Way's to save energy

I am no longer going to help the fat cats get richer. I have cut my power bill to just $40. a month!
I have turned off my hot water heater and take cold showers, it's not bad now that it's summer.
All lights have energy saving bulbs. But I hardly use them.
I don't use the air conditioner. I use the outside clothes line to dry my clothes and wash in cold water. I make sandwiches instead of using the stove. I turn off the coffeepot and even drink my coffee cold.
I commute to work with others because there is no public transportation here.
I turn the engine off when sitting more than 3 minuets and drive 55!
I buy in bulk so I don’t have to grocery shop but twice a month saving trips to the store that I do on my way home from work. I never drive unless it's for work, then after work get all my choirs done. When home, I stay home or walk or ride a bike.
If the local Power Company raises their price more, I'll start using flashlights with batteries I get from the dollar store.

I painted my 2 story 4 bed room house with recycled paint I got from the dump. I was happy to see the city dump has now put up a sign to recycle what other throw away "Treasures from garbage" the sign said. Scavenging is no longer a sin.

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Permalink Reply by bill on July 13, 2008 at 8:02am: mary, one thing i could not do is drink cold coffee, but there are several coffee makers that brew into a thermos pot that keeps coffee hot for 4-6 hours. i love mine. i also try and drive 10 miles under the speed limit.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dee RN on July 23, 2008 at 5:26am: Mary you have some good ideas. Good for you! Some people are not willing to give up as much as you are. I have started a blog about practical things everyone can do. It (I hope) will give everyone a way to find things they are willing to do. Any comprehensive plan has to include Americans saving the energy we have now. Look to the future but start now!
http://push.pickensplan.com/xn/detail/2187034:BlogPost:378844; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Mary on July 23, 2008 at 11:14am: These are some great ideas

Here is another I used for saving water.
Recycle your washing machines rinse water to use for the next wash. I know I often have more than one load to do when I wash. I got a large barrel a plastic garbage can would work, and just moved the drain hose to empty into this when the washer drained when on rinse. Then I used a cheap swamp cooler pump to pump the water back into the washer for the next wash. I don’t see why you couldn't do this with bath water as well. The Wash drain water you could use for you garden or lawn. It's what they call "gray water" I didn't want the barrels of rinse water in my laundry room so I set a platform up out side the window. Water is getting expensive and even the local water department made a comment about how little water we were using and I even had a green lawn!

You might want to check if you city allows you to use "gray water'.

Another thing many people might not know is that soapy water is an old fashion cure for some types of bugs on their plants and flowers. I would not recommend water with bleach, but the water with bleach didn't seem to hurt the lawn in anyway. But I sure did have to mow it more often.
I solved that problem of mowing too. Just like the old days I did what they did at the White House. I got some sheep. They don't over graze or pull the lawn up by its roots. The chomp away is an even level and even fertilized it at the same time. LOL

Our small town allowed us to have the sheep. We later added two turkeys and a few chickens. These were penned up of course and had fresh eggs everyday. The extra eggs we sold to a local company that sold them to the stores.

Incase no one has heard, in England they are advising people to cut back on food because of the food shortage. The government there says the high costs for food is because of the food shortage and suggests people go back to practices done during World War 2.; ▶ Reply to This