Everyday Things

While drinking coffee this week I was thinking about the little daily things in my life that I do that saves money.  Three things came to mind, our towels, glasses & my coffee.   First, I should say that you know I'm trying to save money when I start messing with my coffee.

TOWELS:

Let's start with towels.  In our house we only wash our towels once a week. That means only one load of towels a week! Or if you're like our family, you have multiple towels, so that would be 1 load every 2 weeks! Now if you are use to washing towels after each use, this might seem extreme, but what if you did every few days instead?  Remember every little bit adds up. I also just read a blog about minimizing the clutter and stuff in your house. One of the things she mentions was to limit your towels to 1 per person and then a set for guests. After reading that I counted our towels, I'm almost embarrassed to say this, but we have 8 towels, just for the main bath; that's 4 towels each!! After counting I decided the hubby and I could survive with 2 towels each and then I would only need 2 towels for guests. That's 2 towels I can purge or donate which adds up to more cupboard space. So just by planning to wash towels less often you can save some space and simplify your life a bit too. 

GLASSES:

How many of you, or your kids, get a drink and then put the glass in the sink! I'm terrible at this. After multiple times a day, this equals a lot of dishes! I've been known to have many cups of 1/2 drank coffee all over the house. Then the kids (ok, or adults) only drink a little and then dump the rest. Not only is that multiple dishes piling up, but it's wasteful. I've started trying to put my glass that I don't finish back in the fridge. By keeping them cold there's a better chance that I'll finish it later. I also, try and re-use that glass as many times as I can, usually until I get something different to drink.

If each member only used one - two glasses a day think about how many less you'd be using compared to before. And those glasses add up to time back in your day you don't have to waste loading/unloading the dishwasher or washing by hand. Try it for a week. Designate one glass per member of the family until they switch drinks (milk to juice, water to milk, etc.) & see how many less glasses you use.

COFFEE:

While this idea has been mentioned places before, I have found it helpful. Like I said, when I start messing around with my coffee, you know I'm pretty serious about saving some money. The 1st day brew your coffee like normal. Then instead of dumping the grounds leave them for tomorrow, or whenever you will make coffee again. The next time you make coffee again add 1/2 the amount of grounds you normally would. This way you are getting new coffee, but not having to use as much coffee.  I also just save the grounds in the frenc press so there's no extra storage needed.  This works great for when I decide to make more coffee for the evening, then I'm not using 2x as much but rather a little less. Just think, if you make coffee everyday for a month, a bag that would normally last 2 weeks could last an entire month.