What We Did To Save Money This Month: January's List

[This month's savings: $115]

Sometimes it's hard to keep track of how much money you're saving in any given month. For most of us, money is an abstract concept. It's a number in a bank account, that tends to be rather fluid. Up one day, down the next.

One of the ways that I've found to help me feel like less of a budgeting failure (other than to keep a savings account & not touch it), is to keep a list of the things I am actively doing to save money during any given week.

Budget Experiment 1: Saving Money on Your Water Bill

I've been experimenting a lot with different ways to save money. Some are bigger experiments that will take months to see changes, others are little things I can do once and just let it ride. One of my experiments this month is the old milk-jug-in-the-toilet-tank trick.

I read that anywhere from 20% to 40% of a household's water consumption is actually from flushing toilets, so I figured I would try out the water displacement method.

3. How Much Do Energy Vampires Really Cost You?

I recently read a blog post testifying to the fact that getting rid of "Energy Vampires" (all of those electronics that are plugged in and not being used), saves hundreds of dollars a year. Unfortunately, what that person did in order to save that much money, was to unplug EVERYTHING that wasn't in use—including their Internet router, TV, clocks, lamps, microwave, washer, dryer, etc. I think they stopped at unplugging the refrigerator and freezer.

2. Can You Really Save Money With Couponing Apps?

I'm not a huge fan of coupons or couponing apps. Like coupons themselves, they usually take more time than they're worth (which just makes me cranky—I mean, if I'm going to spend half a day searching for coupons, I want it to save me more than 50¢). That said, I've found a few apps that have proven to be headache free and have fairly consistently saved me money.

1. Make Your Own Cleaning Products

How much money do you spend in a month on laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent, fabric softener, all purpose cleaner, sponges, paper towels, etc?

If you don't know, it might be good to figure out.

When I thought I was at my most frugal, I was spending $10 every 4-6 months for laundry detergent. I thought this was pretty good until I realized I could get a year's worth of detergent for the same amount just by making it myself.