What do you do to cut costs in your household?

[pontifex]

I assume this is with PagePlus. About once a month, http://www.callingmart.com/ has 5% coupon codes for PagePlus refills, taking it down to $76. It's not a huge savings, but every little bit counts.

I recently switched my wife over to the $80 PagePlus card, and I'll switch once my T-Mobile minutes run out. Our new house doesn't get any reception except for Verizon/PagePlus.

yeah, pageplus. when i switched i had just missed the coupon expiration by like 3 or 4 days. I plan to use the discount next time i need to refill.

i get very little signal with verizon pageplus. everything else is pretty much dead. I rarely use the phone and now that I don't drive to work i use it even less. Its basically for emergencies or if i'm out and need to call someone or someone needs to call me.

I wish i could figure out how to lower my electric bill more though. I try to turn off everything when I'm done using it. It seems to hover around $120 a month.
I just moved in this house in June. I use a wood stove for heat right now. The summer with AC was like $155 at the highest. I work from home so I have a laptop and monitor and light on for at least 10 hours a day when I work.

 

[kalrith]

I wish i could figure out how to lower my electric bill more though. I try to turn off everything when I'm done using it. It seems to hover around $120 a month.
I just moved in this house in June. I use a wood stove for heat right now. The summer with AC was like $155 at the highest. I work from home so I have a laptop and monitor and light on for at least 10 hours a day when I work.

I recommend buying a Kill-A-Watt: http://www.amazon.com/P3-Internation.../dp/B00009MDBU

It works with any 110 plug. It can track the present usage of things and also the kWh over time. So, if you have an old fridge, you can see if it's using a ton of electricity. But it won't help you monitor something like your water heater.

Do you use gas for anything, or is everything electric? If your highest bill with AC was about $155, I would guess that you should be down to below $100 right now. I used to live in a house that was all-electric (including a well pump) except for propane heat. I peaked at around $160 in the hottest summer months (in Missouri) and stayed around $90 to $100 all winter.

Unplugging things that use electricity constantly is good. Using CFL bulbs and turning down the heat on your water heater can also be helpful. If you have a well pump, then you might want someone to come and calibrate it. When I bought my last house, I had some insane power draw that I couldn't track with my Kill-A-Watt meter. I wound up turning off all the breakers and turning them on one by one to see what was using the power. With everything off except my well pump, I found out what was using all the electricity. I paid less than $100 to have it calibrated, and it saved me about $50/month in electricity after that.

 

[vi edit]

I wish i could figure out how to lower my electric bill more though. I try to turn off everything when I'm done using it. It seems to hover around $120 a month.

How old is the refridgerator in the home? Some of the older ones are terribly innefficient. I've got over 4000 sq/ft of conditioned space with a family of four in the midwest and my last 3 bills have been between $120-$155. And that's with two fridges, a power hungry switch, computers, ect running 24/7.

 

[MovingTarget]

My wife is pretty savvy about searching for coupons/deals for groceries. I have started eating out less and bringing my lunch to work instead of buying from the cafeteria. We typically use only cold water for washing clothes. Even for the shower, our waterpik has the option to temporarily reduce the flow of water when you don't need it. I switched to a DE razor and soap to save on shaving costs. Turning off lights helps too. Taking dumps at work saves on TP.

I'm sure we could do more, but cutting out the cable bill will be a little hard for us. I'm currently waiting for my cell contract to be up so that I can reduce that bill too. Short of that, I should probably drink less caffeine and alcohol. Those add up.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

How's your attic insulation situation?

 

[JulesMaximus]

Got a pellet stove to save on oil.

Run the washer on cold only.

Ride my motorcycle whenever possible to save on gas.

Stay single so I don't spend money on a g/f.

I've found that the cost of tires and maintenance offset any fuel savings. But then, I ride an 1100cc Ducati.

 

[jumpncrash]

You kill two birds with one stone that way. Less mouths to feed + extra food. Just get a good chest freezer.

then you can break out a chunk on weeks you want to save even more on the food bill

 

[highland145]

How's your attic insulation situation?

This, for sure. Cheap, DIY.

 

[Gunslinger08]

1. Heat is set to 64. I don't like it very warm anyway. We use blankets while sitting on the couch.
2. Switched to the AT&T Mobile Share plan. Saved us about $35/month and we get more minutes and data.
3. Used to go to the movie theater a lot. Been skipping most movies and waiting for Vudu or Redbox.
4. We take my wife's car on any long trips. It gets about twice the mpg as my vehicle.
5. I read all of my books on a Kindle, which are a couple bucks cheaper than physical books. Most books I read aren't carried by local libraries and reselling them would probably result in little to no gain because of shipping costs and a smaller market for the stuff I read.
6. Stopped buying games that aren't on sale, unless it's a huge release that I'm really excited about. I have a big backlog, so why pay full price for a game that I won't play for 2 years?
7. I don't really buy clothes. I get stuff for holidays. I don't especially care about fashion. Jeans/shorts, tshirt, and button up shirt works 24/7/365.
8. I do some home projects myself, with help from family and friends. Built my own fence. Was basically the general contractor finishing my basement, but farmed out the stuff I didn't want to screw up. I considered building my own deck, but we decided to just hire a contractor. I did adjust the plans to save costs by slightly reducing the size (2' to remove an entire required row of support posts) and choosing my own decking material (cheaper and more highly reviewed than the leading brand).
9. Generally just researching everything before buying. If I'm buying something that isn't a consumable, I read professional and user reviews and try to actually learn about the product so I can compare it to other models myself. This lets me buy products that will better fulfill my needs and last longer.