Three Money Savings Tips

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It’s that time of year again!  There are three very important things you should do this Sunday: change your clocks, change your smoke detector batteries, and check your home emergency kit.

You may be thinking, “what do Daylight Savings Time and emergency kits have to do with thrift?”  Well, its right there in the name, savings.  Since we change our clocks on these twice yearly events, its useful to take a little extra time to do the thriftiest thing possible: get prepared!

Which is thirftier, buying new batteries or a new house?  By replacing the batteries in your smoke detector, you cut back on all the time and money involved in buying a new house.  Now thats thrift!

In times of emergency, thrift can be of the utmost importance.  That’s why its so important to have a well stocked emergency kit.  You should be sure to include a family first aid kit large enough for your family’s needs, and lots of water and canned or nonperishable food.  You should also include coffee or tea, candles, and a bottle of wine… just in case.  The Colorado Division of Emergency Management has a great list for what to include in your 72-hour family emergency kit.  Be sure to check in your state for local emergency management organizations and take down their contact information.

When you change your clocks, you can also change your lightbulbs. 

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  By switching all the bulbs in your house to compact fluorescent light bulbs, we could reduce CO2 from lighting by 42.4 million tons a year.  That’s a 36% reduction!

Since we’re springing forward and losing an hour, we have to be that much thriftier with our time.  Spend a little while thinking of ways to improve your home’s efficiency, or ways to get a little bit more out of every hour.

And don’t forget to set your clocks ahead an hour!