Angry Julie on a Budget-Saving on Electricity (Guest Poster)

I still haven't recovered from BlogHer. I have clothes all over my bedroom, the garage floor, and the bathroom. My computer is on the kitchen table, surrounded by business cards, and notes. I'm trying to visit all the new sites that I've discovered. I will get to you all by the end of the weekend, I promise.

My best friend, Stacey, offered to write a guest post for me. One of these days, I will write my own stories about being on a budget, saving money, etc. Stacey has cut her electric bill drastically. It's so low, it's scary. And we live in Southern California.

I'm adding a wonderful photograph I took of Stacey, Angry Toddler, and her daughter, Stella. Stacey was "parenting" via her iPhone.


From Stacey:

I’ve been budgeting a lot since I decided to open my own business about 2 years ago. It’s hard to go from a decent salary to no salary at all. My husband suggested we just try a little to save on energy. It started small by just replacing our incandescent light bulbs as they burned out with Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFL’s). I loathe the way the spirally ones look in recessed cans. We have recessed lights throughout our house, but they have CFL’s with the traditional glass casing around them so they look “normal”. I bought a whole bunch of dimmable and regular CFL’s at Costco. Go here for a funny story about me changing a light bulb. They aren’t much more than regular recessed lights. I think the non-dimmable lights were $14 and the dimmable are $18. I would say that about 75% of our lights are CFL’s now and it’s made a difference in the electric bill.

The other thing that has helped our electric bill is only doing laundry with cold water and during off peak hours. You can look at your electric provider’s website to get a list of their off peak hours. I do all our laundry (between 5 and 8 loads a week) on Sunday. When I started doing this my electric bill went from $170/month range to the $130/month. I liked that so I tried to see what else I could do.

I started turning off some excess junk not being used. You know that little red light on your DVD player that’s on while you are NOT using it? It eats up power. So we started small by just turning off the power to the TV, amplifier, DVD and cable box, as well as completely shutting down the computers and monitors every night. The next bill was $100. Hmmm, me likely..so then I started turning everything that was not necessary bill, our bill was $64.

Here is the list of what we do:

*Unplug everything in kitchen when not in use (coffee pot, margarita maker , toaster, kitchen aid mixer)
*Every night we turn off the power button on the, cable box and amplifier. I don’t need the glow of the power button. I have suggested putting a surge protector on there but I’m afraid all the stuff on my DVR will disappear and I still need to watch like 14 episodes of Heros.
*Turn off ceiling fans and lights when we leave the room.
*Turn OFF your computer and monitor every night (off, not power save mode)
*Unplug the laptop cord from the wall. It does not need to charge all night.
*Unplug your phone/camera chargers when you aren’t using them.

I know a lot of you are probably freaking out by a $64/month bill. Our lowest bill ever was $53.88. I do have kind of a small house, it’s a condo that’s just over 1400 square feet. We have a plasma TV and all the media junk that my husband says has to come with it. We have 2 computers and I think we have a pretty normal lifestyle. My house is only 5 years old, so I’m sure some of the newer building standards helps out.

also..

I was watching this Living With Ed episode where he installed a green switch to eliminate all "phantom power" while you are away. With the flip of one switch you can turn off ALL unnecessary power when you are away from your home. It leaves things like refrigerators, answering machines and alarm clocks on. But, it completely kills the phantom electrical feed to all other unused power sources while you are gone. Apparently, most homes can be outfitted for between $500-$1000 but there are estimates that 45% of power use is actually phantom power.


Now if we could just get the cable company to lower their prices!!!

Angry Julie on a Budget-Introduction

Angry Julie is a very frivolous person when it comes to spending her money. She is used to working overtime, when she wants, needs, or desires something. It's how she rolls? Where do you think the Louis Vuitton comes from? Yea, ok, my mom buys that, but anyway...

Angry Julie has taken on several bills throughout her early 30's. They are catching up to her. Pretty teeth ain't cheap, I'm just sayin'. And the latest and greatest? Angry Julie is taking a 5% cut in pay and possibly furloughs at work. Also, the overtime has drastically been cut! YIKES!!

Angry Julie and Angry Husband have had several discussions on how to cut costs, be more frugal, pay our bills, etc.

Here are some things that we have done:

1. Re-Evaluate all of our bills. What can we cut?
*HBO is gone.
*Second DVR is gone.
*Open all the doors and windows. Try not to turn on the air conditioner.
*Got rid of Salt Water fish tank-125 gallons at about $125 a month in electricity.
*Re-evaluate our cellphone plan. Analyze the bill.
*Cancel Netflix.
*Cancel our cleaning lady. Angry Julie will have to scrub toilets.

2. Started eating at home more. We tend to eat out A LOT. We've stocked up at the grocery store and are making easy meals. Well Angry Husband is making the meals. I just sit there and surf the Internet, which is what I do best.

3. Enrolled Angry Toddler in City Parks and Recreation Classes. We knew that we wanted Angry Toddler to take swim lessons this summer. Our options were: private swim place, Homeowner's Association, and City where we live. I had to get on some wait lists, but we went with the city. We are $56 a session. Which is not bad. I know some people who are paying $80-$100 a week for lessons.

4. Looking for deals and coupons at the grocery store. We shop at Ralph's. Mostly because it's like almost across the street. I hate the parking lot, but it's local. We use their Ralph's Club Card. We get points and rewards for our purchases. I try and use newspaper coupons also, when I remember. I've been averaging a savings of at least $30 a week.

