My house has the toilet and shower branching from the same cold water line. This means that whenever the toilet flushes, it uses a lot of cold water and the shower gets too hot....
Life pro tip: whenever you unpack something and a little packet of desiccant falls out, save it! You can use it as a bespoke no-heat dryer if you accidentally drop your phone or other electronics in water.
Cost of living is sky high; can we all share our best tips for saving money?
We started eating healthier, meal planning, and shopping places like Grocery Outlet before we hit the regular store for whatever we couldn't find. Our food bills for 2 adults went down considerably. If a trip would've been 50, it's now more like 35, and we eat a lot more veggies now, so win-win. We are also cancelling our subscriptions and checking movies and tv series out from the library to entertain ourselves, and walking/biking to work (realize not everyone can do this).
FAST TV services (free, ad supported streaming), is taking over traditional pay services so there’s that. Hoopla/Kanopy are free with library card as well. OTA antennas (not the junk ones but Winegard, AntennasDirect, Mohu…).
Adding solar powered devices individually in lieu of a full upgrade.
You mentioned grocery outlet and meal planning already. Those two together is a MAJOR saver on the front and back ends. Kudos to you! Better foods also lead to better health and longevity along with lower medical bills. Being at the doctor less tends to lessen your exposure to medical malpractice and less nefarious but similarly detrimental to the patient… errors.
Enjoy nature! It’s free and beautiful!
Do simple tweaks… Hypermile driving style, turn thermostats up or down only a degree or two. Minimal changes to comfort but notable changes to utility bills.
Keep insurance paid up! Keep an honest insurance company too.
Use GasBuddy to find the best prices on gas.
Lock in utility rates ideally with companies with no early termination fee just in case prices drop significantly during the life of the original contract. These companies exist and we customers can use them against each other to effectively and indirectly “keep them honest” all the while keeping our utility rates at the low end of what’s possible.
Use apps like Ibotta and Fetch to get cash back on purchases that ARE made at the “normal” stores.
Enjoy what you already have… games, movies, books, family.
Perform or secure proper maintenance on the expensive items (yard equipment, vehicles, computers, etc).
Get off the treadmill most embrace and craft your own forward path. That’s basically what all these things do for us. And by all these things I mean my list, your list and all other legitimate tips humans have.
More info: I’ve tried a few methods, including devices out of reach with no light, and breathing techniques. Breathing seems to be closest but I seem to have a hard time getting to a point where my breaths really slow down and relax.
@numbscroll I've heard meditating works for some, when I cant sleep I invent a story in my head and just roll with it until eventually I drift off. Sounds dumb, but if I don't know when exactly I fell asleep, I won't be as tired in the morning (ie if I know I didnt sleep until 12 am, I'll be dead in the morning; if I followed whatever dumb story I invented in my head for hours and hours but don't know how late it was when I conked out, for whatever reason I'm not tired). Ymmv on that last bit though, lol.
Fire up youtube and start playing a documentary and keep it playing all night, and have it set to autoplay. YouTube premium or revanced to keep the screen off while audio plays. I recommend llong form comtent, and prefer documentaries about the cosmos, something like videos from the yt channel Astrum or Kurzgesagt.
Cheap and works 100% for me! Play some lighthearted content though, as whatever the narrator speaks makes it to your dreams/REM phase occasionally lol
I moved recently and our now shower has glass doors. I kept my old shower curtains, which have been super useful when painting or having a crawfish boil.
Hi all, this is my first post on kbin. Still trying to get a handle on things as a reddit refugee. This seemed like a good place to start since I didn't see any other posts on this magazine. Excited to learn and explore more on here. 🙂
