Talk Thrifty

Spend a little time and monitor your spending. This is a great way to identify areas of savings. There are the well known softwares available to help you do this easily such as Microsoft Money and Quicken, however, in efforts to save money these at their cost can be counter productive. There are alternatives to these more well known programs such as Grisbi and GnuCash, and for anyone using linux I personally recomend KmyMoney. These programs are free to users and available for download. Most of these programs have some way to track your spending by category or payees which can help you to identify areas of overspending. Set up a budget after a month of so of gathering the information on your spending habbits to help you monitor and control your spending. Areas I've always found to look for controling spending are in dining and groceries. You may be surprised how much you spend in these areas. Happy Budjeting!

Stagnant air can make you uncomfortable when working inside or just sitting around the house. Adjustin your thermostat isn't the only answer. Turn on the fan and you will find that you can be comforatable at much higher temperatures than you would by just relying on your air conditioner. Doing this you may be able to adjust your thermostat up even 5 degrees higher than normal. 5 degrees on your thermostat can add up to some real savings on your electric bill. Durring spring and fall months I use fans almost exclusively as opposed to the air conditioner keeping my electric bill low for a few extra months out of the year. You may want to check the setting of your fans as most fans have a switch to adjust wich direction the fan moves. One direction circulates the air for optimum use durring summer and the other for durring colder temperatures to keep warm air down where you are.

Flourescent bulbs are a great way to save money each year by reducing your energy costs. Don't let the higher costs of these bulbs fool you into thinking their not a bargain though. Not only will these bulbs last you much longer than traditional bulbs (10 times longer than incandescent lighting), already making them cost affective, but they can save you as much as $60 a year in electricity as opposed to incandescent lighting. These bulbs also tend to be cooler to the touch when on saving on heating up your house as well.