Frugal Friday

[ecosophia]

Welcome back to Frugal Friday!  This is a weekly forum post to encourage people to share tips on saving money, especially but not only by doing stuff yourself. A new post will be going up every Friday, and will remain active until the next one goes up. Contributions will be moderated, of course, and I have some simple rules to offer, which have changed as we've proceeded. (As things have settled down to a nice steady conversational pace, for example, I've deleted the rules about only one tip per person per week and about limiting the length of comments; I was worried early on about people flooding the forum with too much too fast, but I think we're past that risk.)

Rule #1:  this is a place for polite, friendly conversations about how to save money in difficult times. It's not a place to post news, views, rants, or emotional outbursts about the reasons why the times are difficult and saving money is necessary. Nor is it a place to use a money saving tip to smuggle in news, views, etc.  I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #2:  this is not a place for you to sell goods or services, period. Here again, I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #3:  please give your tip a heading that explains briefly what it's about.  Homemade Chicken Soup, Garden Containers, Cheap Attic Insulation, and Vinegar Cleans Windows are good examples of headings. That way people can find the things that are relevant for them. If you don't put a heading on your tip it will be deleted.

Rule #4: don't post anything that would amount to advocating criminal activity. Any such suggestions will not be put through.

With that said, have at it!

Comments

Re: Load Shedding

[(Anonymous)]

a lot of people tend to overlook some of the big (and important) users of electricity in the house.
Fridge/freezer, warm water, heating and cooking. You can put in all the LED lighting you want, but it is not going to make a difference.
There are alternatives for warm water, heating and cooking (see JMG's reply), of course, fridge/freezer is trickier and actually hard/not easy to run off something other than line power (motor startup is the problem here).
It might be worth investing in a small power meter (they are maybe $20?) to see which items in your household how much power. Some like microwave and hair dryer can use quite a bit of power in a relatively short time. Only matters if you use them often enough though :-)
Good habits can make a difference, turn off lights and heating you don't need, items you don't use (search "power vampires")

Re: Load Shedding

[(Anonymous)]

Lighting loads really do add up if lights get left on. A standard 40w oven light if left on will add 29kw a month. A single 9w led bulb if left on will use 6.5kw a month.