How to Reduce Expenses: Invest in a Clothes Drying Rack

My clothes drying rack has been one of my absolute favorite expense-reducers (is that even a real phrase?).  I got it at Aldi last year for $8.99.  It is a seasonal, temporary item, but I found it there just as I was pricing and searching for one at Target, Bed Bath and Beyond and Big Lots.  It is sturdy, holds lots of clothes and I have no problems with it whatsoever.  I use it constantly.  We have a family of five, and therefore naturally generate a lot of laundry.  I have created a system that works for me to almost make using my dryer obsolete. The smallest clothing items go on the sides of the rack, slightly larger items go on the rows of the rack and my towels, jeans sweaters, etc. get hung up on the I-beams throughout my basement.  If this is done at night before bed, the clothes are almost completely dry when I wake up.  I don't mind that my towels come out kind of crunchy, because they loosen up significantly as the steam from the shower hits them and especially when we use them to dry ourselves.

I had gotten admittedly lazy with using my drying rack towards the end of the year.  By using it almost exclusively for the past 6 or so weeks, I have seen a noticeable decrease in my gas bill and electric bill.  Additionally, when I have had to use my dryer, I put it on timed dry, but for less minutes than I have in the past.  For example, I would wash a full load of clothes and then put them in the dryer for 60 minutes in the past.  The clothes would be completely dry when I took them out.  It made me wonder how long does it actually take for a full load of clothes to dry? Are dry clothes just making rounds in the dryer for an extra 15 minutes?  I started drying them for 45 minutes instead and have found that my clothes are just as dry.  If there are jeans in there, they may be slightly damp, but after a bit of hanging up to finish drying, my mission is accomplished.

I have found it cathartic to spend time in my basement hanging clothes.  I listen to podcasts while I do it...it usually takes me about 15 minutes to unload the clothes and get them hung they way I like them, take down any previous loads that have dried and to reload the washer if there are more clothes to wash (there are always more clothes to wash!).

I still use the dryer for my bedding and for our coats, as I have not found a suitable way to air dry those pieces yet.  We live in a community that would not permit us to hang those things outside (and it is unlikely we would be doing anything like that in February!)

Do you use a drying rack for your clothes?Do you have any creative solutions for hanging your laundry or reducing dryer usage?

How to Reduce Expenses: Eat from the Pantry

A mix of things on hand: quinoa, kalamata olives, black beans, etc.

When we moved into our current rental, I was so excited because it had an actual pantry: a small closet in the kitchen with multiple shelves wherein I could store all types of dry goods.  I had never had one of those before and I was eager to put it to good use.

I know a lot of people buy things in bulk and then store those things in the pantry.  I have tried that, but our pantry is so full of all of the other stuff that I rarely get to stock up like I would like to.  Let me explain...

It wasn't until a couple of months after we moved in that I realized that the pantry is the point of no return for a number of my grocery finds.  If the kids don't like a particular brand of chips or cereal, it all ended up being stored in the pantry.  There are countless boxes of dry goods that are partially used because someone didn't like it.

Well, during the past month I slashed our grocery bill almost in half and much of that was by doing some creative pantry digging.  I gently prodded my children to re-try some things that they previously swore off.  Some things they discovered they liked, others not so much.  I also found new ways to use things that weren't fan favorites.  A box of low-fat granola became chocolate chip granola cookies.  Beans appeared in all types of meals.  The ends of bags of rice went into soups and stews.

The pantry is not yet bare, but it is looking much much lighter! And we survived!  Keep in mind that we did not use anything expired...all of our goods were within the use by date range and perfectly consumable.

This challenge to eat from the pantry this month forced me to use my imagination.  I pulled out my cookbooks a lot more this month than I have in a long time.  I had to get creative so that all of our meals were covered.  It also forced my children to really try new things and not just discard something because it wasn't what they expected the first time.  They have no clue what most children throughout the world in food insecure locations endure in terms of lack of access or options when it comes to food.  Encouraging them to try some different foods hasn't (and won't) kill or harm them.  Prayerfully, they will one day appreciate their mama who tried really hard to be resourceful and not wasteful :)

What creative ways do you use bits of discarded and unwanted food items in your pantry? How do you encourage your children to try rejected foods over again?

How to Reduce Expenses: Turn off the Lights!

Okay, the first way that I worked reducing expenses was to turn off the lights.  We live in a home with a ridiculous amount of lights and most of the fixtures have more than one bulb.  That is a LOT of electricity being used unnecessarily! I actually started doing this in December and I saw a significant drop in my next electric bill.  I had to get everyone on board with this.  My children know that if they leave a room, they have to turn off the lights. I will also have them do random checks of the rooms in the house to make sure the lights are turned off.

