Reduce Utility Bills

The top reasons people use their vehicles are:

• Shopping
• Work
• School
• Recreation
• Social activities
• Travel

This post is going to focus on shopping. By implementing a few strategies, you can make an impact on reducing your gas costs each month. Planning will need to be done before starting out shopping.

Planning:

• Make a list of all purchases you will need to make in the upcoming week. Separate the list into three columns:
  1. Purchases that can be done on the way to and from work, school, or other location that you travel back and forth from on a regular basis. You should not have to deviate from your regular route by more than a mile or two.
  2. Purchases that can be done on line. Often online prices and online specials will offset the cost of shipping. Some stores like Wal-mart offer free shipping with site to store at Walmart.com. Many online purchases can be delivered to your local store free of shipping charges and often at a better price than what is offered in store. If the shipping costs are more than what you’d spend in gas, skip it unless you want to do it for environmental reasons.
  3. All other purchases that need to be made

• Organize the items that will be purchased by store

• Plan a shopping route that minimizes the miles driven

Sometimes it is worth missing a sale at one store to eliminate it from list because the cost of gas to go to that store may exceed the savings.

A well planned once per week shopping day will reduce the amount of money you put into your gas tank. A fringe benefit of once a week shopping includes spending less. The more often you shop, the more likely you are to exceed you budget and purchase items you could probably do without.

This uses some electricity, but it is low cost and portable. Running a fun is much less expensive than running a cooler. This will provide relief in the summer for those with evap coolers once the monsoons hit.

I want to make one of these for my back room that has no vents. I will have a fan in the window that will pull the hot air out of the room. I was thinking about getting a used cooler like they fill with drinks, that is shape similarly. This will also allow the water to be drained out and it could be recycled by refreezing. Plus, I don’t want a Styrofoam cooler full of ice and water breaking! I would start with ice cubes to get things melting then add large pieces of ice that I can freeze in a bowl or plastic bottle with the top cut off. The larger pieces of ice will melt slower.

I started getting what I need to make my own air conditioner like in the video. The initial cost will be less than a window air conditioner. It will have the following advantages:

• Portable to any room
• Electricity use will be a fraction running an air conditioner
• No mold, allergens, or anything else will be blown throughout the room

I don’t have the cooler yet, but got the other parts. So far here is my investment:

• Aquarium submersible pump $19.35
• Zip ties $1.97
• Repair tape $4.64 (I’ll use this to connect the copper tubing to the rubber tubing on the pump)
• Tube cutter $3.5
• Copper tubing $13.67
• 9 inch fan $12.97

I shopped at Wal-Mart. I chose new because we have long hot summers here and I want to make sure it can withstand the stress of running long. Getting any of the items used of course would cut down the cost. I got a fan without a solid bottom so that I could attach it more easily to the cooler. I also choose a fan with a metal cage so that it will hold up with the copper tubing attached. If I want I can always spray paint the cage and tubing to match!

I’m going to check out yard sales for a used cooler. Since I will be cutting into it, I don’t want to cut into a new one. Once I get everything ready, if I haven’t gotten a cooler yet, I will test in using a bucket. It won’t keep the ice and water cold for long, but it will give me an idea on the effectiveness.