When we think of saving money or reducing expenses, we often think of significant amounts of money, but sometimes it’s the little savings that mount up over time that become significant in the long run. When we begin a plan to become debt free, we ask ourselves, “Where can I save money?” and it might seem that we have made all the cuts we can possibly make.
That is where the pennies come in. When it feels like there is just nowhere left to conserve, we can still find ways to save a few pennies. Here we’ve collected some of our favorite ideas for putting the pennies in your piggy-bank instead of someone else’s pocket.
Avoid penny meltdown
Your refrigerator is probably the single biggest user of electricity in your house. Did you know that one of the best ways to reduce the amount of energy it uses is to clean the coils? Doing this every six months will help you use less energy and save money. (Flip up or remove the kick plate or toe grill, and clean with a vacuum attachment or bottle brush. Make sure to unplug the fridge or turn off its circuit breaker first.) So will keeping the fridge set between 38 and 40 degrees and the freezer between 0 and 5 degrees—the settings where the refrigerator operates most efficiently.
Keep your pennies on standby
Chances are, when you are through watching television, playing computer games, or watching a movie using your DVD player, you turn these electronics off so that you don’t waste energy. But did you know that you can save even more pennies by unplugging them? Even when they’re turned off, the standby electricity these electronics use is almost the same as leaving a light bulb turned on continuously. You can make saving pennies like this easy on yourself by plugging several electronics, say the television, DVD player, and video game, into a single power strip and just switching the power strip off.
Even small gadgets like mobile phones, digital cameras, and handheld vacuums can lead to small savings. Once they’re charged, keep them unplugged until they need charging again instead of leaving them on the charger for long periods of time.
Don’t flush money down the drain
More and more we hear that a large amount of the water you use in your home, as much as 40 percent, goes down the toilet. It may not be in your budget to replace your toilet with a new “low-flow toilet,” but there is something you can do yourself that will have a similar effect. You can cut the amount of water you flush by half or more by putting a brick or plastic milk jug filled with pebbles in the toilet tank. The space the brick or jug takes up will reduce the amount of water that’s needed to fill the tank, so you save gallons of water—and pennies—with each flush.
Tip yourself
Your dryer has a lint filter to catch the lint that comes off your clothes as they dry. But that lint is not meant to stay in the filter. If you clean out the lint filter of your clothes dryer each time you dry a load of clothes, you’ll reduce the amount of electricity you use by up to 30 percent. That can put quite a few pennies in your piggybank. Make sure you know where the lint filter is on your dryer and make a habit of pulling it out each time you dry clothes to clean off the lint that has collected there.
Automate your bill paying
The Internet has revolutionized how we live. It won’t be long until banking online is as much a part of our financial lives as debit cards. You probably have friends or family who already use online banking and swear they would never go back to checks and envelopes again. Advantages of paying your bills online:
1. If you’ve ever stressed over a misplaced bill, the idea of online payments can be a major relief. With online bill payments, you can select a convenient payment method of “recurring payments” for ongoing bills like rent, car payment, even utilities, that will automatically deduct the payment each month from your checking account.
2. One-time and periodic payments can be set up months in advance.
3. You don’t have to save your paper bills to remember to pay them each month, but most companies will continue to mail out your paper bills for review if you prefer to keep them.
4. You can choose exactly when you want your payment to be deducted from your account—on payday for example.
5. With access to the Internet, you can view your statement and check your balance anytime.
6. Making sure your bills are paid while you’re out of town is no longer a problem. That means there are no bills to catch up on when you get home.
7. You will be buying fewer stamps, which will save you a little money. If your bank charges you for checks, you will also save money there. It’s not a huge savings but it could cover a night at the movies with the kids.
8. You’ll also save a little time each month that you would have spent paying the bills. You can focus your time and energy on other things instead of facing the draining task of paying bills every month.
9. Your credit report will improve because you are paying your bills every month and on time.
Disadvantages of paying your bills online:
1. You need access to the Internet, which is available at most public libraries if you don’t have it at home.
2. Depending on the services you sign up for, there may be a monthly fee. But, considering the savings of your time, energy, and peace of mind, it may be a small price to pay.
If you’d like to try automatic bill pay, check with your financial institution to see if it’s available for you.