Stay In Style In This Economy
Editor’s Note: Anna Hessel with a little help from hubby, Wes, will be offering up for the next seven weeks, 10 tips a week on How to Stay In Style In This Economy. Watch for it every Tuesday.
How to Stay in Style in this Economy…
By Anna Hessel with Wes Hessel
Inflation is being beaten back but basic costs are still high, and service providers are charging more, but there is hope out there. Saving money has always been a challenge but in this current economic climate saving money can be get a bit tricky, but there are certainly ways to shave your budget without losing out on things you need and want, here are today’s suggestions:
- I keep a small empty lotion container to drain the last dregs of creams into. Give it a good shake, and you have a new lotion mixture to keep skin smooth.
- Turn lights off when not in use for more than a minute.
- Vacuum refrigerator coils every so often to increase efficiency, and save on electricity. Also, clean your furnace or air conditioning vents for improved flow (again saving energy and cost), and change the furnace filter as recommended to help there, too. Make sure those air outlets are not blocked or covered for even better savings, unless it’s for an area you use less or little.
- There are products on the market to freshen clothes between wearings. A clothes dryer after sponging with a damp wash cloth is a great way to refresh clothes, and add extra life to garments but these are not substitutes for regular washing or dry cleaning. An old fashioned sponge dampened can keep your wardrobe looking pristine. I don’t recommend a refresh more than a couple times between laundering – you don’t want to seal dirt or odor in the fabric…
- Buy a good used sewing machine to repair, repurpose, or recreate garments, linens, curtains, and the like.
- Opt for refillable or reusable items, such as pitchers to filter tap water instead of buying bottles from a store – this can save money and help the environment.
- Less waste packaging can also improve an item’s cost – less overhead for the company; look for vendors who pass this savings on.
- Avoiding red meat is not only great for animal welfare, your health, and the environment, it can be more economical to have a more plant based diet…
- Consider your home space – do you really need as much as you have? The tiny house movement, or downsizing in some form, is advantageous in many ways, such as less energy consumption, more time for family/ourselves and pleasure pursuits, and, of course, the lower costs…
You Better Shop Around…
- Utilize deferred no-interest payment plans like PayPal’s Pay in 4, After Pay, or Klarna for major purchases to save on paying credit card or other interest. Or just save up – it’s worth the effort…
