Wow that’s a lot of money! I just got the electricity bill for the first two months of the cold season. This is the first ‘winter’ in our bigger house so we were not quite sure what to expect. I’ve realised that I’ve been stupid though by not keeping a closer eye on the meter. You don’t need to go out and buy a fancy electricity meter to read appliance electricity use etc. You can easily keep an eye on your electricity use just by recording what you are using each day from the meter reading and what this translates into in terms of money. That way I can start working out what we can do over the winter season to keep the power bill down a bit as we thought we were being fairly good!
Power pricing
Got a letter from my power company yesterday pointing out that I might be better on another plan as I was a low user of electricity (not low enough for my liking!). I checked out the pricing and they’re right – I could save about $60 a year by changing price plan. While I was pricing I decided to check on http://www.consumer.org.nz/powerswitch/ to see if there was a cheaper company. Powerswitch is an independent pricing review service carried out by the Consumers Institute. You just enter your last bill details into their calculator and they search the power companies for you. I also tried Powershop given all their advertising on TV but it’s cheaper for me to stay with my company and change plans than go with Powershop.
So I’ve changed my pricing plan. Now I need to keep working on reducing my electricity consumption. We turn all our appliances off, we only have lights on when necessary (Earth hour wasn’t a big deal for us), we wash in cold water, our fridge/freezer is always full for power efficiency…… I think it might be time for a timer in the shower J
Sunday morning routines
Well it’s 9am and time to go wake a sleeping husband. So far this morning………
- A full load of towels is out on the line blowing in the wind. Another load is on the way. We deliberately haven’t put a drier in this house so we don’t get tempted although there is room for it if we were to sell the house.
- The dishwasher is humming away on eco setting after an hour of baking has helped fill it up to full load. The dishwasher goes on during the day/evening now so that I can stop the dishwasher when it gets to dry mode and just open the door to let the dishes air dry – saves about 15 minutes of power with my machine cycle.
- Chocolate slice is setting in the fridge and a batch of pikelets has been made and packaged away in the freezer. I’ve been really impressed with how pikelets freeze, they come out exactly the same as they go in. Today was the first time I managed to put a whole batch in the freezer without being tempted!
- Crumble has been made (5 minute job) and put in the freezer ready to use for desserts the next few weeks. Crumble doesn’t really freeze – it just stays in the same state and can be put straight onto the top of canned/stewed fruit. Definitely worth making. Really easy for kids to make.
- The fridge has been checked out for things about to reach their expiry date so they can be used up. The cream is almost there so pasta has been put on the food planner for tonight and steak taken out to thaw. I’ll have to hunt out my jelly/cream mousse recipe to use up the rest of the cream. I read the other day that you can freeze milk which I have to admit I never thought of in terms of using up milk but I’m looking forward to trying when I need to. At the same I’ve filled up the extra spaces in the fridge with water bottles to make the fridge operate more efficiently and it means that we always have water for emergency situations.
- The spending for the week has been entered in our finance spreadsheet on the computer. I use this so we can keep an eye on where spending is going in order to make better informed decisions. The food bill items get entered also so we can keep track of when food prices are good value.
- The bills for the next week have all been sorted and paid electronically so I don’t lose out on prompt payment discounts.
- The cats have been fed and their can washed for recycling. Steel can recycling from the last few weeks has been packaged up ready to go out on rubbish day. Aluminium cans have gone in the garage to be taken to the recycler for cash when the amount has built up enough.
Not that hubby will probably notice any of this! But it all makes for an easier week for me as my job is pretty full on and it all helps keep costs down in various areas so I don’t mind getting up a little early to get it all done.
Takeaway Free Zone (Part 2)
Yesterday I wrote about how our home at the moment is working on a grocery budget. I was thinking about this again this morning and came up with some more positive aspects to this change we have made.
- I noticed this morning that this was the first time I had to empty the rubbish in 4 days J. The rubbish bin in the kitchen is a very small bin so our efforts to reduce food wastage by planning meals better is having a noticeable reduction on our rubbish production.
- This reduction in waste has an economic spin off as well. In a few months time when our wheeli bin contract expires I will be able to look for a much more money efficient option as at our present rubbish production rate it will take us weeks to fill up a bin!
- Our freezer is packed to the seams with food which energy wise (and therefore cost wise) is the best way to have it. I’ve always known this but have not ever really thought why this is the best way. Here is a good explanation below
“The first and easiest step is to ensure that the refrigerator is as full as possible. This initially seems counter-intuitive. However, every time the refrigerator is opened all the cold air in it falls out of it towards the floor and it is replaced with warmer air from the room.
This means that the temperature inside the refrigerator rises sharply and it has to work extra hard to cool the new air. You will have heard the refrigerator start humming after you have opened it; this is the reason why.
For every cold, space occupying object in the refrigerator there is less cold air to be lost when the door is opened. So putting the potatoes in the fridge rather than in the cupboard will help reduce the energy cost of running the machine. The same goes for fruit, drinks and so on. While these objects take a while to be cooled, this is easily offset by the energy you save by not losing extra cool air each time the door is opened. Even if you do not regularly drink cold water, placing full bottles of water inside the refrigerator when there is spare space will lighten the load on your electricity bill.”
Source: http://www.green-planet-solar-energy.com/energy-efficient-refrigerator.html
(I now have to go and get my fridge sorted out also! It will reduce some of my cupboard space which is great as some areas are a little packed)
- Old recipes from childhood are starting to come out again to be used. It made a nice holiday activity to read through the old recipe books and reminisce about how amazing some recipes used to taste. I won’t ever be the kind of person who makes preserves etc but my organic blueberries this morning were stewed with apple and frozen in reused plastic containers ready for desserts over the next few weeks so I’m quite proud of myselfC.
- And of course there has to be health advantages to eating a good balanced home cooked meal rather than a takeaway!