Money saving we do in our house!?!? - Page 2

BillsGirl · #21 (**permalink**) 12-10-2005, 08:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cicy33

One thing that we do is reuse our towels. Afterall when you get out of the shower you are clean! I hang them up so that they completely dry so that they dont' get mildewy. but you will use less towels just by reusing once.

I do that too, after all like you said you are clean!!

flash · #22 (**permalink**) 12-14-2005, 12:34 PM

Absolutely reuse the towels!

One thing we do, which may be gross to some, but we've lived in many places where clean hot water was scarce. So, we use the mudroom to wash off serious dirt, such as gardening muck, then we run a hot bath, and share it. Or I take a bath, then he adds a touch more hot water and takes his. Saves a amazing amount on hot water bills.

Besides, when hubbie takes a shower, it can go for 30 minutes. $$$ and well, and septic...

Jason · #23 (**permalink**) 12-14-2005, 09:12 PM

I also reuse my towel for a couple washings. Not so sure about keeping the yellow water in the toilet. My wife has a fit when I leave the toilet seat up - hate to see what she would say if I didn't flush!

robex · #24 (**permalink**) 12-15-2005, 08:12 AM

The coil caught fire in our oven, and about two weeks after dh fixed it, the new one caught fire...we bought a new oven after we called in a repairman who was concerned about the wiring.

kashi · #25 (**permalink**) 12-15-2005, 10:07 AM

Share a shower, yes. Take a bath in someone else's bath water, no. I don't think I could do it.

When I was younger, I had a friend whose family let the urine and toilet paper build up in the toilet until it absolutely had to be flushed. It was not a pleasant smelling bathroom. I always flush.

I once set a french fry on fire in my boyfriend's oven - yikes! It was charred black and lurking under the oven coil, so I didn't see it until the flames burst!

Armywife · #26 (**permalink**) 12-15-2005, 11:20 AM

We started doing this last year, in efforts to bring down bills:

1. Candelights. Instead of using the chandelier in the living room, we now use a beautiful candelabra my mom bought us a long time ago. We have candles in every room so when we are in the room, we use candles as opposed to lighting.

2. Fireplace games. We pile up tons of credit card offers and junk mail, stuff it into the fireplace and use it as kindling.

3. Shower elsewhere. Hubby and I are big shower people. We bathe at the base twice a day. The hot water is awesome there...

At first we thought we were nuts but the water bill decreased SIGNIFICANTLY in three months!

Ima saver · #27 (**permalink**) 01-01-2006, 03:41 PM

I use to drive to town everyday for no reason. I figured out that I save about $1 in gas by not going to town. So when i stay home for the day, I deposit $1 in the canister I use for savings. I also pay myself a dollar for every mile I walk on the treadmill.

Ima saver · #28 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 08:56 AM

We re use our towels too, so I don't have to do as much laundry.

abowers · #29 (**permalink**) 01-05-2006, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cicy33

One thing that we do is reuse our towels. Afterall when you get out of the shower you are clean! I hang them up so that they completely dry so that they dont' get mildewy. but you will use less towels just by reusing once.

I wasn't aware that people would actually consider a towel dirty after using once! I make sure my towel gets plenty of air to dry out when I hang it up, and I use it for about a week, before washing.

Ima saver · #30 (**permalink**) 01-12-2006, 02:26 PM

I buy the paper towel that let you size it, so most of the time I only need 1/2 paper towel.

flash · #31 (**permalink**) 01-15-2006, 02:50 PM

Change out towels once a week, sheets once a week.

On one of those morning shows, they said to change your sheets every other day. Can't imagine.

How often do you change/wash sheets?

(and no, I could never bathe in DHs water. UCK. How he can bathe in mine, have never understood. But it does save!)

abowers · #32 (**permalink**) 01-15-2006, 10:17 PM

We change the sheets about every 2-3 weeks. We should probably do it more often, but that seems to be working out fine. Plus we have a thick mattress or something, and it's a pain to stretch the fitted sheet over the mattress, so I can't handle wrestling with the sheets more often than once every 2 weeks

Ima saver · #33 (**permalink**) 01-16-2006, 08:47 AM

I agree with abowers, that mattress is heavy.
We drink a lot of water and since it is "city" water, it does not taste good. I bought a water purifier about 10 years ago and have used it 3 times a week since then. It has saved me lots of money not buying bottled water.

PRICEPLUS · #34 (**permalink**) 01-16-2006, 10:40 AM

Towels gets used for a week! Heck, you are no longer dirty after bathing. Sheets get changed every two weeks!

robex · #35 (**permalink**) 01-18-2006, 01:23 PM

I change the sheets once a week, too, although I tend to stretch out the boys' because their bunk beds are hard to change. I try to get the kids to do their own beds!

We wash the towels every 3-4 days. Dh and I have a shower every morning and the kids bathe every second day or as needed.

shadon · #36 (**permalink**) 01-18-2006, 04:27 PM

Don't gross out but our sheets only get changed once a month. Fortunately, none of us are particularly sweaty, probably helps that we all shower every night (DH - morning and night). We sleep on white sheets too which is a good indicator of whether they are dirty or not.

Towels get done every week.

DS and I have taken to showering together now. Hoping this will help with the water bill by not running him a bath every night. He's only 15 months so he takes 30 seconds to wash his hair and body

Then he just plays in the shower while I do my business.

We have lamps in every room that have the energy saving globes in them. Our ceiling lights are halogen downlights and there's lots of them so it's more cost effective to have the lamps on.

Ima saver · #37 (**permalink**) 01-22-2006, 10:11 AM

We change the oil every time we need to and our cars last forever and never seem to give us any problems.

acezz4e_tish · #38 (**permalink**) 01-30-2006, 08:08 AM

vinegar and baking soda clean it well. just need to let it sit. if the smell gets to ya, add lemon juice. i always use a towel twice unless im on my cycle. i cant handle not flushing, but we have water saving of adding something to the tank too. a brick, a bottle full of water too, cuts down a lil bit and after four or five flushes, your talking a gallon at least.

LuxLiving · #39 (**permalink**) 08-18-2006, 08:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flash

Change out towels once a week, sheets once a week.

On one of those morning shows, they said to change your sheets every other day. Can't imagine.

How often do you change/wash sheets?

Sheets - Long ago when I was young and lazy I waited until they were filthy. Then when I grew up some I did them every week. Now, in an effort to conserve $'s I do them twice a month - on the first and fifteenth. Husband and I are both evening shower folks - so we're clean when we lay down. Works for us. Towels, I change out every Saturday.

-LuxLivingFrugalis

med12 · #40 (**permalink**) 08-18-2006, 11:45 AM

We can only stand to go about a week on our sheets. Towels it depends. I usually end up doing them every 3-4 days more because they don't get completely dry between showers than any other reason so they start to smell a little musty. I have hooks for the towels right now and lots of times, we have the bathroom door closed so DS doesn't get in there so there's not enough air circulating to dry them. I will hang mine over the rod if I remember, though.

Funny that the toilet idea came up re: flushing. FIL said at dinner the other day that when he gets up at night, he doesn't flush until morning. He figured he is saving about 3 gallons/day doing this. Doesn't seem like much but if he's doing it every day, that's 90 gallons/mth! Adds up after a while!