Frugal Friday

This morning I had to wash a load of white clothes and it occurred to me that one of my cardinal rules around here is to only wash a load of clothes when I have a full washer. Day before yesterday I put my white clothes in the washer but it was only half full so I waited until I had a full load today. I also only use cold water unless my husband has a lot of dirty, greasy work clothes. That saves on the energy needed to heat up the water.

And, of course, I am still hanging out my clothes on the clothesline to dry, although this morning it was 46 degrees outside and that was a bit cool--my hands were really cold! However, it is supposed to be in the 80s this afternoon and very low humidity, so things should dry quickly once the sun begins to hit the clothes.

I am the same way with my dishwasher. I do not run it until it is chock full of dishes. I use the sanitizing part of the cycle when one of us is sick or we have had a lot of company, but I keep it turned off when we are well. I do use the dry cycle because our dishes spot if the hard water is left on the dishes and I hate to take things out when they are still wet.

And I have begun reading the grocery ads more thoroughly now to seek out items we need that are on sale and to comparison shop for things that we use on a regular basis. For a long time we only had one grocery store nearby, but now we have two in my regular travel pattern, so that gives me more choice in where I buy my groceries.

It is amazing how this financial crunch has made me so much more aware of ways to save our retirement dollars! And I am appalled at how much money I might have been wasting because I was not paying attention. Guess I needed a wake-up call!