7 Ways to Be Lazy and Still Save Money

Saving money for us definitely takes work.  We have to stay disciplined all day, every day.

For us, the less thinking and less work involved in saving that money, the better.  These are just a few of the passive saving tactics that have helped us cut our budget and continually save money (and also happen to be pretty eco-friendly.)  Most of them you only have to perform once, with a time investment of anywhere from 5 minutes to an afternoon.

1. We installed a programmable thermostat...and actually SET IT!  Programmable thermostats are a great thing because they allow you to have the best of both worlds--lower/raise the temp while you're away to save energy and money, while still being comfortable while you're home.  Pick one that will suit your family's needs and schedule--you can even set totally different schedules for every day of the week if your thermostat has that capability.  But, you have to take the time to set your desired schedule and temperatures and use the programmed settings!

Obviously there is an upfront cost for the thermostat itself.  Comparison shop online at sites like Shopzilla or Pricegrabber and be reasonable about the features you need and will use so you're not spending more than necessary.  Prices start around $20 for a basic model and go up to $150 and above for a high end touch screen version.

One tip, though...be realistic about your temperature settings.  Don't set the temp to drop to 60 degrees at night if you know your kids will kick their covers off and freeze or the whole family will get the sniffles.  Just set it to drop (or raise) a few degrees and you still will see some savings.  I sometimes make the mistake of bumping it up or down a degree or two temporarily, then forgetting to put it back on schedule later that day.  Leave yourself a bright colored post it note if you do that!

Our kid is with relatives for the week...What's the gameplan?

My folks are on vacation this week, and living a couple hours away they don't get to see as much of our son as they would like.  I agreed (actually, I jumped) on their offer to keep him for the week.  It will allow me to catch up on some work projects and housework, plus have some quality time with Hubby now that we're both busy with work and school.  I want to definitely have some fun, maybe a cheap date night (complete with a bottle of wine--woohoo!), and also get some projects done that are challenging with a 3 year old around.  I also don't want to go too spend crazy this week trying to complete those projects, since I hadn't really factored anything into our budget at the beginning of the month and we just replaced our car windshield last week.