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Friday, July 9, 2010

A simple way to cut your light bill.


Okay, so recently my husband and I sat down and tried to decide what we could do to lower our electric bill. Electricity is a necessity, but is it really necessary to run all of the appliances the way we have been??

After giving much thought to this, we decided we would cut out the use of our clothes dryer. This may sound drastic for some, and trust me I know that it is not for everyone, but we thought it was "do-able".

My wonderful hubby went out and put up a clothes line for me, and I found some clothes pins. At first I did not know if we could do it, because we have many children in our house, and that means lots of clothes. However, I am proud to say that it has now been an entire month since we used the dryer, and I am so excited!!

I know that it may seem really silly to be excited about something that small, but at our house we were washing and drying 2 to 3 loads of laundry per day. I have not received the bill to reflect this change yet, but I am interested to see how big of a difference it has made.

It really is the small things that make me happy, haha. What really excites me the most is that we were able to do something that we really wanted to do, simply because we put our mind to it and tried.

Although I may look a little old fashioned when I am hanging out my clothes, guess what, it doesn't bother me, it just makes me more unique, right????

So, what have you all done to save money this past month?

For more frugal tips check out:
Life As Mom


photo source: copta

8 comments:

Momma Button said...

Long distance high five on going a month! Soon it will be a habit you don't want to give up.I grew up using a clothes line, and I still hang our clothes out until the weather gets too cool.

Jan said...

I am 36 and never have owned a dryer.I burn wood in the winter so I hang a line from wall to wall and they dry in about 30 min.

Tara said...

Good for you! We may have to try that. Last week I started using cloth wet wipes to save money:

http://keepmovingforwardwithme.blogspot.com/2010/07/tackle-it-tuesday-cloth-wet-wipes.html

Sweep Finds said...

I have been clothesline drying our clothes for years and love it. Nothing beats that fresh smell of line dried clothes...except maybe fresh homemade bread right out of the over.

We did a lot of different things to lower our gas/electric bill which used to average $300+ a month down to $100ish. Up here in the Milwaukee area our gas and electric are combined into one bill.

We also have an electric dryer so our savings may be inflated a bit compared to those of you who have a gas dryer since gas is more efficient.

Kimberly said...

That's great! I'd love to know how much you save. I've wanted to transition to even partially hanging out our clothes before, but I live across the street from 10 chicken houses. Our clothes would not have a very pleasant smell after they came in from the clothes line.

Maria said...

Way to go. That is so awesome. I hope you notice a savings. Do clothes feel more stiff when they are line-dryed?

Brandy said...

Thanks Ron and Connie, I grew up with a dryer, but my Grandmother faithfully used a clothes line. I remember helping her all of the time.

Tara, that is a great idea, using the cloth wet wipes. I try to do the same, we are paperless (in the form of paper towels and napkins in our house.

Kimberly, wow, a chicken house. I don't blame you for not hanging out your clothes, I would hate for mine to smell like chickens.

Maria, the only thing that I have really noticed that feel more stiff are the towels, but I don't think it is that bad. It is a trade off I am willing to make, if it will cut my extremely high light bill.

Lauren said...

I did study abroad in Australia back in college. One of the things that struck me as odd was that they all dried their clothes on lines. They think it's weird that we don't (when the weather is nice). So you are just bein' like the Aussies :)

That being said...I don't think I could ever do it, even if I wasn't living in Chicago proper. It's a lot of work. That's so great that you are doing it :)