In a world tipped in the favor of retailers and manufacturers due to the  recent uptick in media attention on consumer dishonesty and fraud, Walmart has chosen to not only simplify its price matching policy, but to choose to trust consumers on their word with their new price match policy.  Granted, this was not a feel-good public relations move; Target and dollar stores are closing in on Walmart’s market share and this is their response. Regardless of the intention, I was excited to try it out for myself!

New Policy will Save You Time and Money

The new policy claims that “if you find a lower advertised price on an identical product, tell us and we’ll match it. Right at the register.” Furthermore, “We do not require customers to have the ad with them to honor a competitor’s ad.” You read that right—I simply just need to know the prices of products in the “local competitor’s ads” for the week from the rolodex of numbers I keep in my head and then feed them to the cash register as my items are blipped through.

Do you realize the amount of savings this could bring? Every week each of the stores in our area send us their sales circulars with a loss leader or two to lure us into their store. Every other week when we grocery shop, I circle the purchase-worthy items from each of the ads and then decide which 1 store (two is my tops) I am going to go to. With Walmart’s new price ad match program, I don’t have to decide between stores. I can rack up all of the loss leaders in one trip!

The Red Tape

As with any program, there is some red tape to read through. The type of price matching Walmart will accept includes Buy One Get One Free ads with a specified price, competitor’s ads featuring a specific item with a sale price, and preferred shopping card prices for specific items that are in a printed ad. For meat and produce sales, competitor prices will be accepted when the price is offered in the same unit type (lb. for lb.). It also specifies that the product must be identical to the ad (size, quantity, brand, flavor, color, etc.).

And then there are the grey areas. For example, Walmart will not price match items that require a separate purchase to get the ad price, items with no actual price that require a purchase to get a free product, items that require a purchase to get a competitors’ gift card, buy one get one free ads with no price given, closeout/going out of business sales, percentage off sales, or competitors’ private label price promotions. Also, internet pricing is not accepted and misprinted ad prices are not accepted.

My Experience with Price Matching

The following are circulars that make it into our home each week: CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens, Food Town, Target, Belden’s, FoodARama, Kroger’s, Randall’s, H-E-B, and the Family Dollar Store. This week I took each of the ads received at our home and circled products I would purchase based off of sale prices. Based on the list of accepted and not accepted price matching above, I had to cross certain items off of my list. Then there were a few grey area items that I wasn’t sure about: will they price match H-E-B’s 5 for $5 items, or does this constitute “items that require a separate purchase to get the ad price” due to having to purchase 5 items (note: when you see sales like 2 for $5, you can generally just purchase one item for $2.50). Another question of mine was whether or not CVS, Walgreens, and the Family Dollar Store—all of which sell grocery items—are a “local competitor” to Walmart. Finally, I was unsure if some of the products I circled would be available at Walmart at all, such as Alexia brand Frozen Sweet Potato Fries and Allegra brand Elbow Mac/Thin Spaghetti Pasta.

I made a list on a sheet of paper of the product name, size, cost, and the competitor so that I would have everything ready at the cash register. To be honest, I also brought all of these ads with me but decided to keep them in my purse during the transaction unless I absolutely need to pull them out. In fact, I never had to bring them out!

As the cash register clerk put my products through I forewarned her of which ones to change the pricing on. She suggested that next time I put all of the price match items in a lump together so that we don’t miss any—great suggestion, but could be a little time-consuming.

 The Pros:

• I have a Walmart about one mile from my home
• I was able to purchase all of the loss leaders that I wanted from the other stores without having to waste my time, energy, and gas going to those other stores
• I get a slew of grocery and drugstore ads that come into my home each week anyway, so all of the material was at my fingertips
• They accepted my pricing from CVS for cokes (5 refrigerator packs for $13, or $2.60 each)
• They accepted my Family Dollar competitor coupon for Special K Cereal
• I saved a total of $9.92 from price matching, and a total of $4.50 from other coupons used (including the Special K competitor coupon); while this approximately $15 may not be much, I did not have to go to any other stores to get it
• Several items I did not have to price match for because they beat the competitor’s prices or were in line with the prices anyway: Cantaloupe ($1.00), Hunt’s Ketchup 24 oz. (2/$2.00), Triscuits, and Bertolli pasta sauce

