Save Money with Chelsea

Save Money With Your Computer

2008-04-19T16:23:00.002+01:00

Following up from the last post Save Money by Not Wasting Water, where I explained how by saving water you're also saving money, I'd like to mention a few simple things you can do with yoru home computer to save some money.

The first one is by changing your power-saving settings for your hard drive. You can set it so that the hard drive(s) power off after a certain time of inactivity. This is a good way to not only save electricity but also to prolong the life of your hard drives. I set mine to half an hour, so they only run while I'm busy editing stuff. If I'm just surfing the internet, the hard drive shuts down as its not needed.

Another way is obvious but so many people don't do it and that's to set your screen to go onto standby after a period of inactivity. As it gets used more, you can set a farily short time - I use 10 minutes, and that saves some electricity, although not much but more importantly prolongs the life of your screen.

If you have things like external speakers, or a printer etc that runs of one of those little transformer cubes for plugs, then if you're not using them, unplug them. You'd be shocked at how much electricity those things use even when the item they are supposed to be powering is switched off - they still drain power. How crappy is that! I used to leave my printer turned on all day with my PC until I realized that I might only use it once or twice to print something in that time. The rest of the time it was sitting there draining electricity for nothing.

Even better, rather than using external speakers at all, wear lightweight headphones. It not only saves the power that speakers need, but also keeps you in your mum's good books as she used to go crazy with all the racket that used to come out of my PC before I started wearing headphones! Plus the stereo sound is far superior in good headphones to some cheaper speakers.

Ok, they are my save money tips for today!

Save Money With Chelsea

Save Money by Not Wasting Water

2008-02-14T10:56:00.005Z

Here is a belated post with another neat way to save money with Chelsea!

This one is simple yet effective if you are one of those people who have a water meter fixed to your house. When you have one of those things they end up costing you a lot of money when you waste water.

So don't waste water!

Its common sense anyway, especially in places where there are often water shortages. So how do you stop wasting water?

Well there are loads of ways.

When you fill your kettle to make a cup of tea, don't fill it right up, only put as much in to cover the heating element. You save money on electricity too and it boils faster!
When you brush your teeth, turn the tap on only when you're rinsing - don't let it run the whole time you're brushing as it's just water and money going down the plug hole!
Don't use your toilet as as a dustbin! All those extra unnecessary flushes add up! When you blow your nose on a tissue, put it in the bin!
When you water your garden, do it in either the early morning or late evening so the sun doesn't evaporate most of it - your plants get more of the moisture they need and you don't need to spend so long doing it!
And finally, the obvious one - if you have any dripping taps, leaky valves etc - fix them!

Hope these tips help you to save money!

Save Money With Chelsea

Save Money With Electricity

2007-11-22T21:56:00.000Z

Here's another simple yet effective way to Save Money with Chelsea! Stop wasting electricity!

Not only are you wasting money but you're hurting the environment. Ok, one person won't make a huge difference, but a million people...

Don't worry what everyone else is doing or you'll just get branded as busy-body! Do this for yourself and save some money too. Here are a few obvious ones, but I still can't believe the amount of people who don't do them, or just forget.

Change your light bulbs over to low wattage compact flourescents. They really do save you money in the long run and use hardly anything. What the Americans call a "no-brainer"

Unplug your cubes! Yes, those little voltage converting plug cubes that connect to your appliances - mainly chargers, small audio equipment, laptops... etc. They drain quite a lot of electricity even when the appliance is switched off. So unplug them all - or plug them all into a switchable plugboard - it's tidier too!

Don't use the standby button on your remote. Switch the TV, DVD or stereo off from the switch - things left on standby use nearly as much electricity as when they are fully on.

Turn the thermostat on your refridgerator down slightly, especially in cold weather - it will save more electricity than you think!

Ditch the kettle! If you're only making one cup of tea or coffee, pour exactly one cupful of water into a small pot and use the gas ring on your stove (if you have a gas cooker) to boil it. You'll be shocked how fast it boils compared with the electric kettle and you'll save an absolute fortune by not filling the kettle up every time you want a cuppa!

Ok, that was four tips and I was only going to do one each post!

Don't say I don't give good value for money!!!

Save Money with Chelsea

Save Money with your Washing Machine

2007-11-16T13:24:00.000Z

Here at Save Money with Chelsea, I said I'd post a tip to save money in every post I made. Well here is today's tip to save money:

Washing machines are a huge drain on your electricity bill as it is without using them to heat up teh water they use to clean your clothes. But have you ever wondered why you even need to use hot water these days, when modern washing powders and liquids are so efficient at doint that for you?

Well, my mum has been using the "cold" setting on her machine for years now and the clothes come out every bit as clean as when she used to use hot. The electricity bill is a lot lower, especially when you do a wash every single day! Not only that, but you're also being kind to the environment by cutting back on your use of electricity that has to be generated using fossil fuels in the main (or worse, nuclear power - aarrgghh!).

So that's my save money tip for today!

Save Money with Chelsea

Save Money with Chelsea

2007-11-12T19:09:00.000Z

Welcome to Save Money with Chelsea, my new blog where I'll be posting some great tips and ideas on how to save money in a variety of different ways.

Each post will have one money saving tip or idea and I'll explain how it works and why it will save money! Not only that, but I'll try to make all my money saving tips environmentally friendly as well, so you get a double bonus from me!

To get you started, here is my very first tip on how to save money:

Descaling Kettles

Don't waste money on buying expensive kettle descaler. There are a myriad of better and more environmentally sound ways of cleaning the scale out of yoru kettle, or in fact any water heating device that gets clogged up with limescale.

The cheapest and easiest way is prevention being better than cure. If you already have a water filter jug, like a Britta for cleaning your drinking water, use that water to boil in your kettle as well as using it for cooking. You'll be better for it especially in areas that have below par water. The filter jug removes calcium from the water so your kettle won't fur up.

If that's not an option, then to clean the kettle cheaply and environmentally cleanly, use a pint of the cheapest vinegar you can buy, usually white wine vinegar and boil that in your kettle, then leave it to stand for an hour or so. Rinse out with clean water and hey, presto! Clean as a whistle. There is no lingering smell of vinegar either!

Or if you don't like the smell of vinegar, you can buy a can of Sprite, or 7UP and put that in your kettle instead. Leave it for a few hours and you get the same result! A clean kettle.

And you thought that stuff was for drinking?

Ha!

That's it for my first tip to save money with me, Chelsea B!

Come back again soon for more great ways to save money!

Save Money with Chelsea