My Multiple Streams

Saving Money with Rain Water

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rain collection barrelI have gone all in with growing my own food lately and doing most of it hydroponically. Growing this way it is best to use dechloronated water and the easiest way to do this is to use rain water or if from the tap let it set around for at least 24 hours.

So I started doing researchIn building my own water storage system and this lead me to rain water collection.

Free Water Being Wasted

As I did my morning walk I was looking around at homes and all the rain gutters just flow into the yard or worse into the street. This is a lot of water that can be used for plant watering without driving up your water bill. I’m sure we all have some sort of house plants around or a small garden and keeping them alive is adding to your water bill. Don’t know about you but ours gets in the neighborhood of $200 every other month. Hmmm maybe I should just start wearing my clothes longer.

If your roof is 1,000 sq ft (this is a small home) and a nice little 1″ rain storm comes along guess how much water you can get? The answer is about 625 gallons! Now if you captured that it would take care of the average homes house plants for quite a while.

Build Your Own Collection System

Their are commercial collection systems of different sizes and cost. I saw one at Lowes the other day for $120 and it was about 50 gallons I think. Saw another system for $400 for 205 gallons at a landscape store.

How about making your own for under $20? Worst case maybe $30-40 for a 55 gallon and the ability to expand it. You just need to get a hold of a 55 gallon drum which I found out you can get typically for free from car washes (clean it very well) or soda bottling plants or other locations. They use them and just throw them out so they may be happy to give them to you. The worst case, you can buy them for generally $25 or less.

Get a few PVC parts to connect several drums together, add a valve then connect your rain gutters to them and you are now collecting your rain water! The beauty is that you can add more capacity if you need it for a few bucks!

If you follow my other log http://hydroponicsiscool.com I’ll soon have a video and post about building one as I construct my water storage system. Mine will have some barrels for collecting rain (if it ever does again) and the others for holding tap water to naturally dechloronate before going into my hydroponic systems.

Just wanted to perk your imagination on ways you can save money on water if you like to garden or just have a couple house plants.

Savings on Auto Pilot

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Putting my Savings on Automatic transfers

Old enough to remember Otto?

End of the year reviewing and looking at the ways I cut back and saved money this past year. Sometimes it dosent feel like I have saved or gain ground financially but looking back there have been some concrete savings made.

Automating the Savings

The biggest one has been automating money transfers that when I did manually (keyword here is WHEN) I would often forget to do it on schedule or not do it at all, and that caused bigger headaches.

For instance a biggie is income taxes. Being self employeed I don’t have someone withholding for me. In the past I’d just wait till taxes were due then start to panic, scrambling to find the money. This year I had an auto transfer to an ING account each week so now when April 15th rolls around I will (hopefully) have enough set aside to cover it.

Another would be or home insurance. We dont have an impound account so we are responsible for the payment twice a year. In the past of course out of site out of mind till it came due, then scrambling to try and find the money. This year we set up an automatic transfer at the beginning of the month of $100 from each of our accounts to an ING account. So not only was it being put aside without having to think, but it was earning a wee bit of interest (and I mean a very little wee). So with the due date next week I have already transferred the money from ING to my checking and Im ready to pay it, on time even.

So those accounts was setting money aside each month for future taxes. I also automated the savings a bit. at the beginning of the year I set up an auto deposit to my Vanguard IRA account which was then auto dispersed into 4 mutual funds. This was done on a weekly basis so that by the end of the year I would be close to my $5K max. Also set up a weekly auto deposit of $25 to another ING account for the emergency/savings account. I know its not much but honestly if it wasn’t automatic I wouldn’t do anything so its a good thing.

Finally this year I made sure all bills are on auto pay. I n the past I was terrible at making sure bills were payed on time, I was afraid of auto payments because what if I had a bad month and couldn’t pay? Well what would happen is I would forget until I got reminder in the mail with the obligatory late payment fee. So this year I put aside the fears and every bill is on auto pay, thus insuring I will no longer have late fees!

