What are you cutting back and saving money on?

Supply House Rick

We mostly use our cell phones anyways. Why pay Verizon $100 a month when we can pay $30. Also dropped HBO and saved $15.90 a month. That's a savings of $1030.80 a year. How are you cutting costs and saving money in a down economy?

Rick

Jean-David Beyer

1.) I replaced my 60 year old oil burner with a W-M Ultra 3 mod|con boiler. Obviously the thing will not pay for it self in a few months. And since this happened this May, I cannot empirically tell the heating savings. But over the last two months, it seems to heat my DHW for about $0.55/day, where as far as I can tell, my former electric hot water heater cost closer to $1.00/day. Since I have radiant heat in the downstairs, I can run in condensing mode most of the time. Upstairs I replaced two 3' fin-tube radiators with 14 feet of Slant/Fin in each room, I am going to try to heat with 140F water upstairs. And the system has outdoor reset, so it may condense a lot of the time there too. I notice the condensate pump runs from time to time anyway, and that is when trying to put 180F water into the indirect water heater. It recovers so fast, that I have not seen it get up to 180F though. Maybe it will in winter.

2.) I normally run my two computers 24/7 for various reasons. But I do not really need the second one on all the time, so last week I shut it down. I need it only when I want to print or run my CD-ROM burner (which is seldom).

3.) I live by myself, so I eat out a lot. I have been eating home more often.

Rocky_3

Potential savings

Unfortunately, any savings I realize by cutting back in all areas of my life have been offset by an increase in boat gas this summer. One of the pitfalls of having a new riverboat combined with an absolute smokin' summer here in Fairbanks, Alaska. ;-)

Rocky

Unknown

Gas and ammunition...

in other words, I'm not shooting as many matches as I used to. The stuff adds up!

John Starcher_4

Cigarettes!!!!

I have been a non smoker since May 20!!!!!!

Supply House Rick

Nice Job

Congrats on kicking tobacco! You are to be commended! I have 15 years in and never looked back. We were going to replace our boiler but decided to seal the envelope. We replaced the last 6 old style windows and went caulk and spray foam insulation crazy. It really made a difference last winter, the T-Stat never went above 62. We told the kids if you're cold, put on a sweatshirt. I think we have cut down on unnecessary driving. We took the kids camping instead of something more elaborate this summer.

I don't see light at the end of the tunnel with the current economic situation and collapse of new home construction. If this is a mild winter I think their will be massive layoffs and some companies closing their doors. The contractors I speak with are all saying the same thing--very slow. Look at your suppliers delivery trucks, if they haven't moved or all are parked mid-morning they are dead no matter what they say. How and when this ends I don't know so we will continue to educate ourselves and teach our children energy conservation...

Rick

Ivan S

Smokin?

About a week ago you couldn,t see across Turnagain Arm. The fires were that bad. They have a 747 on the way to drop one millon pounds of water on a fire up north. What's that have to do saving money? Well, I haven't a clue. Stay out of the Bush Company- That's my advice for saving money.

Baltimore/Maine Doug_9

Cutting back

Never had HBO. Just recently got cable and cable internet.
No land lines. Just cell. My son is adding us as extra lines to his business plan. We will save 60$ a month.
Listing Baltimore house for sale. Moved into a house my son owns and am working on renovation to make it a law office. By selling house and paying him rent the money stays in the family. The house has steam heat.
Down to a Jeep, sold truck.
Less eating out, less fancy places.
Downgraded level of single malt.
No flat screen, money went to surgery for little cat that likes to sleep in my arms.
No new PC

Am willing to give up more cause I want the new 3Gs iPhone that my son just bought. Need at least one toy!

Anyone need a place in Maine? The bank is for sale.

john@reliable_24

this hurts

sam adams for miller lite

Wayco Wayne_2

Last year

when gas was still over 4 dollars a gallon, we bought a scooter for running up into town. It's big enough at 200 cc's to go 70 mph but only uses 70 mpg. Fun on wheels and saving gas at the same time. I also added a 90 evac tube solar thermal system to assist my radiant floor and shower water. It works nice. My 120 gallon storage tank reaches 165 each sunny summer day.

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Timco

Well, the first thing to go was the exercise tapes and bikes. Then we stopped even firing up the helicopter and the jet, and drydocked the yacht. Switching from gold-leaf toilet paper was tough, but not as difficult as selling the Bently.

Seriously, it has been a great summer, and no cutbacks will be implemented...Besides the exercise tapes...

Tim