The Cons:

• While I have read that store associates are being trained nationwide so that transactions using price match will go smoothly, this cashier told me that normally I have to have ads in order to get these prices (I corrected her, but for people who are not assertive or who do not know the policy, this may be a frustrating issue)
• Several products on my list were not carried at this Walmart: Allegra Elbow Macaroni Noodles, Wish-Bone Salad Dressing 8 oz. size, Tyson Centercut sliced bacon, Driscoll’s raspberries, and Hillshire Farm Deli Select 5 oz. size
• There were no cage-free eggs available, something that I make a point of buying
• No doubling/tripling of coupons (while Kroger no longer offers this in Houston, Randall’s still does but only one like coupon per product per transaction)
• I looked through ten different ads instead of the 2-3 I typically do
• I was still intimidated by the meat price matching; all of the meats were priced per lb. and prepackaged and I did not know whether or not the cash register clerk would be able to essentially re-sticker these packages in her register (As a side note, meat prices were high enough to make me want to be vegetarian for the rest of my life! No better time than now to eat through the meats we have stored in our freezer.)

Have you used Walmart’s new price match guarantee? How was your transaction, and how much did you save? Is this change enough to make you shop at Walmart?

It’s a battle of endurance, it’s a showdown of wits, it’s a race against time…well, a race against time and the person on the other side of the computer who seems to have lots of it.

I’ve been eyeing an advertisement that pops up when I sign into my email account for a few months now: a new flat screen television for $2.00. The ad changes from day to day, but it is always an electronic and always for an obscenely low price. The premise is easy enough: it is an auction site for electronics and gift cards where somehow the demand that normally sets a market price of $500+ just doesn’t exist, leading to oodles of electronics for frugal people like me to snatch up for the cost of a box of pasta. Needless to say, my curiosity has gotten the best of me and I decided to experiment with one of these so-called penny auction sites.

I chose a penny auction site and checked out the directions and FAQ’s page. It seemed innocent enough: purchase a package of bids, choose something to bid on, and go. The lowest priced package of bids I could buy to get in on the action was $29.95. I could have chosen to purchase the next size up and this would “guarantee” me a win, but adding that extra $10 for the sure thing seemed too much to me, especially seeing how electronics were going for so low.

A week later I decided it was time to test my luck. Logging into my account, I saw a golden nugget: a $50 Barnes and Noble gift card priced at $0.00 with no bids, and the auction was closing in just 30 precious minutes. I added a bid, instantly becoming the top dog for now, and watched as the clock added an extra 10 seconds onto it (each bid that is added raises the price by $0.01 and also adds another ten seconds to the time of the bid).

Everything was going very well…until there were just ten precious minutes left on the clock. Suddenly my Barnes and Noble gift card was hotter than the 1996 sale of Tickle Me Elmo. User Winsalot was the first to hop onto the bandwagon, with Sammibooger and several others hot on our trail. By the time the clock was ticking under one minute, there were eight of us, all taking turns adding a $0.01 bid and ten seconds to the clock. I settled into a comfortable and persistent pattern of waiting until the clock was below ten seconds, then claiming top dog once more. As the others followed suit, I began to wonder, don’t they have to use the bathroom at some point? I know why I’m doing this on a Friday in the middle of the day, but don’t these guys work for a living? I click to add another bid, sending the clock up to 20 seconds, and then settle in on the couch to watch a rerun of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. Game on.

After a half an hour, the price reaches $1.31. I decide to deliver a small but distinct message to the other people to back-off by clicking the bid button several times in a row, adding $0.03 to the bidding price instead of just a penny (I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman when she steps into that pricey boutique and indignantly says “I’ve got money to spend here.”) This doesn’t seem to faze anyone, and bidding continues for another twenty minutes, sending the price to $1.85. This seems like a never ending war, and as I start to question the whole process, I look around at the other auctions that are in their last ten seconds or so. My mind starts to calculate as I see user MamaCat to my left bidding on a Best Buy $100 gift card that is up to $13.94 in price. That is 1,394 bids! I look to my right, and see an iPhone being auctioned off at $10.64. My stomach turns as I realize just how many hours Miss MamaCat and WinsALot have been at it. These people must be obsessed.

