Ways to Save Energy

by Tamara Wilhite
(Bedford, TX, USA)

Ways to Save Energy and Money with Laundry and Groceries

Laundry

1. Taught kids that not to drop towels on the floor or in the bath tub and to reuse the towels at least one day. This saves water and electricity to clean.


2. Taught kids to pick up and put clothes away. Just dumping clothes on the floor and dumping them in the laundry basket resulted in unnecessary loads of laundry


3. We put knits and light cloth like hand towels under the fan to dry instead of using the dryer. Hanging clothes to dry are great ways to save energy
   and money too.

1. I grocery shop once a week. We have a list. If it isn’t on the list, I don’t buy it. If they forget it, we go without it for a week. This saves on driving to the store, shopping time, and automatically inserts a pause before going to get things.


2. I have at least 1-2 milk boxes (long shelf life) as well as 1-2 boxes of bread mix that don’t require cooking. If the kids go bananas and use up the bread and milk too fast, they help make the bread or open the milk and put it in the fridge. Adding that extra step makes them realize the work involved. I no longer have kids pour a full cup of milk and leave it out, causing a gallon to be wasted in a few days. Making bread is enough work that they no longer ask for sandwiches until ready to eat it. We save on food as well as shopping trips, without actually going hungry.


3. I pick one store to shop at per week, then stock up on the deals they have then. Driving from store to store in the suburbs in hopes of using coupons is not often economical.