light bulbDon’t Let Your Electric Bill Zap Your Budget

In the previous post on household saving tips I wrote about conserving water. This post will focus on your electric bill. We’ll go over some personal finance basics regarding on of your larger utility bills. Hydro bills are especially high in the summer, with air conditioners raging. If you’re in the north and have baseboard heaters, you’ll find that hydro bills skyrocket in the winter as well. Here’s three tips to help reduce your hydro bill.

Are You Using that Computer? – I work in an office where the computers are on constantly. They don’t even get turned off on the weekends. A little research in personal finance basics will reveal that a computer uses more power per hour than one 14 watt compact fluorescent lamp for 24 hours. My work’s last hydro bill was $700 for one month. They would reduce their costs by at least 28% by turning the computers off in the evenings and weekends.



Is Your Home Energy Efficient? – Simple tasks like putting a plastic heat barrier on the windows in the winter will significantly reduce heat waste, and for goodness’ sake, keep the door shut. Ever heard your parents say “I’m not paying to heat the outside?” Sounds like they understood a common sense approach to personal finance basics. Look at other ways to make your home more energy efficient. You’ll not only leave less of an environmental footprint, but you’ll save tons on hydro.

Sometimes I Swear We Live in the North Pole – When you are looking to further your practical skills in personal finance basics one way is to look at how much energy your air conditioner consumes and reduce it if possible. For instance, whenever possible use a fan instead of the air conditioner. Another great way to reduce consumption is to set the thermostat up by 2 degrees. With heating for example, just reducing the heat by 2 degrees can reduce your home heating costs by 5%.

I hope you’ve found these tips helpful. I’ll mention it again, that as a financial consultant I teach a lot of personal finance basics to people looking to reduce living expenses. It’s important to maintain a comprehensive budget so you know where your living expenses are and to motivate you on ways to reduce those costs. If you haven’t searched google for budget tools yet, you can now, or try the one in our resource link. See you in Part-4

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Filed under: Home Finance & Insurance

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