phantom power

Today is payday, which means another blog on how to save money.

This week’s installment will be about how to save money on your electric bill. Electric is expensive! I never really thought about it before since it was either included with my rent, or I split it between roommates.

After I moved to Manhattan, I really had to watch my expenses since the city can get pricey. An easy way to cut costs is to cut out phantom power. Phantom power is when devices use electricity when not being used, such as when they’re idly plugged in.

It may seem neurotic of me, but the only thing I leave plugged in all of the time is my refrigerator. Everything else is plugged in only when being used. TVs and cable boxes are culprits of using massive amounts of energy when not in use. So why bother have them plugged in due to convenience. Granted, my cable box/dvr takes about 3 minutes to start up, but I’m never in that much of a rush to watch something on tv.

It helps to plug everything into a power strip so you have less to plug in. My internet, airport extreme, record player, tv, and cable box are all on one strip that gets switched back on when I come home from work. Lamps are left unplugged unless I’m using them, and also equipped with energy saving bulbs. My bedroom electricity is controlled by the switch, so that’s easy. And yes, I do reset my alarm clock every night. I rarely use my microwave so that’s unplugged until I use it…

I got my electric bill down from about $80 bucks a month to about $15 bucks a month before taxes and fees, which is definitely worth the extra effort in plugging and unplugging everything. Plus, I’m saving a little piece of the environment as well.

payday!

Happy payday! In honor of the glorious payday, every first and fifteenth of the month, expect a money post.

Now, I’m certainly no money expert. I receive a paltry paycheck, live in a super expensive city, and have accumulated a four digit debt figure from “surviving” on my “own”. But I’m getting better! I’m been scrimping and becoming more wise about my purchases so I can be entirely debt free by 2010.

I never made any frivolous purchases, I just bought more than what my paycheck allowed. For example, when I first moved up to NYC four and a half years ago, my pay after taxes was about $800 every two weeks (shut up, it’s really not that much more above that now…but, uh, I love my hob). So that’s $1600ish a month. Necessities include rent which was was $850, utilities were about $150, and a bus pass was $75ish, which leaves $525. Then factor in $75 for groceries, $300 for my car payment, and $100 for car insurance (I didn’t have my car in Hoboken but seeing how I didn’t know how the job would pan out, it was still my responsibility). After all of those expenses, I had $50 left. $50 to spend on socializing, drinking my sorrows away, NYC travel since the bus pass didn’t cover subways, work clothes, concerts, etc. Hello plastic. And luckily there was strength in numbers since this is an epidemic with nearly all twenty somethings in the city.

Then of course I moved out on my own into Manhattan last year and had to buy furniture and everything else that goes with living by yourself. But I’ve finally reached a point where the past few months I haven’t had to rely on fake money and my debt is (slowly) going down. Totally manageable. And after my debt is paid off, this girl is opening an IRA. I don’t have a 401(k) option at work, so I guess I should start looking ahead on my own.

So now you have my financial backstory.

So my tip of this pay period is to BYOC. Bring Your Own Caffeine. I’m partial to Guy & Gallard house blend, which is $1.75 per 16 oz cup. Recently I started bringing my own coffee to work. It’s a cumbersome balancing act between my purse, work bag, and hot coffee travel mug, but I’m saving $8.75 a week/ $35 a month / $455 a year. Which doesn’t seem like much when looking at the weekly savings, but $35 is like an extra week of groceries and if someone handed me a $455 check, I would surely take it. And plus I don’t have to wait in line. Granted, the coffee I make at home isn’t free, but a $9.99 container of TJ’s finest lasts me about 3 months, so I guess all in all, I’m saving about $415 and I’ll still take that.

Plus, my Wawa travel mug reminds me of happiness.