Lifetime Savings: 4 Ways To Save Some Extra Cash This Winter

Winter season brings with it three-foot-thick snow and chilling winds, but with it also comes opportunities to save extra cash. 

While everyone else is busy spending more money on their AC maintenance and winter gear, read on further as we discuss four ways to save some money during the cold season.

Lower Thermostat During The Night

Before you retreat to the cozy embrace of your bed, drop the thermostat down to a low temperature. Use thick blankets and pillows to keep you warm throughout the cold night. Upon waking up, turn the thermostat back on. 

This simple technique helps to reduce your energy and consequently your electricity bills by minimizing the times when your furnace or other heating systems are switched on.

Have Your HVAC Maintained Pre-Winter

HVAC technicians know that they can get away with bumping up cost of services due to the surge in demand during winter season, not to mention the difficult weather conditions. 

Contact places like HELP Plumbing, Heating, Cooling and Electric to help with repairs and installations. That way you can make sure that your HVAC system is as ready and prepared for winder as possible.

Spend More Leisure Time Indoors

Unlike other seasons of the year where you can afford to go out with family or friends and pay full price for movie tickets or dine at five-star restaurants, the Winter season restricts your movement by unintentionally trapping you indoors with snow and, sometimes, even unabated flurries and blizzards. 

Keep yourself entertained by reading books or watching movies on Netflix or a similar subscription service. You can also work on honing your skills in cooking, scrapbook-making, or any other hobby that interests you.

Cook Meals at Home

When you stick a pot roast in the oven or steam vegetables in your stove, you're adding more heat indoors. While your kitchen isn't the perfect insulator, the heat from both the range and the food dissipates into your household, which reduces the need for your heater to be switched on. 

Cooking meals at home require you to plan and prepare for groceries in advance. To further lower costs and save more, limit your grocery trips to at least once per week.

Winter may not be the most fun time to work outdoors, but it's definitely as good a time as any to save cash. These four tips, however, are only the tip of the iceberg. 

There are countless more ways that you can do, such as increasing layers of clothing, to save cash.

How to Save on Water to Save on your Finances

Water conservation is one of the most important environmental issues that we face today. Every year, thousands of people die due to a scarcity of clean drinking water, when the amount of water wasted in urban areas grows every day. Most of us don’t think about the fact that the water that flows out of the tap in our homes is treated at a plant, and should be used wisely.

Even those of us who intend well may not understand how to conserve this precious resource. Basic steps like fixing leaky taps or turning off the faucet while brushing our teeth may be all that comes to mind. Surprisingly few people actually bother to do either of those basics, but there are a few more things that each of us can do to prevent water wastage.

How to Conserve Water and Prevent Wastage

Within our homes, in our daily lives, there are a few steps we can all incorporate to prevent the loss of water. Even a small quantity of water, saved by each household, adds up every day. Over a period of a year, your house alone may prevent the wastage of thousands of litres of clean water!

Let’s take a look at how this can be accomplished:

1. Fix the Leaks – This is the simplest way to ensure that clean water is not running into the drains, without even being used! Plug all the leaks in water pipes, replace or repair dripping taps and turn off the garden hose from the tap when it is not in use. 
2. Collect ‘Clean’ Water – When you rinse vegetables or fruit in water, don’t throw it down the drain. You could either use a separate sink that drains into your garden or wash these items in a bowl and use the water collected for house plants or garden. Do not use the water from your dishwasher or anything else that uses soap or chemicals for this. 
3. Collect the Rain – Install rainwater tanks to catch the clouds’ bounty and use it in the house. Since piped water is chemically treated and processed, you will be doing the environment a great favour by reducing your consumption of treated water. Rainwater Tanks Direct offers tanks that are quite affordable and suited to your needs. 
4. Install Two-Flush Systems – These nifty devices are not as complicated as they sound, as they can be fitted into your existing toilet. They offer two flushing modes instead of one, the first is a ‘light’ flush and the second a longer ‘heavy’ flush. Traditional toilet flushes use much more water than is generally required, resulting in huge amounts of wastage! 

Other things you could do at home include running large loads of laundry instead of multiple smaller ones, washing your car with a bucket and sponge rather than hosing it down and turning off garden sprinklers when it rains. With simple changes like these, you can conserve water on a daily basis and reduce the load on the environment too!

Ways to Reduce Your Gas Usage This Summer

At last, the sun seems to be shining and the temperature is rising. We’re starting to reorganise our wardrobes to bring our spring and summer clothes to the front, and we’re banishing our winter boots, hats and scarves to the depths of the attic. When we get to this point of the year, it’s common to hear people discussing whether their central heating is still on, and how they want to save money during the spring and summer in case the next winter is just as cold. 

This is possible to achieve, although it does seem difficult when suppliers are increasing prices every few months. If you are looking to reduce your gas usage this summer, use my helpful tips and let me know if they’ve worked for you... 

Consider your heating needs

The first step to a cheap gas bill is to think carefully about whether you’ll need to use your central heating throughout the spring and summer. You may still get a bit chilly in the evening, but consider whether a jumper, shrug or even a blanket could work better to warm you up. It really is worthwhile setting a programme for your central heating if you feel that you do need to use it during the warmer months for medical needs - try and set the heating to come on when you are actually in the home or you’ll be paying to heat up an empty house!

Set a timer for hot water

If your gas boiler is also used for your hot water supply, you could set a timer to make sure that you are only heating your water during practical hours, such as when you are due to get a shower in the morning or when you are doing the washing up in the evening. You don’t want to throw away money where it isn’t needed, meaning that you could save a few pounds by implementing this simple process.

Eat differently

A slightly different way to reduce your gas usage is to change your diet this spring and summer. If you have a gas hob or oven, you could find alternative meals that don’t require cooking in this way. For example, the summer is an ideal time to eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, making salads a great choice. If you’re looking to make these slightly more exciting, think about adding canned food such as tuna or pre-cooked prawns. Another way us Brits like to cook in the summer is using a charcoal barbecue, so it might be time for you to uncover yours for the season.

Review your usage

Finally, review your usage every month and see whether you can find a better deal with an alternative provider. Start your search on a price comparison website and follow up by speaking to the energy companies directly.


About the author
John Parker is a blogger interested in going green, as well as the money saving benefits from doing so. This year he has been working on how to get a cheap gas bill during off-peak seasons.