General Rules.

This is things I do as a general rule, to keep costs down, not something you have to do, but every little bit helps.

1. Buy generic / store brand.  Most items are made in the same factories, with the same recipe (food items) as the name brands, but with the generic, you are not paying for things like advertising, coupons (because, yes, they up the price to offer those coupons) etc. Medications, again, generic, federal laws require that generic medication be chemically identical to name brand, so why pay 3 times as much for the use of a name?  OK, I admit it, there are somethings I don’t buy generic for, I have not found a generic ketchup I like as much as Heinz, and Bounty makes the best paper towels to me. But in my house, name brand is the exception, not the rule.
2. Nix disposable. Paper Towels, paper plates, paper cups, paper lunch bags, even disposable diapers, you are spending your money on things that you are PLANNING on throwing away after a single use. Yes, I use paper towels, the main use they have is to wrap sandwiches, inside a plastic container, in my childrens, reusable lunch bags… this way they have a napkin right there when they eat at school. A roll of paper towels will generally last my family a month or so. At home we  use cloth for most things. Cloth napkins and placemats, napkins are washed after every meal, placemats, those depend on how messy the eaters were, often one or two a meal will be replaced, so it pays off to have a largish (depending on household size and how often you do laundry) collection of coordinating placemats.
3. Buy in bulk. This only really works if you only buy things you will use that much of, for instance, say you only bake at the holidays. If you buy a 25lb of flour, chances are you won’t use it all, and again, likely hood is that bugs will get into it before the next year rolls around. But say you eat a lot of spaghetti. Instead of buying only enough meat to do one meal at a time, buy a large package, break it up and freeze it. Personally, I cook it all, then break it up and freeze it. This also helps with my preperation times. and prices are often lower for larger packages. If you run across a really great price on YOUR laundry soap… (it does no good if it is a soap you don’t/won’t use) buy an extra, or two, it will store just fine and you have saved a little on the price.
4. Multiple use items. Ok, to quote Alton Brown, “the only unitasker I want in my kitchen is the fire extinguisher” this is not limited to the kitchen. There are often things that can be used for multiple uses.. I have one of the over the door pocket shoe organizers in my daughter’s bedroom, it is used to store small toys, and other items, one pocket has  pencils, another has small notebooks, another has barbies.
5. Electric rates. Depending on where you are, and your local power companies, you may have several rate plans to choose from. Personally, I am in the southwest, and it is HOT. We have a choice of 3 electrical plans. The first is a standard plan, the electricty is the same rate all day long. From Nov-March it is a fairly low rate, but from April-Oct it is about 4 times as much. The second plan has a very high rate from 9am-9pm and about 1/4 of that rate from 9pm to 9am Monday-Friday, weekends are at the night time rate. The third rate plan has a high rate and a low rate, the high is a about the same as the second plan, but the low is a little higher than the second plan’s low rate,  however the times are much better, peak rates are noon-7pm and off peak are 7pm-noon and weekends, and 6 holidays a year. This is the rate we have, it allows me time to do laundry in the  mornings and evenings, as well as run the dishwasher, everyone to bathe, run the vacuum, etc. We use as little power as possible during peak hours.