Posts Tagged ‘Utility’
During times of economic struggle, it can be tough to manage a tight budget. Utilities are one area of the budget that most of us have very little wiggle room…. or so you think. While you can’t completely discontinue your water, electric or garbage service, there are a few ways you can trim the budget. We all know that installing energy efficient light bulbs and investing in newer energy efficient appliances are great ways to save money and the planet at the same time. But what if you’ve taken those steps and still need to save a few bucks?
Set a Timer and/or Limits
When it comes to watering your lawn, this may sound like a no-brainer. However, consider the energy and money you will save if you limit your microwave use, the length of time in the shower, or the amount of television you watch each day. Avoid unnecessary use of appliances by wearing clothes more than once before washing if possible, or doing full loads of laundry instead of several smaller loads. Keep computers turned off at night and unplug unused appliances and electrical equipment. If you use a lot of electrical equipment, the cost just to keep them plugged in can add up quite quickly. Turn off your printer and the radio that you leave running while you sleep, and you would be surprised how the pennies saved will add up.
Do Things the Old Fashioned Way
One family recently cut out use of the microwave and dishwasher for a full month and noticed a dramatic drop in their utility bill. If you can, try cooking the traditional way, washing dishes the old fashioned way, and drying clothes as they did before dryers were invented. Obviously this isn’t ideal for everyone, but if you are on an extremely tight utility budget, you may need to make these tough choices. This might include making cuts that you would have never previously considered. When money is tight however, we learn what is truly necessary in this world.
Evaluate Your Usage and Make Cuts
The best way to lower your utility bills is to diligently study your statements for a few months. You can usually identify areas where you can greatly cut back. For instance, perhaps you go over a recommended electric usage each month, and that “extra” is charged at triple the normal rate. Striving to stay inside the recommended usage can save a considerable amount each month. You may decide to turn down the hot water heater or adjust the thermostat. Though cable and internet are considered necessities by some people, they are extras that you can live without if you needed to. Consider what you really can live without and make the necessary cuts.
In case you are spending hours with your printer, you need to rethink. May be you are not aware of what to do to reduce the wastage of time in such simple tasks as printing. What you need to do is to optimise your printer with the right tools. One such software tool is the ‘printer utility’. This tool is available on the Internet as a shareware and can be easily downloaded.
All it takes is a few minutes of downloading time and then hours of saving of printing time. You can actually do yourself a favour by saving mechanical tasks as involved in printing procedures.
This tool acts as a good updating to your existing printing profile. No longer would you need to waste time in manual settings or in countless clicks of the mouse that you have to endure while you try to set things right as in desirable document settings.
This utility gives you six printer profiles to work with which cuts down your working time by six times. You can access these printer profiles in the printer tray in the printer setup toolbar which attaches itself to your word document when you download it from the net. So in in go, you can select as many as six printer profiles as you wish. And you get quick customised results because the document settings are not preserved. Apart from the general ease in printing tasks, printer setup utility gives you a reliable macro to work with.
In the end, what this simple thing means is no more hours of running around your printer, especially when the printing requirements are high and the documents to be printed are of different types or settings. You can fully appreciate the utility of a printer setup utility after you start working on it on a regular basis–smoothly.
Consumers are still facing pressure on their finances from utility suppliers despite a number of price cuts, it has been suggested.
Findings released by uSwitch indicate that bills increased by some 38 per cent, or 277 pounds, over the course of 2006. However, following a 56 per cent decrease in wholesale energy prices so far this year, providers are only said to have implemented price cuts of up to 100 pounds. With just over three quarters (78 per cent) of consumers not making full use of more competitive deals offered by other providers, the price comparison website suggested that Britons may not receive the 177 pounds each (a total of more than 3 billion pounds) that they are still owed in reductions. Meanwhile, the firm also raised concerns that suppliers will use seasonal variations in wholesale prices as an excuse to stave off from making any more cuts, despite many energy companies being “well positioned” to do so.
Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy for uSwitch, claimed that unless households fail to act then pressure on their finances could continue, which in turn may extend to increased difficulties in paying off loans and credit cards. She said: “The clock is ticking and consumers could see this window of opportunity slammed shut in their faces unless they continue to force the issue with suppliers. The price war kicked off because of consumer power – British Gas, the first supplier to cut prices, did so in response to losing over one million customers and then the other suppliers followed suit. Consumers now need to keep the pressure on and make competition work for themselves”.
She added that the best way for consumers to reduce the pressure utility bills put on their finances is by “taking action themselves” and switching to a cheaper provider. “The benefits will be twofold while price cuts to date amount to 100 pounds, a consumer could save over 200 pounds by switching from their incumbent supplier to the cheapest dual fuel plan. But also, by voting with their feet, consumers may force suppliers to cut prices again”, Ms Robinson suggested.
Overall, only one out of eight British households are reported to be on the cheapest energy deal being offered by suppliers. Meanwhile, 2.4 million households are losing out on about 174 million pounds every year by not paying their bills via direct debt, as 4.2 million miss out on 42 million pounds by not moving to a dual fuel tariff, uSwitch asserts. Findings from the price comparison website also indicated that 9.3 million consumers are still to change utility provider, with an estimated 69 per cent of the over-60s yet to do so.
In related news, figures released by MoneyExpert earlier this year revealed the proportion of consumers switching to more competitively-priced financial products has fallen. Currently, the number of people moving provider on areas such as secured loans was said to have decreased by 5.4 million from a similar survey conducted at the start of 2007. Overall, some 54 per cent of the Britons were reported to have not switched over the last six months – an increase of five per cent from research carried out during the last quarter.