Living Green=Saving Green!

Since making a few small changes in our home, I've seen drastic improvements in our home that I never thought I would have. Mostly in way of our bills, and how much energy we consume. Cutting, and making small changes in our home has allowed us to save some BIG green cash! Which I love, always! I'm pretty sure Orion thought I was nuts when I went around unplugging every small electronic device that we weren't using. But, after a few short couple weeks and a much improved electric bill he's caught on with me and become a very big supporter of this new way of living greener! For example, (just so you can see how serious this is) our electric/gas bill has been well over $100 for the last couple months. This month our bill was $71!!! Can you believe that! I was so excited, and inspired! Here's how we're doing it:

- we've turned our thermostat down just two degrees and kept it steady at that same temp. If you don't mess with it, or turn it off and then on again and keep it on auto always that helps. Also, since it's getting nicer now we don't need the heat on, so we've turned it completely off. If I get cold, (which I usually do at night) we keep a stack of blankets beside the couch to add warmth.
- we only run the dishwasher when it's full, and instead of using the heat setting we just let the dishes air dry.
- shaved 2 minutes each off our shower time in the mornings.
- Did you know keeping things like your toaster, blender, coffee pot, etc. plugged in all the time into outlets consumes energy even when you're not using them? Well, we've been unplugging those things until we're using them. Also we have all our t.v., DVD player, etc. all on a power strip that can be turned off when we're not using them.
- Let the light in!! Take advantage of all the natural sun light you have during the day, open the curtains and blinds. I've been doing this for a few weeks now, and turning off all lights when we're not in rooms, and just using the lamps instead of the over head lights all the time at night! Also, changing all your light bulbs to CFL bulbs can save tons of energy!
- I was clothes about every 2 weeks. I've been doing this for most of my life living on my own, and now into marriage. That alone, saves tons of water and energy not doing laundry weekly. Also change your water temp to a warm/cold setting instead of the hot setting will save energy and water too! Hang clothes to dry as much as possible!

These are small changes we've made that you can make to! I'm so excited to be saving some money and the earth in the process! Long term, I'd love to invest in Energy Star appliances for my home, but for now these are small things we can do to make a BIG difference and save money at the same time!