by J J kearns

Created on: March 18, 2009

These days we all are trying to save money any way we can. We eat out less, drive less and are even trying to figure out ways to cut costs when it comes to our grocery and household bills. Here are a few tips on how you can reduce your utility bills.

The first tip is to place all your televisions and d v d players on smart strips. Smart strips are power strips that do not allow an appliance to draw power while it is off. Most of a families electrical consumption comes from appliances that are in the off position, yet are still drawing power. If you don't have a smart strip or you can not find one a surge protector will do the same thing as long as you remember to switch the surge protector off when those appliances are not in use. My family does this. We have placed our televisions, d v d players, toaster, coffee maker and even our microwave on surge protectors. By turning these off we have managed to save our family forty bucks a month. I know that does not sound like a lot but, overtime it adds up.

The next tip deals with computers. Most computers can be set up to power down after a few minutes of inactivity. This is called the power saving setting. Some people do not like this idea because they want to be able to go to the computer and use it when ever they like, without having to start it up. If this describes you then you can simply shut down your computer at night. This will ensure that your computer is not adding to your electric bill while you are sleeping.

Another was to save on electricity is to line dry your clothes when ever possible Now if you live in an area that has cold winters, as I do, I know that it is not possible to always line dry your clothes. In this case you can try to dry multiple loads of laundry back to back. This saves energy because your dryer is already warm thus it does not use the extra energy it would take to warm up again.

Not only can you save on your electric bill every month but you can also save on your water bill. This can be done by buying low flow shower heads and faucet aerators. Yes this means less water comes out at once, but, don't worry you do not notice a change in water pressure. If you do not want to go out and buy these items you can always take shorter showers and never leave the water running. If you really want to save money you can combine the two and really save some water.

Now there are many many more money saving tips that I could give you, but, I do not want to make this article drag on. So if you are looking for even more tips on saving on your utility bills, simply do an on-line search. If you decide to do this you may want to search for ways to live greener. You would be surprised how many living greener tip will actually save you money.

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