage of Gumtree is an absence of commission or listing fees for adding products. That can add up considerably if you sell a large number of items, or higher value items.
Whilst you may not necessarily say thousands, these things could certainly help strecth budgets during a very expensive time of the year. Happy Christmas and new years!
