Some of you may remember several weeks ago when I told you about the money-maker deal on compact flourescent bulbs at Target. Target often releases coupons for CFL bulbs, and when you stack them with manufacturer coupons you can get bulbs free.
Well, I bought about 40 bulbs over two "cycles" of these Target coupons, so I ended up with lots! We finally decided to get the bulbs up this weekend and they look great! They're so much brighter and will save us a bundle on our energy bill and replacement costs. Each bulb lasts approx 5 years and has an average savings of $44 over 5 years.
We replaced 29 bulbs this weekend, which will end up saving us $1276 over 5 years, $255.20 per year, or $21.27 per month! WOW! It may not seem like very much to you, but every little bit counts. This whole light bulb adventure has made me anxious to start finding other ways to save energy. We have a large house and our electric bill (not including gas) is a whopping average of $700.00 in the summer! We had strong winds last night and I realized we have lots of doors and windows with some pretty serious drafts - I think our next step is to buy some caulking and plug those windows!
I've come to realize over the last few months how important every dollar is to our budget. Like some of you out there, my husband works a 100% commission based job. This means that when he works 60 + hours a week, he may not get paid much, if anything. When times are good they're really good, but when times are bad they're really bad. This makes life pretty difficult at times, but through careful planning and budgeting I've found we can manage just fine.
I've been able to reduce our household grocery bill by about 75%, and over the next few weeks I plan to review our habits and see where else we can cut. We've made some great financial goals this year and I think we can meet them if we buckle down and cut our spending in several creative ways.
If you have any other household money-saving tips, please leave a comment below. I'm so excited to see how you all have slashed expenses!
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