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Description
yes, I'm aware of the bad pun.

On occasion, I've been talking to alot of people concerning their utilities and gas. Now I'm extremely lucky in alot of these aspects. First I'm lucky enough to live 5 miles from work on a moderately high mileage car (29 MPG), so I can go a month on $40. And living in Tennessee, you seem to have to put things in a different perspective so that it gets through peoples' heads that they have to change the way they do things, particularly concerning their money and not as much something silly like "good for the environment." And seeing many people I know on here are starting out or in the early stages of living out on their own, I thought it'd be a good idea to share some of the things I do managing my expenses.

The first thing is definitely understand where your money's going. This is really something that the idea of doing actually scares people to look at, but in truth is the first real step at getting things together. You'd be really surprised. This includes the big stuff (loans, bills, utilities, gas, rent) and the "little" stuff (snacks, drinks, fast food). After looking at what you can do to each you can really do ALOT of damage to you overall cost of living, and everything you're NOT spending on these things is money you can put back to buying gas and food and getting outta debt.

Now just so people don't think I'm blowing smoke out my ass, I'm going to share my average costs of living after doing some of these things (budget: $400/week):

Rent: $550/mo 2bed 2bath house ($275/mo split)
Car loan: $190/mo
Insurance: $150/mo
Electricity: $40/mo avg
Gas (home): $25/mo avg
Gas (car at $4/ga): $10-15/week
Water/Trash: $25/mo
Cable Internet: $60/mo
Food: varies

Let's get started........
1) ELECTRICITY
a) Change your goddamn bulbs!
I know way too many people with like $120/mo electric bills, and most of this still is extremely simple things you can do. The new CFL bulbs are the single best thing you can get to kill your light bill. When we moved in our porch light was a 100W bulb. Replace that with a 10W CFL and it'll take 10 hours to burn as much electricity and the old one light did in 1. And trust me there's alot of people I see here leaving those on 24/7. This easily can cut an electric bill in half the first month by spending $30.

b) A/C
This is one of the first lifestyle changes you really have to start paying attention to (and the hardest to get the elderly to actually do). What your goal is, is to reduce the frequency at which the A/C kicks on, thereby reducing it's energy consumption. So there are 2 things you need can do. First is adjusting the temperature (73-78 in the summer, 63-68 in winter) This will maintain that your bills don't skyrocket outta control on the most extreme days. So no, you're not above wearing a sweater or overcoat in your own home in the winter. Also is managing the heat coming into you home is a big thing as well during the summer. Heat always travels to cold. So seal your windows and doors when you have the A/C on, and for god sakes turn off the A/C if you leave your windows and doors open. Otherwise you're just burning money (and coal). You also prevent sunlight from heating up your home further by keeping blinds and curtains drawn in the day. Additionally, having a thermostat with a timer can help by setting your A/C to remain off when away, then to automatically kick on say an hour before you get home.

c) CRT TVs and Monitors
I was actually shocked at this one how much this one did. I knew LCDs ran alot less electricity, but the fact that my 19" CRT TV and 19" CRT monitor use twice the wattage of a 42" LCD is insane. Upon learning this, I decided to test something. The monitor (336W) I generally just left on and let the internal timer power down the monitor, sometimes it would, others I'd get back from work and it'd still be on. So I turned it off when not in use for 1 month. The electric bill dropped $20. Yeah...adding that to the list. And really this is something people don't really think about, my dad will go on vacation camping for a weekend and leave Encore Westerns on a 32" turned on constantly. Other cases where some people leave their TV on "so their dog doesn't feel alone in the house" while their at work. OK, if that's your concern leave a little battery radio running, don't talk to me about your power bill then.

d) Unplug old game consoles.
Remember those huge black boxes on your old consoles? Still have them hooked up? Reach back there and feel them. Warm huh? That's because even when off those are still charging the compositors inside those adapters. Each runs generally 10W when off but when you're an older gamer like me and have a Sega 32XCD Genesis, it can add up. So unplug them until you're ready to dust off the old boys for alittle fun.

