10 Ways to Save on Household Monthly Expenses

1. Electricity Bill - Households that have low income are signing up for the CARE program with their gas and electric utility company. Also for family households to save on electricity cost, it's best to unplug power cords of everything in the home while everyone is sleep at night. Electricity meters still run when power-plugs are plugged into the wall, even cell phone chargers can be unplugged when not in use to save on electricity cost. Gas bills can be lowered by cooking less food in the home as much as possible, especially in the spring and summer time seasons. Try cooking meats outside on your barbecue grill more often to save on cooking on your home gas-stove, this lowers your gas utility bill. Also try using your washing machine and dryer on weekends and/or after 5:00 pm, to help save on household money.

2. Phone Cost - Many people are quitting their home phone services due to the high monthly cost. Also choosing between having a home phone and a cell phone is a choice many household think about, especially when wanting to save on household money. The cost of having two phones is about the same amount of money of a house mortgage payment. Having a cell phone plan for the whole family is more frugal than having both a home phone and cell phone. Some people have heard out about free cell phones that the government is giving to people on low income; one free cell phone and free minutes per household another cool thing about this cell phone is that the minutes roll-over to the next month.

3. Groceries - Shopping for food items in bulk is a great way to save on household money. There are grocery stores that sell food items in bulk such as Costco, Smart & Final, Winco, and other grocery outlets. Also coupons of items that you usually buy are in the newspapers, online, and in the incoming mail. Some grocery items that are not name-brand taste just as good as the name brand food items. But not all non-name brand groceries taste good, avoid them if you rather have quality over a low price. Taking lunch to work or school will help to save on money and prevent you from spending money on fast food.

4. Water Bill - Try to use less water when brushing teeth, turn the water off until ready to rinse the mouth out with water or wetting the toothbrush. Also you can save money on water when washing your car by using a bucket of water to wash and rinse your vehicle. Water bills are calculated by how many gallons of water a household uses every month.

5. Gasoline Car Fuel - It's better to buy gas on a full tank as much as possible, because gasoline fuel lasts longer when the tank is full instead of buying $10-$20 of gas every other day. People that travel far daily should fill their gas tank rather than putting a minimum amount of money in their gas tank. For instance, paying $20 every day will take more of your money than filling the gas tank up on about $50; for instance. Most standard size cars fill up on about $40-$50 every week; this depends on your family's driving distance as well.

6. Clothing Shopping - Buy from discount clothing racks that are using in the back of most clothing stores, or ask the store clerk about their discount clothing racks. Some people on low income are budgeting their household income buy shopping at thrift-stores, garage sales, Walmart, Target, Ross, etc. If you have children it might be better to buy their clothes one size bigger, because children grow fast from year to year.

7. Healthcare Cost - There are free clinics in most neighborhoods that will let you see a doctor for free, you would just have to pay for your own prescriptions. And some prescriptions are discounted if you ask your doctor on how to lower your prescription costs. Also there are health plan groups that charge as low as $30 dollars a month for doctor's visit such as IEHP, and some other health plan groups. Low health care cost may also apply for eye doctor visits and dentists, try and ask around or search the yellow pages, and ask a free clinic about low cost eye doctor and dentist visits.

8. Carpet Cleaning - Buying a carpet cleaner from Biglots or Walmart will be a good investment compared to getting your carpets professionally cleaned. Some carpet cleaners cost as low as $100. You can clean your carpet every 6 months or as often as you want with your own carpet cleaning machine, as long as you use a mild soap solution such as Folex Spot Remover.

9. Vehicle Washing - It's obvious that cleaning your car at home will save you more money than getting it detailed at a car-wash. Also there are car vacuums, that can be plugged into the wall-sockets or your car's charger. Car vacuums are online, or at car auto-parts store.

10. Pay Bills Online - This will assist with saving money due to you not having to pay money on postage stamps, envelopes, money orders, and late fees.

With these useful tips you can now save a small amount of money each month into your bank account.