Finances Part 2

Of course, finding out where your money goes is only the beginning. The next part is to control where your money goes. There are some things you simply can't control. You want to focus on the things that you can. This may differ from household to household. These are some of the things that I control.

Electricity - It goes without saying that you turn off the lights that you're not using. That will give you a little bit of savings. You can get further savings very quickly by seriously cutting down on your A/C use during the summer, especially if you use the window units. One window unit and a few fans generate less electricity than three window units. We're on the window unit system now, saving up for central air someday in the future. One unit takes care of the entire house, along with about four floor fans pushing the air around. It is my husband's pleasure to tweak the system until every corner of the house is affected. Now, not everyone can do it that easily. I live in a bilevel, so the lower floor is always cool and the upper floor has a ranch-like layout. Still, A/C during the summer really spikes the bill! August is my highest electricity usage month. (Now, in different climates there will be different challenges.)

Another important way to save electricity is to hang your laundry to dry. The washing machine takes up a certain level of electricity, since it's got motors in it. The dryer, though, dealing with both motors and a heating element, is a real electricity hog. I have a real, honest-to-goodness outside line that my husband put up for me. Of course, when you do your laundry this way you have to plan. Sunny days make excellent laundry days. Keep an eye on the weather, and consider a pre-emptive load if you're about to enter a week of rain. Hung laundry does not actually freeze until the temperature drops below 32F, and even then it might not if your line is in the sun. Hanging laundry can be done in my area from March through November, and a hung load in the June sun with a light breeze will dry in a little over an hour, which is about as long as it takes in the dryer anyways.

I could write an entire post on line drying. For now, let's move on.

Gas - Believe it or not, gasoline for the cars is the highest non-mortgage percentage of our salary, higher than food and significantly higher than the electric bill. My husband and I each own a car. I commute to work, and he used to use his to attend classes, as the college and workplace are a good 45 minute drive in opposite directions. There are a few things you can do to save gas, and the feasibility depends on your situation. Personally, I don't live close enough to any minimart or supermarket to walk instead of drive. 12 miles walk in July and the milk is already bad. So when I was home full-time, I'd try to consolidate my shopping and errands into one day each week.

It also helps, of course, to own a car with a decent fuel efficiency! Granted, my vehicle is old. It's an '89. It's a small station wagon, though, not a truck or an SUV. Some people do need trucks, but they generally don't make the best commuting vehicles, unless you're a farmer. My ancient vehicle gets 30mpg on average, and that's an actual calculation, not just taken from the GM website, where miles per gallon numbers are often skewed. If you're looking for a vehicle to ferry the kids around and get groceries, get a station wagon or a minivan if you must!

Food - Last but not least. This could use a post of its own, to be honest. Let me just say here that you can probably greatly reduce your food bill. Hey, I could greatly reduce my food bill. The trick is to pick lots of the simpler foods that can be cooked into a variety of meals and fewer 'special foods' that can't. Stock up on potatoes, beans, rice, and oatmeal, and ease up on the Froot Snax. One of the beauties of the American food market is that cutting your grocery bill will likely result in eating healthier and reducing waste costs, not shortchanging your family and ending up with scurvy. It takes a little while to learn the recipes that make up easily and quickly, but it's well worth the effort, and should not be considered too much of a bother for a full-time homemaker.

There are two simple tricks that can result in a smaller food bill and healthier family.

1. Buy on sale. Use 'them' coupons! A lot of stores will actually mail you their listing of sales for free, so that you can make up your list ahead of time. Until you get a good feel for when certain fruits and veggies come into season, it'll help you figure that out as well. By The Way, buying the fruits and veggies in season will not only lower your costs, but it will ensure a decent variety for you and your family.

2. Avoid packaging! The more packaging that's required for an item, the more wary of it you should be. Obviously, this doesn't count for matters of hygiene, like an extra wrap around your raw meat. But small granola bars in foil-lined packages inside larger boxes inside bigger boxes present more garbage than your own banana bread and probably have more unpronounceable ingredients in them, too.

I did finally get around to my bills last night. To my delight, I was able to pay off the entire balance of the credit card again. My goals for this month is to lower our credit card spending, using the debit/checking instead, and tracking my spending to see where our money is Really going.