Little Ways to Save

I have been asking everyone I know how they save money. I was emailing my sister-in-law, Jonna, last week and she said that she was going to ask her kids what they thought. Jonna is an amazing mom to my nephew Ben, nephew Quentin and niece Megan. She allowed me the privilege to witness the birth of all of her children, well, almost all of them, If I remember correctly Ben needed a little assistance and I missed the arrival because it was in the surgerical suite! Ben is a roofer in this hot weather, Megan just graduated LaFollette with honors and is heading off to college. And she has a beautiful son to boot!  Amazing girl. Quentin is still in high school at LaFollette and has his black belt in karate. And speaking of black belts, the last time we talked, Jonna got her 2nd degree black belt, so you don't want to mess with her!!!

These were the money saving ideas that they came up with a while back for a module in karate about ways to be green, so they should not only save money, but, also help the environment.

     1. Use energy saving light bulbs instead of the incandescent ones.

     2. Grow your own fruits and vegetables. Even if you don't have space for a large garden, you can still grow a few plants in containers and set them on your deck or porch.

     3. Bike or walk to the store or work instead of using your car.

     4. Fill an empty milk carton (gallon size) with water and place it in your toilet tank. You will use less water with each flush!

     5. Hang your clothes outside on a clothesline to dry instead of using the dryer.

     6. Use fans instead of running the air conditioner.

     7. Re-use grocery store bags instead of always getting new bags each time you shop.

     8. Use cloth napkins and/or cleaning rags instead of paper towels or napkins. It's still cheaper to launder these items and better for the environment instead of creating more trash using paper products and cutting down trees to provide these.

     9. Here at work, we have a cafeteria. We can either "dine-in" or get things "to go" and take back to our desks. Instead of getting the "to go" containers (usually plastic or Syrofoam), we ask for the food on the "real" plates and carry it back to our desks on a tray. Sure, they have to wash more dishes, but, again, it's much better for the environment than using the Styrofoam containers and throwing them away.

      10. Use energy saving appliances (e.g. front load washers) and install windows and furnaces that save energy. I even had the water company call me and ask if they needed to send someone out to check my water meter because it was showing that I was using less water! That was a few months after I bought my front load washer! They thought something was wrong with their equipment!

     11. Print things out double-sided to use less paper.

     12. Don't leave the water running while brushing your teeth or doing the dishes (if washing them by hand).

     13. Turn off lights when not in the room or not at home.

     14. Leave heat turned down and air conditioner turned up at night or when you are at work.

     15. Turn off and unplug any electronic equipment when not in use. It still uses power, even if it is shut off.

     16. Use cloth diapers instead of disposable ones.

     These were Jonna and the kids' great ideas.

Just as a little side note, I have to tell you a little story about Jonna's dad, Jack, who recently passed away. He always came to all of our birthday parties and played Happy Birthday on his harmonica. We will sure miss that! At his funeral, Jonna had the strength to get up and tell us a funny story about Jack. It seems that he loved to watch Wheel of Fortune. She told us that he wasn't really great at solving the puzzles, but that didn't stop him from trying. One of the funniest ones she could remember was when he tried to fill in the following puzzle:

H_CKEY P_CK.

Did you guess it?

Guess what he said?......

Scroll Down, I don't want to give it away....

HICKEY PICK!

It was a priceless moment of humor on a very sad day for all of us! Thanks Jonna! Love Penny

Comments

[Jeremy]

Great money saving ideas. I already do some of those but there are a couple I hadn't thought of! Thanks for the info! :)

[Cheryl T.]

Thanks for the tips, Penny. I had never heard of #4 & love #10!