What’s Ahead and Improvements

Continuing on that last sentence, except now I forget to transfer money from the business ti the personal account to cover the auto transactions. I then get dinged with a $25 penalty from the Credit Union. So Im going to look at setting up a minimal auto transfer between the two accounts, essentially a direct deposit paycheck to myself if you will. Its not as easy with the Credit Union as it is with say ING, I have to go through them to set it up or modify it.

Another area where automation will help is with my dividend investment account. I use BuyandHold.com and get 2 trades each month included with my $6 monthly fee. I get so busy and caught up in everything else I often forget to make a monthly trade. So when I don’t do it I not only waste that free trade but I waste opportunity to dollar cost average on my stocks. I hadn’t done an auto transfer before because I liked being able to choose the best stock that month to add to based on current price and ex-dividend dates. Im thinking it may be better to do some sort of auto transfer each month even if it is a small amount. I know I can set it up for auto investment as well but dont know if I can have it auto rotate between the stocks each month or not. I have 5 stocks at this moment so impractical to do a split between all as I would incur more fees.

Lastly I think I may be increasing the weekly savings transfer a wee bit.

What about you? Do you use automation to help with your savings?

 

 

5 Ways to Reduce Summer Cooling Costs

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summer cooling

© Nick Servian. www.nickservian.com

5 Ways to Reduce Summer Cooling Costs

After a very mild winter throughout most of the US, early spring temperatures have reminded us that summer isn’t far away. While all of us look forward to summer vacations, cookouts, and trips to the beach, we may dread the pinch on our wallets as it costs more and more to maintain a comfortable temperature in our homes.

Rising electricity prices force many families to make tough choices during the warmer months – do we turn on the air conditioner, or do we try to make do with open windows and ceiling fans? In some areas, it may be possible to survive the entire summer without air conditioning, but in others, it could be dangerous or even life-threatening. Here are five ways to stay cool all summer without breaking the bank.

  1. Choose a temperature and stick with it. Are you guilty of adjusting the thermostat in your home throughout the day? Even an adjustment of one or two degrees can impact how hard your air conditioner has to work, thus increasing your electric bill. Find a temperature that works for your family, and if you get hot, consider other ways to cool off without touching that dial.
  2. Have central air? Don’t turn it off. When I was a kid, my grandparents used to turn the air conditioning off any time they left their house. This was an effort to save money, but my grandfather admits now that he didn’t actually notice a difference in electricity consumption. That’s because the air conditioner is struggling to cool the house again each time it’s turned on instead of just maintaining the temperature.
  3. Invest in some fans. Whether you use ceiling fans, box fans, or a combination of both, don’t underestimate the cooling power of moving air. Fans use far less electricity than air conditioning and can make a big difference in indoor temperatures. They can also help keep your air conditioner from running constantly.
  4. Keep the cool air on the inside. This probably goes without saying, but we should all take steps to avoid wasting our efforts when it comes to cooling our homes. Minimize your trips in and out of the house when possible, and make sure to close exterior doors completely when you do come and go. Consider miniblinds and/or lined window treatments to prevent the sun from overheating the rooms in your home.
  5. Consider levelized billing. Many utility companies offer the option to average your monthly usage and pay a fixed monthly cost. This is a good option because you won’t have the sticker shock that comes along with summer electric bills. Levelized billing allows you to spread out higher summer cooling costs over the course of the year – just be sure you understand the process for your particular utility company before you agree to use the service.

What other methods do you use to stay cool and minimize electricity costs in the summer?

Cut electric bill – Add to savings

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cfl lightbulbsCutting back on utilities may be a little difficult without returning to the stone ages and giving up our creature comforts we are used to, but with a little thought here and there it is possible. Here are a couple ways to cut your electric bill so you have a bit more to cut your debt and add to your savings!

