Save Money On Gas, Water, and Electricity

Last week, the NYC Water Board approved a 14.5% rate hike on top of the 11.5% hike just a year ago. My last water bill was $150 — $60 higher than last year average (or 67%) — and this is before the bump. Combined with my electricity bill that went up $50 a month (or 38%) and gas bill that went up $15 a month (or 8%), I am looking at nearly $1,500 in increased expenses.

Unfortunately, my raise wasn’t anywhere near $1,500 this year, so I am effectively making less money than last year. And all this is before the price increases for other stuff like groceries and gasoline.

So, I have been looking online over the weekend for some ideas on how to save money on water, electricity, and gas…

Save Money on Water

100 Water Saving Tips at Water Use It Wisely
Save Water 49 Ways at American Water & Energy Savers
25 ways to save water at home at Earth Easy
Water Conservation Tips

Save Money on Electricity

Save Energy: Cut Electricity Bills at Suite101.com

Save Money on Gas

Save Money on Heating Costs at About.com

More Ways To Save Money

Getting Back To Basics at Remodeling This Life
25 Ways to Help Your Wallet and the Planet at Prosper Blog
50 Ways to Save Money by Not Wasting at Clever Dude
Ask the Readers: Energy Conservation Tips? at Get Rich Slowly
Top 7 Energy Saving Tips for this Summer! at FIRE Finance

The nice thing about all of this is that as I work toward reducing my water and energy consumption, I am also helping our environment. Cool!

9 Comments

AndyS
May 19, 2008, 6:24

Some good information here – will be espically useful as we get into a hot summer season. The other area to look it is rising cable bills and the taxes in them! I wrote about this a while back and it seems my cable bill, like everything else, is on the up. I think I have got too used to my HDTV and DVR to let them go….
David Carter
May 19, 2008, 9:21

I like how you link to the other posts and don’t just copy and paste them into one post and claim it as your own. I see a lot of other bloggers do that. This way I get to read a bunch of other new blogs that have good info as well. Everyone could use to save a little money on their bills. Seems like the prices of everything are going up this year. Makes money tight for everyone.
passivefamilyincome
May 19, 2008, 9:29

Nice post. Just came across your site this morning. I will be interested in reading all the links that you pointed to.
Rachel @ Master Your Card
May 19, 2008, 23:38

Fantastic post – very useful thank you. My water bill has doubled this year and water saving tips are always welcome. Fortunately my electricity price is frozen for the next few years which is really good but I can still learn from tips on how to save.
Emily
May 20, 2008, 3:27

Thank you for the mention and for putting together this really informative post!
Make Friends, Earn Money
May 20, 2008, 11:52

Some superb links Pinyo. I can’t understand how gas, electricity and water prices are going up so quickly and yet the official inflation rate doesn’t reflect it.
Pinyo
May 21, 2008, 4:27

@AndyS – We took care of cable, internet, and telephone late last year. Switched provider and went to the basic plan. It’s saving us over $50 a month. Although, I may re-enable some of the premium channels…not sure yet.
@David – Thanks.
@Rachel – How did you manage to get your electricity price frozen? I am interested.
@Make Friends – I think there’s a lagging effect. For example, it took a while for the higher fuel costs to reflect higher expenses in groceries, etc.
Mel R.
May 26, 2008, 8:32

Great tips and strategies for saving money.
With the run away prices on everything people
need a way to save when ever possible
FIRE Finance
August 18, 2008, 17:59

Great post, thanks for the mention