2) NATURAL GAS
a) Heat Pump
See A/C

b) Water Heater
This is another one of those that's alittle tricky but has an awesome twist. Our first gas bill was something like $120. It works alot like the way your A/C works. Your goal is to reduce the frequency at which it kicks on. Now truly ask yourself, how often do you need scolding hot water? This is important because you heater is maintaining that 24/7. The temperature drops to a certain point it kicks on a tops it off. So what you goal is to make your heater's MAX temperature alittle warmer than what you think is a comfortable shower. You want to have it where you only have to use the hot water value in the shower, because cold water uses 0 electricity, and in turn cuts the heater's consumption dramatically. I turned the heater's thermostat down something like 3 1/2 dials from MAX, so I have no real idea what it's temperature is now, but I'm guessing 120-140. Now there are some things this will affect you need to keep in mind, mainly the dishwasher and the clothes washer. So if your appliances don't have an internal thermostat you might want to test how the water feels when you do laundry and try using a Hot/Cold cycle in place of Warm/Cold.

...oh yeah the funny part. I should say that you may not see a change immediately in your gas bill. Companies like Atmos sometimes use "estimated usage" billing, meaning they go off what their recorded say your home uses. They generally assumed we used the same as the family that lived here before us. Well one month we got a $200 bill so we were pretty pissed and we actually ended up double paying. Well this, on a whim, made them check our meter. It turns out we had only been using 13 units a month. Let's just say we didn't have a gas heating bill from Sept. threw May. We just paid our first gas bill in 9 months last month.

3) INSURANCE
This is a tricky one, and it's really person to person. I mean just a few months ago I was paying $240/mo to GEICO. Don't be afraid to look around for quotes, even if you have a spotty record like me. Be honest when they ask about your record, The more you tell them, the less you may actually pay, cause if they pull up that record after you finish and find alot more then that counts against you. Also, after 5 years most event fall off your record completely, some cases even shorter. If you're paying on a loan to your car, have that info at hand, because that's apparently what knocked the $100/mo off for me. That money now goes to food.

4) FOOD AND SNACKAGE
This is really something you don't realize that adds up. I can save almost $50/week by simply not keeping cash or change on me and exclusively using a debit card. I'd have a Dr. Pepper and snack every break at work. That's:

$1.25 and $0.75 for 4 breaks a day, plus $6-8 at McDonalds = ~$75/week

Now personally, I can go through a 24pack of Dr.Pepper in 3 days (yes....I know...) or, if I take alittle time and effort, I can spend $5 of 100 Lipton tea bags, buy 5 bags of sugar for ~$10, and have 25 gallons of sweet tea. Packing lunches and doing more to prepare you're own food can go a REALLY long way when you're starting out. Pastas, rice and curry, sandwiches, canned soups, you're not limited to ramen here. General rule of thumb: It's more expensive to be lazy.

5) CABLE TV
....you don't need it......seriously. I know I'm talking alot about Revision3 lately, but it's really true now. I have no need for an $80 TV bill now. Look at what you watch, what you can't go without, then look for it online. The last 3 things I wanted from TV just went to online releases (Jon Stewart, Venture Bros. and Keith Olbermann) If you want movies, a Netflix account will fill any need you have. Period. I'm not a morning person, yet I now can watch NBC's TODAY on my schedule. I get home, 3 news networks on my computer waiting for me even though I work a 2nd shift job. Why pay $80/mo when I can't even be home to use it. Podcasts are on your schedule, not theirs.

6)CREDIT CARDS
Again, you don't need them. They're designed to make you live outside your means. A debit card by contrast will hold you to you're budget. Rather than using them for "emergencies" save up an emergency fund, depositing it in a high-interest savings account, this with prevent you from tapping into it more than you should.

7) DEBT
All of this adds up to extra money every month to spare, and managing how you use that extra cash is a big thing as well and not blowing it on a new game. Once you have your bills in control, get all your debts together and make the minimum payments on everything, and throw everything you can spare at you smallest debt. Once you pay that off, move the next one up. The idea is for every one you get outta the way, that's money in your pocket to spend on other things every month. I've killed 3 debts in the last 3 years now by doing this, going from about $150 a month to spare to probably 2 full paychecks, and could probably pay off my car in the next year.

Hope this helps some of you guys out. Feel free to ask or even suggest some stuff of your own.

