Page 19 - Book11E

in your budget to replace your toilet with a new “low-flow toilet,” but there is something you can do yourself that will have a similar effect. You can cut the amount of water you flush by half or more by putting a brick or plastic milk jug filled with pebbles in the toilet tank. The space the brick or jug takes up will reduce the amount of water that’s needed to fill the tank, so you save gallons of water—and pennies— with each flush.
Tip yourself
Your dryer has a lint filter to catch the lint that comes off your clothes as they dry. But that lint is not meant to stay in the filter. If you clean out the lint filter of your clothes dryer each time you dry a load of clothes, you'll reduce the amount of electricity you use by up to 30 percent. That can put quite a few pennies in your piggybank. Make sure you know where the lint filter is on your dryer and make a habit of pulling it out each time you dry clothes to clean off the lint that has collected there.
Automate your bill paying
The Internet has revolutionized how we live. It won’t be long until banking online is as much a part of our financial lives as debit cards. You probably have friends or family who already use online banking and swear they would never go back to checks and envelopes again.
Advantages of paying your bills online:
• If you’ve ever stressed over a misplaced bill, the idea of online payments can be a major relief. With online bill payments, you can select a convenient payment method of “recurring pay- ments” for ongoing bills like rent, car payment, even utilities, that will automatically deduct the payment each month from your checking account.
One Penny at a Time 11