In the ten seconds that I have to think each time a new bid is added, it occurs to me that people all over the United States are spending hours bidding in penny increments, trying to outsmart one another over and over again by placing a bid within the last ten seconds and then adding another ten seconds onto the clock. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat.

Hmmm…what is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. In the same moment as a message pops-up indicating that I am out of bids and have to purchase another package of them to continue, it dawns on me who the true winners are on this website: insane people. These are the only people who could possibly continue to bid, bid, bid, bid, bid, and expect to win. And because they continue to bid without giving up, they are the only ones who do win in the end. In other words, Penny Auction sites are perpetuating the insane inclinations in some by sending the sane people away. The insane people are the only winners.

Needless to say, I did not purchase another package of bids. In fact, I took it as a sure sign of my own sanity that I clicked the ‘x’ button and decided to write this article instead. Funny enough, when I went to research prices for this article, the lowest bid package I could purchase is for $45.00, and that does not even offer a guarantee that I will win something. I guess they think they have me—I am going to turn this into a moderate obsession that I will only give up for an occasional meal and bathroom trip—but they are wrong. I am a free agent, sanity intact.

If you need to check your own sanity, I suggest checking out one of these penny auction sites. Otherwise, you might want to pass.

Here’s Another Article of Interest:

Penny Auction Sites: A Great Deal or a Scam?

Stay Far, Far, Far Away from Swoopo

I am embarking on an exciting, new experiment based off of reader comments I received on my article “Cutting Down Your Grocery Bill By Playing the Grocery Game”. Each week several new coupon circulars come out in the Sunday papers, and I match these up to sales at different stores to get the most bang for my buck. And this approach has worked quite well for Paul and I; we now only shop for groceries once every other week, and our bill has been sliced in half from $300 per month to $160 per month. However, what my readers want to know is: can you buy healthy, fresh food and save money at the same time? Or are these two concepts mutually exclusive of one another?

When I sat down to think about the terms of this experiment, one of the interesting and challenging part was to define healthy food. Due to marketing, varying perspectives, and even government definitions (organic vs. natural vs. fresh, etc.), there are many options that can be considered healthy:

• fresh
• natural
• organic
• free-range/ cage-free
• farmer’s markets
• sustainable practices
• following the food pyramid
• enriched with vitamins and minerals (which some people suggest is possible by eating variously colored foods)
• non-GMO (genetically modified organism)
• HFCS-free (high fructose corn syrup)
• non-imported/imported/local
• minimally processed
• preservative-free
• IP (Identity Preserved)

Some of these terms are a bit loosely defined; the government clearly defines organic, companies who market “natural” on their products have very little regulations under the US Government. Even though this labeling convinces the consumer that the product they are buying is healthier than other products, if you read the ingredient label of a food product that has “natural” on it, you may find very unnatural ingredients, such as HFCS.  Also, most of the US food stream has been taken over by GMO due to crops from a GMO farmer naturally pollinating crops from neighboring Non-GMO farmers.

With all of this information, I think it is important for me to focus on just a few in order to determine whether or not healthy food can be bought at a discount. As I mentioned in the comments section of the grocery article, I have a very sensitive stomach, and so I all ready stay away from most processed foods (especially foods containing HFCS). So I will be looking for fresh foods, lots of fruits and veggies from the farmer’s market that Paul and I shop at all ready (Froberg’s in Alvin, TX), and foods without HFCS. In addition to these standards I normally hold our food products to, I am going to particularly look for organic foods, as well as making sure I cover all of the necessary food groups. To me, these are the most important definitions of healthy food.

Now the question is: where should I shop? Whole Foods seems like the most logical, and I will be making my first shopping trip there. But Kroger’s, Randall’s, Safeway, Giant, and even Wal-Mart carry lines of organic foods now, and I am predicting that the organic foods sold at these stores will be much more affordable than at Whole Foods. As such, I will be shopping at Wal-Mart for the second half of our month’s groceries with the same food characteristics in mind (fresh, healthy, organic, no HFCS). Paul and I will continue to purchase our fruits and veggies from Froberg’s for the entire month of grocery shopping.