5. Use our available resources for entertainment that were under utilized.
*Disney Season Passes
*Homeowner's Association Pool
*My 24-Hour Fitness Membership. I started it years ago. I now only pay $49 a yr.
*Local museums, parks, and beaches.

This is just an introduction post from me. I'm going to try and do something at least once a week on this topic. I'm also going to have some guest posts. I have tons of bookmarks saved about "living frugally" and "being on a budget". So stay tuned!

Are you an expert on one of these topics? Do you want to do a guest post? Let me know!

And for now...here's some sneak peek links!!!


My friend, Shannon, started her blog to provide moms with helpful saving tips. Shannon went from working a full-time job to working part-time. She realized that she had to cut her budget. Her blog, For the Mommas, is a wealth of information. She posts several times a day sometimes too! You will want to bookmark her site!

and


Aracely from Daytripping Mom is a local Orange County Blogger. Her site is dedicated to finding local Southern California fun places to visit for families. She knows that everyone is on a budget right now also. She always posts about the current deal, or specials going on.

Top photo is from Flickr.

Hot Diggity Dog

Today I was invited to participate in a teleconference and twitter with Phil Lempert, which was sponsored by Hebrew National. Phil Lempert is known as the "Supermarket Guru".

Did you know that National Hot Dog Day is July 23rd? Well you do now!

This was my first teleconference as a blogger, so I had no clue on what I was doing. I had a notebook on the table, my Macbook, my cordless telephone, and Angry Husband nearby. Angry Husband is a big fan of Hebrew National Hot Dogs. They are the only kind that he will buy. He usually rolls his eyes when I'm talking about blogging, etc..but this time he actually somewhat participated.

I had TweetChat open to follow the discussions hashtag #HNLempert along with my cordless telephone to my ear. Phil Lempert was talking about summer, BBQ's, and cooking hot dogs. I wrote notes and tweeted along with the other participants.

It is interesting to hear about how other people cook their hot dogs. It vastly differs in different states. We are a mustard and ketchup household. We BBQ the hot dogs, toast the buns on the grill, and use these somewhat simple condiments. In other regions people use cheese, baked beans, onions, relish..as condiments and toppings. I would tell Angry Husband this along the way, and he would make a face.

Along with recipes and discussions about condiments for hot dogs, we received some great tips about budget friendly BBQ's!

*Plan a money-saving trip to the grocery store.

1. Make a list of everything you need before you leave for the grocery store.
2. When making your list, check your pantry, cupboards, fridge and freezer for what you already have.
3. Do you research. -Check out the store circulars and compare to see which products are on sale at which store.
4. Buying your meats at one store and your produce at another could save you big bucks.-Check your Sunday newspaper, magazines and online for coupons.
5. Surveys say that using coupons could save you 15-20% on your bill.
6. The average value of coupons today is $1.29.-Join your stores' frequent shopper card clubs for additional savings that can be combined with coupons.
7. Never go shopping when you are hungry.

*Best techniques for shopping once in the grocery store.

1. Don't follow the path that the grocery store lay out for you.-Stores try to steer customers to the produce department or bakery section first with their selective smells. They are designed with alluring deals on products you never thought about buying.
2. Start shopping in the middle aisles were all of the unemotional foods are (boxes, cans and jars of food). You can more easily avoid the store's marketing tactics there.-Once you've hit all of the aisles, the temptation of the produce and bakery won't be as strong.
3. Don't always trust that the promotions at the ends of the aisles are the best deal.-Take chips for example, a staple for your BBQ. I have seen huge displays of the large size at $3.99 a bag. But just around the corner on the regular shelf was a comparable brand, same ingredients, same nutritional and same size bag that were just $2.19.
4. Dairy case vs. cheese table.-Every BBQ must include cheeseburgers but cheese can be quite expensive. Keep in mind that cheese is sold in two different locations in the supermarket, in the dairy case and on the cheese table. An organic mild cheddar goes for $6.99 for 8 oz. on the cheese table, while the same-sized package of the store's private label brand, which is also growth-hormone free is just $3.29 a package.

Check out a great website, Simple and Delicious. It has great ideas for simple, quick, and budget friendly meals.

I'm trying to learn new ways to save money and to be a little more frugal. I'm going to start a series now with the all the tips I've been learning along with some things that the Angry Household is doing. It's going to be titled, "Angry Julie on a Budget". Stay tuned!

Photo from Hebrew National's site!

How We Saved $65 Yesterday

Our dog, Bruiser is a Maltese/Chihuahua mix. He was the most adorable puppy. He was snow white and cute as a button. Bruiser is still cute. Although he's crazy hyper and has this wild hair. His hair is definitely a cross between a Maltese and Chihuahua. He gets these odd long curly hairs all over. He then has a goatee and wild hair above his eyes. It's not pretty.

We usually take him to the groomer to get shaved. He looks so much better after he gets shaved and groomed. But we are cheap and poor right now, so I grabbed the clippers yesterday. I was walking out to the backyard yesterday and Angry Husband asked what I was doing. I told him that I was going to shave Bruiser, with the clippers, duh.

He came to the rescue and helped me. Because really, I had no clue about what I was doing. Bruiser kept moving, but we were able to trim/shave most of his wild hair. We then gave him a bath with some dog shampoo and the hose in the background.

I think this is what we are going to do, from now on. He really needs to be shaved about once a month. His hair grows so fast. I'm sure we will get better at this shaving thing, eventually.



Oh, and I had to take a picture of Wolfie too. She stayed far away from our shaving party. Smart dog. She is a Chihuahua mix too. We got her from a rescue.