Our local paper had an article, quoting Good Housekeeping research on saving money.  They came up with several recommendations, some of which make a lot of sense, but others don't. 

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_10613242?IA...www.sltrib.com


1. Lower your thermostat 2 degrees and save a whopping $40 per year. (That wouldn't pay for the extra sweater you'd have to buy!)

2. Replacing 5 light bulbs with CFLs will save you $35 a year. (OK, you might save more if you did all of them.) I don't know if they counted the cost of the light bulbs, first, but I doubt they figured in the cost of toxic cleanup if you drop one. Nor the cost of taking them somewhere appropriate (hopefully without breaking them in your car, either.) Still, that's what they said.

3. Save $36 per year by using a dishwasher instead of hand washing them. (Unknown how much prior scrubbing is OK before you put them in, nor whether it makes a difference how much soap or running water you use by hand. Nor, for that matter, does it say whether they factored in the cost of a new dishwasher ($500 every 10 or so years would negate the savings entirely, especially  if it leaks and wrecks your floor, as ours did.....) )

4. Line drying your clothes (1/2 the loads you do each week) would save $32 per year. Unknown how much they allowed for the chiropractor.

5. Save $37 by installing dimmer switches (unknown cost and time value of that work) on the following lights: three bulbs in the family room, two in the dining room and one each in three bedrooms (lighted four hours a day). Walk around in the half-darkness, and save a bit. It'd probably be enough for ambient light, but wouldn't do much for tasks. Unknown how much they allotted to see a psychiatrist for the depression you get from by the dimness.      Also, according to a friend, you cannot use dimmer switches with energy saving bulbs.  They will die instantly.  (So, for the first year, while you figure that out, you will be spending MORE money on bulbs.)

So, if you did ALL of these, without any adverse consequences (like buying a sweater or replacing a dishwasher), you'd save about $15 per month.  Not that $15 per month is useless, but it's not as much as you'd think, and if you do have other consequences it wouldn't save anything at all!

Then there's the first one: " Drink tap water instead of bottled. Savings: About $1,250 a year if you normally buy 16 20-ounce bottles a week costing $1.50 each. The savings are bigger for a family." You could save even more--don't drink water at all--tap water tastes gross, anyways. Even if you do drink bottled water, a gallon costs about a dollar, here, most of the time.  Or buy a case of bottles, 24 for about $4.  That would be $208 per year, so you're already saving over $1000.

Sigh--I hate "save money" articles that don't wind up saving. (Especially since they often try to sell the magazine with them. How about this headline: "Save money now! Don't buy this magazine--read it at the library!")