15 Ways To Get MORE Money And Buy MORE Survival Food – Part Two

As promised, here are 8 more ways to cut expenses in your household so you can finally invest more in survival food.

8. Make sure your doors are fully isolated.

Even the tiniest leak in your door can waste heat or cool air. So what you need to do is isolate your doors with rolled up towels or rugs.

Or you can use weatherstrip – which comes in different types and sizes, for practically anything you need to isolate. You’ll find weatherstrip at almost any home & garden store. When using it to isolate a door, make sure the surface is clean and apply it on the entire door jamb.

9. Replace your ordinary light bulbs with LED light bulbs.

There’s an up front investment but changing all the bulbs in your home with this economical type of light bulb can save up to 7% of your energy costs.

It uses up to 75% less energy than the traditional light bulb and it produces up to 75% less heat. This means it will most likely reduce your air conditioning costs as well! Last but not least, it prevents a great amount of greenhouse gas emission.

Note: compact fluorescent bulbs contain mercury (very poisonous) and are very easily broken. They should be avoided.

10. Back to the basics: dry your dishes by hand.

You can save a lot of money by simply giving up some of the machines you use in your household. For instance, try not to use your dishwasher for a month.

Simply use a towel to dry them or just leave them outside until they’re all dried up. At the end of the month, compare your bills and see how much you’ve earned by giving up this small habit.

11. Don’t turn up your thermostat at night.

Get the woolliest, warmest pajamas you can find. Or even a tracksuit, if you’re comfortable. Get an electric blanket. It will consume much less that your thermostat, that’s for sure.

For every 1 degree Fahrenheit you turn down, your thermostat you will save up to 3% on energy costs.

12. Turn off unused lights and devices.

You might not pay attention to how many devices are working in your home every day, but try to count them. You’ll realize you’re probably not using 50% of them (even though you’re paying for them!). It’s just in your habit to keep them turned on and plugged in all the time. So turn off the devices you don’t use, even during the day.

You’ll save up energy and you’ll keep your home cooler in the summer, so you can cut air conditioning expenses.

13. Do all your baking at once.

When holidays approach, we all tend to go a bit overboard with cooking and baking. Now, I’m not telling you to cook less, but I suggest that you do a cooking and baking marathon.

If you schedule all your cooking and baking in 1 or 2 days, you won’t have to preheat the oven so many times. This way, you’ll save on propane or electricity.

But maybe you can’t pull that off in the busiest time of the year. So here’s what you can do: just bake everything a week or two before and keep it in the freezer until due time. Most baked goods maintain their taste and freshness for weeks, if they’re kept in the freezer.

14. Invest in a thermostat with a timer.

This way, you don’t need to leave your thermostat on during the cold winter days. You can just program it to turn itself on 30 minutes before your arrival. You can also schedule it to turn off at a certain time after you go to bed. Believe it or not, you can save a lot on your electricity bill by just doing that.

15. Isolate your attic windows and door.

If there’s very little or no snow on your roof in the winter, that’s probably because you have a lot of unused heat in your attic.

If you want to use that heat to your advantage, just seal the windows and door of the attic. Yes, it’s that simple and you’ll be surprised at the results!

These are the energy saving solutions I use in my home. I hope they come in handy and I’d love to hear how much you saved by following my tips!

Back to Part One

15 Ways To Get MORE Money And Buy MORE Survival Food

If you wonder why 95% of Americans are unprepared for the coming crisis… well, it’s not all ignorance, I can tell you that. There are many fellow citizens that simply cannot afford building a solid stockpile.

Sure, they have a dozen cans and a few bags of wheat, but that could only feed their family for a week or two. So how can you save more money to buy your loved ones their well-deserved salvation?

You cut expenses. And by that, I mean slash the money-eating “monster” that’s been chewing on your pocket for years: energy.

So today we’re going to talk about the 15 ways to cut energy expenses and cramp your pantry with loads of emergency items.

1. Evaluate your energy use.

This is the first step in saving a load of money on energy. If you don’t already keep all your electric bills, then you should try to find the ones you haven’t thrown out. Just check how much you consume during summer, how much during winter and compare them with spring or autumn months. Try to identify the “pain points” and list them on a paper. This way, you’ll know what to begin with.

If you’re looking for a quicker, simpler solution, you can also try The EPA’s Energy Star program, at energystar.gov.

2. Check for cracks and gaps in the walls.

This should take you just a couple of hours tops. Here’s what you need to do. Walk around your rooms, the back of your hand close to the walls, and try to feel any draft coming from cracks or gaps. The best time to do this is at night, when the air is colder and you can feel it on your skin.

3. Seal out heat during summer.

You can do that by covering your windows with shades or by with a special heat-blocking film. This way, the sun rays stay outside your home and you won’t need to turn on the air conditioning. You can literally save hundreds just by keeping overwhelming heat out of your house.

4. Seal the heat in during winter.

If you’ve got direct sun exposure during daylight, leave the blinds or drapes open to let the heat enter your rooms. When the sun goes down, close them to seal the heat in.

5. Change your light bulbs more often.

It sounds crazy, but changing light bulb more often can actually save you money. You see, the “older” a bulb gets, the more power it consumes. So if you want to reduce consumption, you should change all the bulbs in your home at once, according to a schedule.

How do you make that schedule? It’s simple: you check out its rated life (on the package), and calculate 80% of it. You write down the date when the bulb reaches its maximum potential and then change it.

6. Keep your fridge “healthy”.

Check the coils behind the refrigerator to see if they’re clean. Do it on a regular basis. This way, the airflow will ease the compressor’s job and save a lot of unnecessary consumption.

Also, defrost the freezer at least three times a year. It will prevent frost from building up and slashing energy efficiency.

7. Building maintenance.

If you tend to open your windows every time your home gets overheated during winter, then you should consider an energy saving alternative. Talk to your building maintenance reporter and tell him about this situation. Notify him if your house gets overcooled in the summer as well. You may be wasting a whole lot of energy without even realising it.

That’s all for now, but stick around, cause I’ve got more consumption cutting solutions for you.

Go to Second Part