by Ruth Greb

Created on: July 22, 2008

Being on a fixed income, now that I am retired, I am always looking to make my dollars stretch without being uncomfortable or doing without necessities. My utility bills are a great place to start looking for ways to save. I had already learned to not buy more than I can eat so food is not wasted but there are lots of ways to save on utilities. We all need to conserve both water and energy be it electricity, fuel, and even the garbage we send to land fills.

For water consumption, I keep necessary plants watered including the lawn but I water early in the morning or in the evening so the water goes where it needs to go rather than up to the atmosphere through evaporation. That way, I do not need to water as often unless I have a new plant that needs more frequent watering. In western Washington, where I live, it is not so much of a problem since we get lots of rain but in other parts of the country where it is dryer, I know things need to be watered oftener.

When I was in New Zealand a few years ago I noticed many homes with rain barrels. They have learned to salvage roof run off water to use for watering their yards. I think this is a great idea and one that we could and should adopt.

At the sink, I try to avoid letting the water run needlessly. I wash dishes when the dish washer is full rather than daily to not waste water. I never let the water run when brushing my teeth since it does no good going down the drain. These are areas we can all save water.

As for electricity or whatever heating, cooling, or cooking supply one has, I think it very important whether retired or a large working family to make good use of the energy being used but not wasting it. I am fortunate living where I do since it is cooler than other parts of the country so cooling is not such an issue-at least in western Washington. Heating is an issue mostly in the winter. But we all need to cook and the stove is a good place to start saving.

When I use the oven, when I am done cooking, I shut the oven off and open the door until it cools to use that heat in my house while it is still there. When cooking on top of the stove, I cook things until almost done then turn the burner off and let the heat still there finish the cooking process. It is only a small thing but if everyone saved a couple minutes of energy in the cooking process, it could amount to a large amount of saved energy. I read once years ago about a young boy in England who thought of a way to save energy in cooking soft boiled eggs.

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