These tips have been collected by software and web engineers who wanted to crowd-source material for a site filled with everyone’s favourite savings techniques. Many of them sound like your own parents could have contributed them: Turn the lights off when you leave the room. Quit eating junk food, smoking cigarettes, and drinking beer. Check out books from the library for entertainment, and don’t accumulate late fees.
If those ideas sound strangely familiar, it’s because the engineers have tapped into a cultural reservoir of knowledge on where a household’s money goes in the first world, and gathered the results into an online training centre called Tip Jar, for the benefit of thrift-minded individuals.
You’ll find numerous helpful categories of tips promoting savings in Finance, Tech, Home, Food, and so on. Here are some examples of the type of advice you can find, and you can also log in to contribute your own hints.
Household savings on utility costs
Don’t go to sleep with the television on, because you can’t possibly watch it and it’s already costing you anywhere from £4 to £83 pounds per year in electricity. Put your electrical gear on a timer set to cut off at a certain time of night, and plug your computer and its accessories into a surge protector which you switch off before going to bed.
Most people have a wasteful habit of leaving devices on stand-by power indefinitely, and it’s far cheaper to let them draw power only when in active use. If you can’t picture yourself trundling round the house nightly to unplug everything, at least buy wall switches so you can plug the switch into the wall, the device into the switch, and click off when not in use.
Switch off. If you think about it, almost every item that uses electricity can be powered down, with the exception of the fridge and freezer.
Energy saving bulbs. On matters of energy savings, the Energy Saving Trust is a fount of wisdom. They recommend changing to energy saving light bulbs, which will be your only options after the phase-out of inefficient filament bulbs by both the UK and the EU has ended. You can choose between CFL (fluorescent) and LED bulbs, and while the lighting effect is not identical you will become accustomed to the difference eventually.
If you want to purchase the brightest bulb available, look for its lumen output rating. 1,200 lumens is the rough equivalent of 100 watts, and there’s also a special conversion given for halogen bulbs.
Try lowering the temperature on your hot water heater. Most people leave the setting at a very high default level, although there’s no need for such hot tap water (which can cause burns if you’re not careful).
Revert to line drying. Housewives fell in love with the electric dryer in decades past, but today’s householder prefers to save money by draping wet clothes wherever they won’t slither to the ground. The process can take place indoors: buy plastic clothes hangers and make good use of your shower curtain’s rail.
Insulate your digs, focusing on door and windows. For walls, floors, and attics, try mineral wool (rock or glass) or plastic insulating board. Mind the weather-stripping on doors, and if there’s too much heat transfer through a window you can stick bubble wrap to the pane using water to carry you through the winter months. To fund these home improvements you may wish to consider Payday Loans who could help make the process possible.
Inspect taps and loo for leaks. A slow leak can escape your attention while costing you water on a daily basis, which can add up given the current price of a cubic metre of water (about two pounds in 2013).
Turn down your thermostat in winter and pad about in your woolies. You’ll be comfortable and cosy, and you’ll keep more of your money in your pocket. Conversely, if your house draws too much heat in summer, shade it by planting shrubbery (but nothing too large close enough to damage your foundation).
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