Description
yes, I'm aware of the bad pun.

On occasion, I've been talking to alot of people concerning their utilities and gas. Now I'm extremely lucky in alot of these aspects. First I'm lucky enough to live 5 miles from work on a moderately high mileage car (29 MPG), so I can go a month on $40. And living in Tennessee, you seem to have to put things in a different perspective so that it gets through peoples' heads that they have to change the way they do things, particularly concerning their money and not as much something silly like "good for the environment." And seeing many people I know on here are starting out or in the early stages of living out on their own, I thought it'd be a good idea to share some of the things I do managing my expenses.

The first thing is definitely understand where your money's going. This is really something that the idea of doing actually scares people to look at, but in truth is the first real step at getting things together. You'd be really surprised. This includes the big stuff (loans, bills, utilities, gas, rent) and the "little" stuff (snacks, drinks, fast food). After looking at what you can do to each you can really do ALOT of damage to you overall cost of living, and everything you're NOT spending on these things is money you can put back to buying gas and food and getting outta debt.

Now just so people don't think I'm blowing smoke out my ass, I'm going to share my average costs of living after doing some of these things (budget: $400/week):

Rent: $550/mo 2bed 2bath house ($275/mo split)
Car loan: $190/mo
Insurance: $150/mo
Electricity: $40/mo avg
Gas (home): $25/mo avg
Gas (car at $4/ga): $10-15/week
Water/Trash: $25/mo
Cable Internet: $60/mo
Food: varies

Let's get started........
1) ELECTRICITY
a) Change your goddamn bulbs!
I know way too many people with like $120/mo electric bills, and most of this still is extremely simple things you can do. The new CFL bulbs are the single best thing you can get to kill your light bill. When we moved in our porch light was a 100W bulb. Replace that with a 10W CFL and it'll take 10 hours to burn as much electricity and the old one light did in 1. And trust me there's alot of people I see here leaving those on 24/7. This easily can cut an electric bill in half the first month by spending $30.

b) A/C
This is one of the first lifestyle changes you really have to start paying attention to (and the hardest to get the elderly to actually do). What your goal is, is to reduce the frequency at which the A/C kicks on, thereby reducing it's energy consumption. So there are 2 things you need can do. First is adjusting the temperature (73-78 in the summer, 63-68 in winter) This will maintain that your bills don't skyrocket outta control on the most extreme days. So no, you're not above wearing a sweater or overcoat in your own home in the winter. Also is managing the heat coming into you home is a big thing as well during the summer. Heat always travels to cold. So seal your windows and doors when you have the A/C on, and for god sakes turn off the A/C if you leave your windows and doors open. Otherwise you're just burning money (and coal). You also prevent sunlight from heating up your home further by keeping blinds and curtains drawn in the day. Additionally, having a thermostat with a timer can help by setting your A/C to remain off when away, then to automatically kick on say an hour before you get home.

c) CRT TVs and Monitors
I was actually shocked at this one how much this one did. I knew LCDs ran alot less electricity, but the fact that my 19" CRT TV and 19" CRT monitor use twice the wattage of a 42" LCD is insane. Upon learning this, I decided to test something. The monitor (336W) I generally just left on and let the internal timer power down the monitor, sometimes it would, others I'd get back from work and it'd still be on. So I turned it off when not in use for 1 month. The electric bill dropped $20. Yeah...adding that to the list. And really this is something people don't really think about, my dad will go on vacation camping for a weekend and leave Encore Westerns on a 32" turned on constantly. Other cases where some people leave their TV on "so their dog doesn't feel alone in the house" while their at work. OK, if that's your concern leave a little battery radio running, don't talk to me about your power bill then.

d) Unplug old game consoles.
Remember those huge black boxes on your old consoles? Still have them hooked up? Reach back there and feel them. Warm huh? That's because even when off those are still charging the compositors inside those adapters. Each runs generally 10W when off but when you're an older gamer like me and have a Sega 32XCD Genesis, it can add up. So unplug them until you're ready to dust off the old boys for alittle fun.

