Reply #101: Fluorescent bulbs save sooo much money! [View All]

[NuttyFluffers]

if you are in a tight budget, and the place you are living in has you paying for electricity, and allows you to change the bulbs, it is positively IMPERATIVE that you switch to fluorescent bulbs. most of us have high use bulbs in the house and just a few of those regular socketed FL bulbs last roughly around 10 years and end up saving SOOOO much money. and they now have FL bulbs for even smaller sockets, such as those 10 watt faux candle bulbs. i had a fluorescent bulb from 1992 only die on me this year, that's 14 years of savings. i took that sucker from house, to dorm, to apartment, to house, to house, each time saving money. if a family can spare themselves even $10 in a month or 2 they'd be immediately served in buying FL bulbs. the savings can be so dramatic that it can pay for itself in a mere month or two.

another big one is the usage of electric hot water kettles. gas is often more expensive than electricity in most parts of the country now, and regular kettles end up being highly inefficient in heating up water (a necessity in a home). often people also end up spend time re-heating water that cools down too rapidly, too, most kettles being metal and radiating all that heat away faster. there's several companies that make electric hot water pitchers, so keep an eye out. not only is the hot water pitcher a device to heat up water, and it heats it up faster and cheaper, it also insulates the water like a thermos thus saving the precious energy you already spent heating it up, and atop that it's far safer which saves against trips to the clinic and horrible burns. savings upon savings upon savings. the only catch is the initial investment might be hard for some. often these electric kettles run around $40-60. but then, our family noticed a rapid savings which completely offset the cost. our electric kettle ended up paying for itself in roughly 2-3 months in our energy bill (use it for coffee, cooking all sorts of food, etc. you'll be surprised how people don't think of how often you spend energy to heat water). we've easily saved enough money now to repurchase the thing 4-5 times over; pretty much saved around $15-20 a month (gas is scary expensive here, and the gas kettle cooled too damn quickly).

oh, and when purchasing food, besides the ramen, buy some frozen or canned mixed vegetables. in fact, stores often have specials on frozen and canned stuff because it doesn't always move so fast. i've seen some real nice deals for mixed vegetables (3-4 packs/cans for a $1) just to get it off the shelves. 1/2 cup to a cup of that thrown into ramen provides much needed diversity and nourishment. actually, in my starving student days i ended up scrounging pretty much whole carts of canned, frozen, dried, and fresh produce to the tune of $25-30 (around 5-6 grocery bags), though this was 6 years ago and inflation has been pretty bad lately. but i found that as long as i have access to cheap onions, cabbage, dried beans, rice, etc. i'll regularly have access to healthy and not heavily processed food. also getting used to purchasing in season, buying it in bulk at that time, and preserving accordingly ends up with some nice savings.