Thursday, April 2, 2009

Weekly Wrap Up

It is time once again for the Weekly Wrap Up over at Getting Ahead. Here is what I did this week to be frugal.

We are on a no spend challenge for the month of April. This means we are going to challenge ourselves to not eat out or spend any unnecessary money this entire month. I have also had a talk with our older boys about energy usage lately since I have noticed more and more lights being left on when not in the room, using a new towel each day to shower, etc.

I have really noticed a difference in our energy bill again this month. Last month I posted about the savings on our energy bill. It was amazing. This month was almost as good. Our average daily gas usage was $8.47 at this time last year. This year was $5.48. Our electricity was $2.68 last year compared to $2.41 this year. I know most of this has to do with our heat. We have hot water heat, which uses gas. Last year I kept the temperature about 70 all the time. This year I have lowered it to 65 at night and 66-67 during the day.

My husband completed our rain barrels. This should hopefully save us a little money in the water department come Summer. We also finally got our seeds potted. I am so excited to get our garden started!

I did the usual of washing laundry in cold water, using our cloth napkins, keeping lights off during the day, and recycling. I also paid a couple bills over the phone to save checks and stamps!

How has your week gone? To see how others are being frugal check out Getting Ahead.

6 comments:

  1. Do you pay bills online? I seldom buy stamps or checks because I pay everything online through the credit union or our ING account. It's free and very easy to use.

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  2. I don't pay bills online because I have always liked the paper trail. However, I am starting to pay more and more things over the phone and maybe I will eventually take the plunge and pay online.

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  3. With the credit union you can set up estatements so you do have that trail still and it goes back years and years, it's just not paper....but it is another way to be green! :)

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  4. Sara, We also pay our utility bills online. It's so quick and easy. I also have an an old day planner from 1975 (Yikes, call me crazy), but I only use it as a book to keep track of all our monthly bills. Each year takes two pages face to face so, I've been doing it all these years in that book. After I write down the expense, I put the current bills under the front cover and munch the ones from the month before. I usually avarage the monthly bill for each utility at the end of the year. We do budget billing with MidAm so that bill is the same each month. Congrats on doing a good job of conservation. Grandma A

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  5. Glad to see I won-I tried commenting on the winning post but it wouldn't work for some reason. Here is my e-mail address: arianiah@hotmail.com

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  6. Sara, I'm getting excited about spring and vegetables and being able to ride and work our horses once again. The rain and snow are such downers! We did lose Charlie last week - she had cancer - something you would never think of for a horse her age. I use both online and mail for bills.

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