2) NATURAL GAS
a) Heat Pump
See A/C

b) Water Heater
This is another one of those that's alittle tricky but has an awesome twist. Our first gas bill was something like $120. It works alot like the way your A/C works. Your goal is to reduce the frequency at which it kicks on. Now truly ask yourself, how often do you need scolding hot water? This is important because you heater is maintaining that 24/7. The temperature drops to a certain point it kicks on a tops it off. So what you goal is to make your heater's MAX temperature alittle warmer than what you think is a comfortable shower. You want to have it where you only have to use the hot water value in the shower, because cold water uses 0 electricity, and in turn cuts the heater's consumption dramatically. I turned the heater's thermostat down something like 3 1/2 dials from MAX, so I have no real idea what it's temperature is now, but I'm guessing 120-140. Now there are some things this will affect you need to keep in mind, mainly the dishwasher and the clothes washer. So if your appliances don't have an internal thermostat you might want to test how the water feels when you do laundry and try using a Hot/Cold cycle in place of Warm/Cold.

...oh yeah the funny part. I should say that you may not see a change immediately in your gas bill. Companies like Atmos sometimes use "estimated usage" billing, meaning they go off what their recorded say your home uses. They generally assumed we used the same as the family that lived here before us. Well one month we got a $200 bill so we were pretty pissed and we actually ended up double paying. Well this, on a whim, made them check our meter. It turns out we had only been using 13 units a month. Let's just say we didn't have a gas heating bill from Sept. threw May. We just paid our first gas bill in 9 months last month.

3) INSURANCE
This is a tricky one, and it's really person to person. I mean just a few months ago I was paying $240/mo to GEICO. Don't be afraid to look around for quotes, even if you have a spotty record like me. Be honest when they ask about your record, The more you tell them, the less you may actually pay, cause if they pull up that record after you finish and find alot more then that counts against you. Also, after 5 years most event fall off your record completely, some cases even shorter. If you're paying on a loan to your car, have that info at hand, because that's apparently what knocked the $100/mo off for me. That money now goes to food.

4) FOOD AND SNACKAGE
This is really something you don't realize that adds up. I can save almost $50/week by simply not keeping cash or change on me and exclusively using a debit card. I'd have a Dr. Pepper and snack every break at work. That's:

$1.25 and $0.75 for 4 breaks a day, plus $6-8 at McDonalds = ~$75/week

Now personally, I can go through a 24pack of Dr.Pepper in 3 days (yes....I know...) or, if I take alittle time and effort, I can spend $5 of 100 Lipton tea bags, buy 5 bags of sugar for ~$10, and have 25 gallons of sweet tea. Packing lunches and doing more to prepare you're own food can go a REALLY long way when you're starting out. Pastas, rice and curry, sandwiches, canned soups, you're not limited to ramen here. General rule of thumb: It's more expensive to be lazy.

5) CABLE TV
....you don't need it......seriously. I know I'm talking alot about Revision3 lately, but it's really true now. I have no need for an $80 TV bill now. Look at what you watch, what you can't go without, then look for it online. The last 3 things I wanted from TV just went to online releases (Jon Stewart, Venture Bros. and Keith Olbermann) If you want movies, a Netflix account will fill any need you have. Period. I'm not a morning person, yet I now can watch NBC's TODAY on my schedule. I get home, 3 news networks on my computer waiting for me even though I work a 2nd shift job. Why pay $80/mo when I can't even be home to use it. Podcasts are on your schedule, not theirs.

6)CREDIT CARDS
Again, you don't need them. They're designed to make you live outside your means. A debit card by contrast will hold you to you're budget. Rather than using them for "emergencies" save up an emergency fund, depositing it in a high-interest savings account, this with prevent you from tapping into it more than you should.

7) DEBT
All of this adds up to extra money every month to spare, and managing how you use that extra cash is a big thing as well and not blowing it on a new game. Once you have your bills in control, get all your debts together and make the minimum payments on everything, and throw everything you can spare at you smallest debt. Once you pay that off, move the next one up. The idea is for every one you get outta the way, that's money in your pocket to spend on other things every month. I've killed 3 debts in the last 3 years now by doing this, going from about $150 a month to spare to probably 2 full paychecks, and could probably pay off my car in the next year.

Hope this helps some of you guys out. Feel free to ask or even suggest some stuff of your own.