Saving Energy & Money

As you may know already my husband and I just bought a new house and are expecting our first child in November.  We also just purchased a new washing machine & vehicle. I am always looking and trying to find ways to save money and help not only my family, but also the environment. Below are ways that my husband and I try to save:

1. Compost
2. During the summer hang out clothes to dry on nice days
3. Separate cardboard, magazines, paper, and returnables instead of just throwing them into the garbage.
4. Only turn on the lights when natural sunlight isn't enough to light a room and only leave the lights on in the room that we are using it.
5. On Sundays I have Bible Study an hour and a half before church starts so instead of taking two vehicles we take one.
6. My husband likes to garden and grows many of the vegetables that we eat. We can them and store them.
7. We buy the family size packages of meats and freeze the ones we don't eat
8. We buy supplies in bulk at Sam's Club like toilet paper, tissues, paper towels, drinks, laundry soap, dishwasher tablets, dryer sheets, cheese, fruits, and cereal to name a few.
9. We only run the dishwasher when it is completely full, we just make sure we rinse off the dishes before they go in so instead of running it everyday it gets run ounce or twice a week.
10. When I do wash I make sure that I have a full load before doing wash so that I am doing a full size load and not several small loads of a few articles of clothing.
11. For our vehicle we were able to get 0% financing for 6 years.
12. We are staying ahead of the interest on our house payment.
13. We keep a jar for our loss change and after a period of time roll it up and deposit it into the bank or savings investment. Coins do add up so don't just throw them out.

I am sure there are several other ways that my husband and I can save energy and money, but for now we are doing pretty well for ourselves with how we are doing things.