If I am in the kitchen, I only use the lights that I need. For instance, we have a light fixture over the kitchen table and task lighting over the island.  There are also fixtures over the stove and the sink.  If I am using the stove, I turn off the lights over the table and sink.  If I am using the island, I turn off the lights over the stove and the sink.  I let the rest of the house go dark if I am not present in those areas.

Light fixture above my kitchen table

Task lighting above my kitchen island

I will also try to use a lamp instead of a multi-bulb fixture.  In our bedroom we have an overhead fan with a four-bulb light unit, and we have a bedside lamp with one bulb.  I try to use the lamp instead of the overhead fixture whenever feasible.

I also don't leave the lights on outside at night while we are sleeping.  It is wasted electricity.  Every time we turn on a light, we are spending money.  Every time we turn off a light, we have more money to put towards debt.

Along those same lines, I unplug things that we are not using.  Lamps that rarely get turned on, chargers, small kitchen appliances, etc.  All of those items get turned off and unplugged.  We rarely watch TV during the week, so I try to unplug those as well. All of this may seem tedious, but it really has paid off for us.  And it has made us much more mindful of our wastefulness.  Now, we do keep the hallway light outside of our bedrooms on.  We have children who would not sleep if we did not keep that on, so there is still room for (reasonable) compromise :) But all of the other measures have made a marked difference in our electric bill.

How to Reduce Expenses: Hint, do this first!

When you are confronted with a load of debt, of any size, the best advice that I can give you is to pray.  Yes, pray.  Do this FIRST!

What can I do without prayer?  Well, let me tell you...I can flounder around for 10 years, trying to pay off my debt in my own strength.  I can get frustrated and stressed and upset.  I can be anxious.  I can cry.  I can work and work and work and still not see the debt needle move down.  These are all of the things that I have done over the years.  These things have done nothing for my debt. Not one single thing.  It was not until recently that I invited God into the conversation.  I actually did not realize that I hadn't been praying about it until I started praying about it.  Now, I look back and I realize that I was wearing this debt like a comfortable pair of pants. I saw it as immovable, and just a part of me.  I figured God already knew about it...so there was no need for me to really say anything to Him about it.

And then, there is the shame that I have about having so much debt.  Not only having so much debt, but also having an advanced degree that does not have the income payoff that I originally anticipated.  I am very thankful for the education that my student loans afforded me, but I had a level of naïveté when I took on that degree - thinking that the loans were no big deal because I would be able to command a salary that would pay off in dividends very quickly...and then the loans would just be a bad memory.  How naive I was!  Because of my particular life circumstances, I am not able to command a six figure salary at the moment...and with the elephant I am carrying, there is a certain level of shame.  The shame is not even in the amount, but the inability to make it go anywhere.  Its is a hard dynamic to explain, but I definitely feel it and I am sure that I am not the only one.

And this is where prayer comes in.  I know that God always knew that I would have this debt and these personal finance issues and somehow He wants to use this situation so that He can be glorified.  There were times that I thought He would send a fortune my way - maybe some well-to-do philanthropist would find out about my debt and pay it off.  Maybe I would happen upon a job with an unreasonably huge salary that would permit me to pay off my debt in full very quickly....So many different scenarios would appear in my daydreams, but none of them amounted to a hill of beans.  Sometimes I would even (so shamefully) think about how different my life would be if I wasn't a wife and mother, and could just dedicate myself to working two different jobs and not getting any sleep to may off my debt.  That is such a selfish thought that it very difficult to admit.  But it is true! And even typing out these thoughts I realize how much wrong thinking and anxiety I could have avoided if I simply prayed through all of this a long time ago.

So, yes, prayer.  If you are not a praying person, or not Christian you may be asking, what does this mean?  What good is praying about my debt going to do?  Will I get up from praying and find that the debt is gone? Well, let me explain as simply as possible with regards to debt.  The Bible says that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. It also says that the prayers of a righteous man avails much, that we can cast our cares upon Him because He cares about us and that if I don't depend on my own understanding, but acknowledge Him in all of my ways, that He will direct my paths.  I know that the more I seek Him by sincerely reading my Bible and inviting Him into all of my decisions and thoughts, and the more that I communicate my stress to Him and wait on Him to direct my paths, then I begin realize that the burden is no longer my responsibility to carry.  It clears my mind so that I can hear and receive the direction that He gives through His Word and His Holy Spirit.

I have noticed that with more prayer about my debt, that I have realized so many other things about myself....praying about debt leads to praying about income leads to praying about being a better employee leads to praying about being a better wife, mother and so on.  All of this goes hand in hand.  That is one of the reasons why I love listening to Dave Ramsey, because he reinforces all of these Biblical truths and helps me to apply them practically. And I can keep my sanity while eating the elephant one bite at a time :)