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Cutting Costs in the Home Part II

To start cutting back on what you spend in the house, sometimes it can mean that you will have to spend a little now, to save for years to come. While you aren�t going to be able to establish each of these ideas in one day, you have a good listing of goals to work towards to lower your bills for the long run. 

To cut back on your water bill go through the house and fix all the leaky faucets. Even the smallest drip can cost you pennies a month, adding up to dollars a year. Faucets that are leaking all over the house at a faster rate are costing you more money!

Be sure that all the pipes that are leading into your home are not leaking water. Pipes under ground, pipes in the basement and pipes that lead to your washer or sink that are leaking are costing you money. Don�t let your hard earned money slide down the drain before you even have a chance to use it. Have those pipes fixed!

What you might not realize is that if you are spending money on the wrong types of light bulbs you could be paying too much money in electric and in replacing the bulbs to often. What you should be purchasing is the fluorescent bulbs instead of the candescent bulbs. If you look hard enough, in hardware stores or in specialty lighting stores you will find light bulbs that cost a little more but that will last years longer, and they save you money in the electric in using them!

Many of us leave our computers on all the time, but this is another waste of energy. Did you ever walk outside of your home when you have all the lights turned off, the dishwasher off, the heat off and the dryer off only to see the electric meter flying in circles? The phone, the computer, the tv, the radio and so many other things in the home such as clocks, the coffee maker and such are still running up your bill. Turn off the computer and start saving a few bucks a year!

The fax machine and the copier that are always �on� are using more energy than you need if you are not using them every day. Turn them on only when needed and then turn them off to save ever more energy. Start using battery operated clocks on the wall and get rid of the plug in clocks to save more money. 

Around your drains, around your dryer vents, and around the basement doors you might be letting in the cold air that you didn�t even realize was getting in the house. Start caulking these areas to keep out the cold air and cut back on your heating bills. 

Where your oil vents out the house, where your outside pipers lead into the house, and where you have windows in the basement, these should not be areas where you can feel cold air coming in during the winter months. The cold air getting in these cracks are cutting into your heating budget. Seal them off and you will cut back on the mice getting in the house!

If you are purchasing a new appliance, look for an appliance that tells you what the energy usage is over the year. When you see how much an appliance is going to cost, you will know what appliances are going to be the best for your budget and for what you need. 

With a large family, how much washing and drying you are doing in your home can be costing you a lot more than you might realize. If you are not hanging out your clothes when the weather is nice, you are wasting energy and dollars in using your dryer, not matter if it is gas or electric. 

If you have a large or small family a front-loading washer can save you money. A front-loading washer uses less energy in how it washes clothes. A front-loading washer is going to cut how much water is left in the clothes before you dry them, so you will cut back on drying time in your washer as well. You will see a savings in the water you use and in the energy used to wash your clothes. 

If you find that one side of your home is always colder than another, because of the way the wind blows and hits your home, you might want to consider some tall trees, or at least some shrubs along the outside of your home. Shrubs are going to cut the cost of heating your home, because the wind and the cold won�t reach your house as easily.