How to have more money for shoes and dumplings

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If I asked you to come and have lunch for a few hours and we could talk about the thrilling topic of electricity, would you come?

I doubt it.

I was asked, and I wasn’t actually lured by the enticing topic of electricity but more that I’d get to spend the night with my sister, and eat dumplings the next day. That was my motivation. Sorry Origin. The truth is out.

But surprisingly enough, it was interesting. Because I learnt stuff. Mainly how I could save money on electricity and have more money for shoes and dumplings {or realistically the pool we’re saving up for, because I can not live another summer up here without somewhere to cool off}.

Today I’m going to share the ways in which you can save your dollars when it comes to electricity, because I’ve mentioned before electricity is a grudge purchase. We don’t want to pay for it. We’d rather spend that money on other things. Wouldn’t you?

And one thing, before I get to the money saving things. If you want to go green and use renewable resources for your electricity, you can. This is something I didn’t know. You can opt in to use GreenPower which is generated from renewable resources {wind, hydropower etc}. Say you want 20% of your energy to come from renewable resources, you can {and pay a little extra} or you can even do 100%. So perhaps if you saved a little money with the tips below, you could then opt in to use part green resources. Anyways, it’s something I’m going to learn more about and see how much more it would cost us. Perhaps it’s a conversation you want to have with your provider too?

How to save money on your electricity bill, and spend it on shoes instead

☀ Wash your clothes in cold water. Doing this alone could save you around $120 a year.
☀ Stop using your clothes dryer. This one could really make a dent in your bill. Hang them on the line instead.
☀ Only use your air-conditioning when you REALLY need it. Fans don’t actually use up that much electricity and are a much more energy efficient way of keeping your home cool. If you must use your air-con, you should have it at 24ºC for summer and 21ºC for winter {Hubby, if you’re reading this I TOLD you 16ºC was INSANE!}.
☀ Another way to keep your home cool is to close your curtains in the heat of the day, and then open them up at night. And in Winter, open them up in the day and close them at night.
☀ Leaving your appliances on stand-by can account for up to 10% of your bill. So if you can, turn them off at the wall. Things like phone chargers, TVs, DVD players etc could be costing you money when they’re not really doing anything.
☀ Use energy efficient appliances. If you’re buying new appliances, check out their star rating.
☀ Get solar power. We have them. I don’t really know much about them, but I do know that we pay less for our electricity then we did when we lived in an apartment. It might not work for everyone, so you might need to do a bit of research.
☀ Only run the dishwasher when it’s full.
☀ Only fill the kettle with the water that you need. Your kettle has to work overtime to heat all that water, and you may only need a cup. Only fill it with what you’re going to use.
☀ Don’t use those oil heaters. I learned this the hard way. I put one in Lulu’s room over winter, and our bill went through the roof. I think Origin worked out the costs to be something stupid like 50c an hour. I should have put another layer of clothing on her instead.

If you’re interested in reading more about this, have a read here.

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I like a challenge, so I’m going to try all of these things for my next billing period {you can see my latest bill above} and see what a difference I can make. Wanna join me?

I know it’s so super bad but we use our dryer all the time, because our dog eats our clothes if we hang them on the line and I don’t like how my clothes go a bit crunchy on the line {well towels!} but I’m going to stop using the dryer. I’ll let you know what a difference all the changes make {and how many dresses get eaten in the process}. In the meantime I’m going to be that annoying woman who goes around switching off all the lights and turning things off at the wall.

Hubby, you’re welcome.

16 thoughts on “How to have more money for shoes and dumplings”

  1. We don’t have air con (I’ve lived through two pregnancies in the middle of some of our hottest summer’s and there have really only been enough days to count on one hand, where I wish I had it for a few hours) the fans and the way the breezes flow through the house is enough, and make sure to not only turn off at the wall but UNPLUG appliances not being used, as they still draw energy and $$$ when plugged in and off…. Saves a little

  2. I follow a lot of the points above, cold washing, line drying, fans instead of AC only running a full dishwasher etc. But…..I never turn things off/unplug at the wall.
    I’m lazy like that, I just can’t bring myself to crawl behind the TV cabinet every night and turn it off….

  3. :(. We don’t have air con, don’t have a dryer, always wash with cold, don’t have a dishwasher, and our power bill is still over $100 more than yours a quarter. WHAT IS HAPPENING?!!

    • We are in the same boat. We don’t any of the above appliances, yet we still struggle to pay our bill.
      It seems the less we use each year, the more it is costing us! I certainly couldn’t afford to use a dishwasher or dryer even if we had them!!

  4. Those are great tips! Our power bill basically doubles in winter because we live in the sub zero Canberra region and it gets really cold!! We have ducted air con and use it to heat the house to a liveable temperature, but we only set it to 18 degrees in winter, so nothing ridiculous.

    Lucky we have gas hot water and cooking otherwise I’d hate to see how high our bill would be! I might try some of these tips over summer to see the difference it makes.

  5. A few bills ago, we received a bill for over $700… There are two of us living in a small apartment – with no dryer! We found out that downlights (all of the lights in our apartment are down lights!) use something like 4c per hour – and each switch turns on 3 or 4! We purchased lamps and low energy bulbs and lo-and-behold, the next bill was SEVENTY DOLLARS. Check if your downlights are halogen or LED (LED are more expensive to purchase but use less energy). Also, call and ask your provider for a ‘high-energy use’ guide via email – Origin provides these if you ask/question your bill.
    Good luck saving money – and also our precious resources!

  6. Towels being crunchy on the line can be a sign of using too much wash detergent, wash your towels twice with no detergent, then only use only 1/2 what you normally would. You would be surprised at the difference.

  7. We use an oil heater in both boys rooms and found it to be cheap and did not use that much power. as long as the door was closed and temp was set to about 18 then they are great….but yet we need them in Tassie

  8. Ours is double that, so I am going to take the No dryer challenge with you!! I am also going to look into solar, using the savings towards a pool is great incentive!!

  9. Such good tips. We have two balconies but can’t use either for drying the washing because we have snotty strata. We did however buy one of those sensor dryers which I guess is a good compromise, seeing as it stops going when the clothes are dry. I’m going to drive the hubster mad turning everything off at the wall – anything to bring those bill digits down!

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