Light bulbs

One of the biggest wastes of your electric bill is the lights we use. Besides just remembering to turn them off here are couple things you can do.

Change your light bulbs to CFL or LED. I know the Feds are trying to force you to do this by making the old lightbulbs illegal (oh that could be a whole other post) but changing on your own can save you money in your electric bill and replacement costs. Your average 60w lightbulb will last you about 1500 hours of light, while you eqivalent CFL will draw only 14w and last you 10,000 hours. LED equivalent, while a bit expensive still, will draw 6w and last 60,000 hours.

LEDFLUORESCENT (CFL)INCANDESCENT
Life Span
(How long will the light bulb last?)		60,000 hours10,000 hours1,200 hours
Watts Per
Bulb (Wattage Equiv. at 60w)		61460
Cost Per Bulb$15.98$2.98$1.25
KWh of
electricity used over 60k hours		3608403,600
Electricity
Cost ( @$0.20 per KWh )		$72.00$168.00$720.00
Bulbs needed for 60k of usage1650
Equivalent
60k hour Bulb expense		$15.98$17.88$62.50
Total cost for 60k hours$87.98$185.88$782.50
Calculate Your Energy Savings per 60,000 hours and assume #30 bulbs per Household
Total cost for 30 bulbs$2,639.40$5,576.40$23,475.00
Savings by Switching from Incandescent$20,835.60$17,898.600

I know there are still some issues with both these alternatives. For the CFL’s they are not really enviro friendly when it comes to disposal. They contain mercury so you cant just toss it in the dumpster, you have to find a place that recycles them (I hear Ikea and Home Depot do). Some also take time to warm up to full brightness and that can be annoying. LEDs are new on the block so they are still pricey and I dont think you can get higher than 60w’s yet. On the plus side you can get them in the smaller sizes for track lighting that CFLs wont do. Another cool lighting idea is the LED strips for like over counters.

Personally we just replace every lightbulb in the house with CFL’s. After our budget gets more defined we will slowly start going to LED.

Sensors

Another Big one for me is forgetting to turn lights off. A good fix for this is to install motion senors. We have a motion sensor in the hallway which will turn the light on when someone approaches and turn it off after a min. Installing one in the bathroom is another location. They do have overrides for say when you are in the shower so it dosent leave you in the dark after a few mins.

Another sensor would be a light sensor for your outdoor lights. This will cut off the electricity to the lights off during the day but allow you to have them on at night. Wife often forgets to turn off outside light and it will stay on till I get up and go out and notice (this can be all day if Im really lazy) so this is next on our list.

ceiling fanCeiling fans

Installing a ceiling fans in your house can lower your heating and cooling costs by circulating the warm or cool air. Almost all ceiling fans have a direction switch so you can change direction based on the season. In the summer time you want the fan running counter clockwise (when you look up at it) forcing the air downward and causing a wind chill effect. In the winter you run it clockwise at a lower speed drawing air up to the ceiling and forcing the warmer air down and out towards the walls.

Our house has 3 ceiling fans currently, one in each room except daughters and ours but its on our list!

Putting it all together

Well these were just a couple ways to knock your electric bill down. Like your budget the best way to stay focused is to track your progress. Besides waiting around for your monthly bill to see if it goes down how are you supposed to know? Well modern technology comes through again! In our neighborhood all the old style meters have been replaced with smart meters, allowing SDGE (our local gas and electric company) to get updates every 15 mins without coming near our home. Now there are pros and cons of this and we’ll see how it develops, but one of the cool factors is this info is put online for us to check in our account. They show you graphs of usage by year, month, day  and even hour! They even put a nice median temperature reading on the graph so you can compare. So you can log in a couple times a week to see how you are doing and make adjustments if you need to bring it down some more.

Electric Usage Graph

Our actual electric usage for Sept

 

Nothing like tracking your electric usage like you do your money to help focus and work to lower it!

What do you think? have you started ways you can cut back on your electric use?