I came in to work a few weeks ago to a neat little find left on my chair by a co-worker (Thanks!). It’s a book called 365 Ways to Live Cheap by Trent Hamm over at The Simple Dollar, a blog I love. That co-worker certainly knew I was the one to give it to.
I thought, “Hey, this is great, more ideas for me to save money.” While the ideas are great, the funny thing is that I realized I was already following a ton of the tips, many of which are just common sense, at least to me. While I draw the line at making my own powdered laundry detergent and we all know to shut off lights in rooms we’re not using, one energy-saving tip I use daily is making use of my curtains to help control heating and cooling in our apartment.
I’d already saved us some dinero by making my own drapes when we moved into our apartment, and I made sure to make them out of heavy material. Then, every morning when it’s sunny out, I make sure to open the curtains to let all of that free, warming sunlight come into the rooms all day while we’re gone. Then at night, they get tightly shut to keep out any drafts that find their way through our already plastic-covered windowpanes. Imagine how pleased I was to find this tip in the book!
I have yet to get my significant other to open the curtains in the morning, but at least he closes them in the evening when he gets home from work!
