Photo by °Florian

With the current economic situation quite a few of our customers have been trying to save money. It is only natural right? Even with the economic situation its always a good idea to put money away for yourself, or perhaps your kids that will eventually head off to college if they haven’t already.

5. Install compact fluorescent bulbs or LED bulbs whenever you can. You might have seen these bulbs, they might cost more but they consume less electricity, which is especially true of LED bulbs. Compact fluorescent bulbs use about 25% of the electricity of incandescent bulbs. What about LED bulbs? 2%. Are there any places in your home in which you can change out a few bulbs to get started?

4. Cut back on eating out.  I was looking at all the expenses I had in 2008 and one of the biggest was eating out. Going out to dinner can be quite fun when you invite your friends, or its just yourself and your spouse. Next time instead of going out with friends, can they come over for a meal if everyone pitches in?

3.  Keep a list. Before you go shopping, whether it be for clothes, electronics or food. Don’t go into a store unless you know what you want before going in. Keeping a list for groceries keeps you from getting things you need, not things you want. It’s scary how fast those extras add up at the end of a grocery bill. How many “extra” things have you bought recently?

2. Exercise more. We Americans can be very busy and while not lazy we just don’t have the time to devote to exercise like we want to. One way to exercise more is to plan ahead and block out the time in our busy schedules, which may mean moving items around for the week or getting dad to watch the kids. Being healthy will save you a bundle in the long run. Are there any exercises that have worked for you that you would like to share?

1. Stop watching the Television. You are bombarded with guilt-inducing ads which play upon your emotions to purchase a particular product. Besides using less electricity you can devote all this extra time into doing more important things, for example spending time with your kids or exercising.

Any tips that you would add to the list?