Check out Shannon's site,  Rocks In My Dryer, for lots of great tips!


We've come up with a couple of very helpful things this summer to take a bit of the sting out of our summer power bills.  The first pertains to air conditioning.  We are fortunate to have a swamp cooler, which is a power saver compared with the main a/c.  We noticed last year that some people have shaded their swamp coolers, and in working toward that end, we decided to put up a patio to completely shade it.  It's in the shade all day, and as a result, we have run the a/c unit much less this summer.  Definitely, a savings!

The second thing we did was run an experimental period of having the eldest 2 dd's handwash the majority of dishes.  The deal was that if it made a significant difference in the bill, we'd work out a way for them to earn some money for their efforts.  It made a difference, and so we've worked out a price of 50 cents per load.  They're happy to have a way to earn a little money, DH and I are happy with lower bills.  Works for them and me!