How to Guide: Save Money on Utilities

With the prices of everyday items and goods rising around the world, it’s only natural that you will want to save some money. This can be tricky when your utility bills are through the roof. It can be tricky knowing where you can cut back to avoid having a monster of a bill at the end of the month! But not all hope is lost - we’ve put together a list of tricks to help you save some hard earned dollars for something that you would really like to spend them on.

So how can you save money on utilities?

We’re going to tell you in our comprehensive guide! Let’s take a look at the best ways that you can save money on your utilities so that you can stash away some extra cash for a little treat.

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How to Save Money on Utilities

It’s always stressful when you get a bill through the mail that is a little higher than you were expecting. Whether it’s your water, electricity, or gas supply that you want to try and cut down on, we’re going to show you how to save money on utilities by being smarter with how you use them.

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Switch Appliances Off at the Outlet

This might not seem like such a big deal when you like the convenience of being able to switch your TV on straight away via the remote, or simply lift up the lid of your laptop and it’s ready to go. However, when your appliances are on standby, that’s still using electricity.

In fact, laptops and computers are one of the most energy draining appliances when it comes to standby mode.

So even though it might be easier to leave your appliances in standby, you’d be surprised by how much money you will be saving yourself throughout the year by switching everything off properly, including at the outlet socket.

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Reduce Your Thermostat Temperature

We all love to be cozy and warm in our own home. However, by having your thermostat set at a higher temperature all the time, you will be using a lot more energy or gas to maintain that temperature. By lowering the temperature that’s on your thermostat, you will be able to save some more money on your next utility bill.

Find that your home is too cold to do this? Then there might be something else that’s the issue at play here. 

We’ll cover these in more detail down below, but you may need to think about whether there are drafts in your home that are sucking out that warmth, whether you need to insulate your home better, or whether it’s time to swap out those single glazed windows for double glazing.

Lower the Temperature of Your Clothes Washes

It’s so easy to just follow the preset temperature that comes with your washing machine. However, you can actually lower the temperature of your clothes washes, and save some money in the process. You will also find that your washing machine is able to still do a stellar job even when operating at 10 degrees or 20 degrees less.

Aim for an 86 degree Fahrenheit wash if you can - this is more economical than a hotter wash of 130 degrees, and is kinder on the environment to boot.

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Think Smart When It Comes to Water

For a lot of people, it seems much easier to brush your teeth with the faucet running the whole time. However, all of that clean water starts to add up after a while, particularly if every member of your household is doing the same thing. The same goes for if you tend to use a running faucet to wash your dirty dishes.

Instead of allowing the water to run, only use as much as you need. This means turning off the faucet as you brush your teeth, and only turning it on again when you need to rinse your brush. When it comes to washing the dishes by hand, fill up your sink with water and dish soap, then use this instead of running water.

Replace Window With Double Glazing

You’d be surprised by how much heat is lost through inefficient window glazing! Double glazing has been proven to help lock in the warmth in your home, so you won’t have to worry about pumping in all that heat for it to go straight out the window.

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Invest in Insulation for Your Roof

Similar to how we humans lose most of our heat through our heads, the same principle applies to houses. Heat rises, and if you don’t have efficient insulation in your roof, the heat will be going straight out the roof and into the atmosphere where it’s of no use to you.

If you have the funds available, it will be well worth investing in insulation for your roof. This will help to lock in heat, and mean you spend less money on heating your home to replace the heat that would have been lost through the roof.

Eliminate Drafts

Do you find that you’re constantly having to heat your home to compete with a cold draft coming through windows or doors? Then you’ll want to consider eliminating these drafts so that you don’t lose all that precious heat!

For doors this could be a simple fix of investing in a draft excluder. If there are any holes or cracks in windows, you can use an expanding foam to block them, or consider replacing any broken pieces.

In Summary

So there you have it! You now know our top tips for reducing the utilities that you use so that you can save some extra money. You can put the money you have saved towards something that you would really like to spend it on. It will also be worth monitoring what exactly you use and when so that you can work out where you could cut back on your usage of water, electricity, gas, or other utilities.

The best ways to save money on utility bills is to switch off appliances you aren’t using, make sure that you buy efficient appliances, lower your thermostat temperature, lower the temperature of your washing machine, invest in double glazing, invest in roof insulation, and eliminate drafts in your home.

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