This is a do-it-yourself activity. It does take money up front, but the savings is AWESOME!
Keep this in mind: I live in Central Texas, where summer temperatures can easily stay above 100 degrees for more than two months.
We moved into our home in 2006. Before this we were living in apartments, and our electric bills weren't high. Honestly, I was expecting our electric bills to go up in our house drastically, but they weren't as TERRIBLE as I thought. Yes, there were months that we paid $225, and it did hurt; but I've heard horror stories about the bills being over $500. I was afraid of this, but we did move into a smaller home without vaulted ceilings: I know this made a difference.
The first summer was hot in the house, mostly because he had no curtains or decent blinds: we had those plastic blinds that don't do much at all.
We watched for sales and finally lucked out. I'd signed up for JCPenney Rewards, and they started sending all sorts of coupons. One month, I had a coupon to save $20 off of a purchase of $75 or more, and I also had a coupon to save $10 off any $10 purchase (I get these once a month: it's how I buy new clothing for my daughter for next to nothing. THANK YOU JCPENNEY!!)
We noticed that JCPenney had wooden blinds on sale, so we talked the people into letting us use both coupons. We spent $75 on blinds that could have easily cost us $375. We used these in the living room. A couple of weeks later, I found some AWESOME insulated curtains for our sliding glass door at Bed, Bath, and Beyond on their clearance table. I was able to get these for $30! I also got curtains for two other windows at Target for $40. Anyone whose ever bought curtains: you know this is a bargain!
Yes, this was an investment, but it cut our electric bill down the next summer. The highest it went that summer was $195. Still high, but it was lower than the previous summer.
The problem was that we were still having to run our A/C on 74 to cool the house. This was putting an incredible amount of pressure on the A/C, and it froze up. The repair person was able to fix it, but we knew we needed to reduce its workload.
We decided we needed to insulate the garage. My husband and I spent one Saturday in the attic laying insulation. We didn't insulate the attic ceiling; we merely rolled out insulation on the floor of the attic. We opted for rolled because it was on sale at Lowes. We also bought insulation panels for our garage door, and custom cut them ourselves. The kits were too expensive for the same grade of insulation. We spent under $200 on all of this insulation.
NOTE: DO NOT STAPLE IT DOWN!!!!!!! You could electrocute yourself. Too, cut the insulation around fixtures so that it is not touching them. And roll it out such that the paper side is facing down. If you're too nervous about doing it right, pay someone. We weren't nervous, and it turned out just fine. Do some research. We watched many videos such as these on YouTube before embarking upon this adventure.
Immediately, we felt the difference. I mean IMMEDIATELY. We were able to run our A/C that evening on 78 instead of 74 - a HUGE difference. Then came the moment of truth: our HIGHEST summer bill that summer was $174, down from $225 - a $50 savings!
In the last thirteen months, eight of our electric bills have been BELOW $100 and NONE of them have been over $200. A remarkable difference: the insulation paid for itself within four months.
Where are we now with monthly savings?
Tip#1 - Dish Towels $5 per month
Tip#2 - Dump Cable $92 per month
Tip#3 - Homemade Goodness $24 per month
Tip#4 - Esurance.com $139
Tip#5 - Eat at home $70
Tip#6 - Insulation $50
Total per month: $380
Total per year: $4,560
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