Unplug the Electronics

Last night on Oprah, (I happened by, while surfing), they had a guest that unplugged everything:  Televisions,  Video players, lamps.  She claims to have saved almost two hundred dollars a month.  We don't know if she has electric heaters or not, since she claimed these savings from March to May.

Turn off the lights.  Parent have been saying for years, turn off the lights when you leave the room.  I can here just here my dad raving around the house that he had to turn off lights in every room in the house and no one was home.

Home Organization

Keep the home free of clutter. Have a sensible place for each thing.
For example the linen closet, maybe doesn't need to hold old vhs tapes; kitchen drawers don't need to hold tools that could go in a garage, unless you don't have a garage.



Put away items from shopping trips right away.

People I know, throw their toothpaste, deodarant in the bedroom closet on the way to the bathroom, and then it gets buried and forgotten, then they have to spend extra money to buy new ones.

Cleanliness is next to godliness.  This quote is similar to the principles behind feng shei. If your surroundings are clean and neat, you can get treasures of knowledge, inspiration and revelation, to overcome trials and get guidance from your Supreme Creator to better your life and circumstances.

Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God

A house of Order maintains some of the above principles.  If you find something you have already bought on prior occasions, you won't have to spend money you don't need to expend, in order to work on the current project.

I have tools all over the house, and I can never find them when I need them, so I have to borrow from the neighbors or buy something similar again to get the job done.

Menu Planning

Practically the first rule for all household budgeting is to have a menu plan for the month. It helps you make sure you have enough food on hand to cover all of the food needs for the month, so you don't have to make daily trips to the local market for what you forgot. These extra trips not only cost you gasoline, but they cost you in productive time that could be used elsewhere and they cost extra for the other impulse items you will buy along the way.

Monthly planning helps you to see what meals might be able to use some of the same ingredients, so they get used within their shelf life.

Menus help cut down the stress of wondering what is quick and easy for that night.  Cuts down on pizza and restaurants, too.  Also if you have kids at the appropriate age they will know what to help make, also cutting down on your stress.

Peelings

Always use your peelings for something.  They can go in a cheesecloth bag for soup or stew or tea.  You can put them in a compost pile or directly into the garden area.








Ben Thomas says to put banana peels in the rose garden.  The potassium or something makes them grow great.









Cheesecloth bags                                                                   
Ideas

• Citrus fruit for recipes with zest
• Washed potatoes for compost
• Mint tea
• Dandelion tea
• Other plants for tea
• Leftover bones, fat, gristle for stock (beef, chicken, etc)

Teas

                                       Soups




               

Larry H Miller about his father

   

He tells how his father would go Deseret Gym for a quarter to work out, get a bar of soap and shower. Then he would bring home the remainder of the soap and put it a container of liquid and the family would use that as shampoo for the ensuing days.