How will I determine success? Well, one direct measure is if I can still buy fresh, organic foods without HFCS that cover all of the food pyramid categories at under $300 per month. Three hundred dollars is the amount Paul and I were spending before I started with the world of couponing and sale shopping last year, so I figure I will have an impact on our budget as long as we stay under this number. Success can also be measured in other ways; will I feel healthier, have more energy, feel better about the choices I am making with the food I am putting into my body, and how that food is being farmed? If so, and I am still under the $300 mark, then I may very well change my habits. Will I be able to coupon and sale shop while still reaching this goal? That is another way to measure the amount of success I have.

I fondly remember the Dollar Store opening up its doors for business on the Main Street in Parkesburg, pop. 3,373. I was in my early teens, and so coming to this store with a few dollars of allowance was like hitting the jackpot! Suddenly, my money went a lot further than it had ever gone before, and I had an umpteen variety of choices and goods I could devote my precious few dollars to.

What are some of the things I bought with my allowance? For a few years I was into these canvas white shoes with laces, and so I bought them (probably for about $5 each) every six months or so after each pair was too stained from walking around our farm. I have always had a fascination with Tupperware and all things organization, so I started a collection of Rubbermaid containers. I would imagine the things that my future would need—say a pitcher for iced-tea, various rectangular storage bins, canisters for sugar/flour/coffee—and I would purchase them one by one and put them in my hope chest for when I was an adult (for the record, that stuff really came in handy a few years ago!). When barrettes with animals came into fashion for a stint as a freshman in high school, I was able to purchase mine for next to nothing. I also dallied in stationary, photo frames, and the occasional lip gloss.  Everything was pretty much a dollar to two dollars. I had an internal warning alarm that went off if I spent over $2.75 on an item.

I follow the sales ads of several stores each week, and I have begun to pay special attention to the Dollar Store/Dollar General sales ads versus the drugstore sales ads. Now it seems like the average cost at Dollar Stores is between $3.00 and $7.00 per item! Of course inflation must be factored in over the past ten years, and these stores do offer a much larger number of brand name items than before, but it still seems a bit expensive (apparently Dollar in Dollar Store now stands for more than $1; imagine how high the Dollar in the store name will represent in 30 years!).

I want to make sure that even though there are very few “dollar” items within the Dollar Store anymore, that the store still offers a comparable amount of savings in proportion to what can be found at other stores. To do this, I looked at the sales flyers from five separate weeks in the last two months and made direct comparisons of the same products (where the ounce size or pill count was different, I calculated the per-pill cost, or per-load cost). Also, please note that I could only compare like products, so if a product was on sale in the Dollar Store for a certain week, but not on sale in either of the other stores, then I could not do a comparison. I did not take coupons into consideration. Finally, if any Extracare Bucks, or Register Reward dollars (both of which you can use like real money in CVS and Walgreens’ respectively) were part of the deal, I subtracted that from the price before calculating the cost per unit.

Take a look at what I found (the lowest cost item is in bold):

While the Dollar Store had lower prices on a few items (Folger’s coffee, serenity pads, Charmin toilet paper, etc.), it appears that if you are looking to buy brand name items, you are better off shopping the sales at drugstores.

Who would have thought that? This is what I have been suspecting in recent years, so I am glad that I did this comparison in order to confirm it. I just hope that people who are truly struggling are aware that the name of a store can be deceiving.

Check out my original article in this series here.

Wal-mart happens to be a fascination of mine. Any business that can start from a small store on the corner of a rural town and grow to practically encompass every small and large town across the U.S. is a topic of interest in my book, regardless of whether or not you believe in their practices. Being the sole outlet for the majority of consumer purchasing decisions in the U.S. means that your decisions as a corporation has worldwide implications for people, retailers/manufacturers, and even politics. Let’s just say, I consider them a force to be reckoned with.

As a consumer, I am left with a difficult decision each time I go shopping. I could shop at a Wal-mart, where I know that even without coupons, I will probably get the best prices around (this is not a sure thing, but it is guaranteed—if you bring a sales flyer from another store that has the same product for cheaper, Wal-mart will charge you the cheaper price). But what am I supporting when I shop at Wal-mart? Wal-mart makes products cheap so that everyone can afford them, but at what cost are they providing this service to their consumers?

I shopped at Wal-mart when I lived in Florida a few years ago and had sticker shock at the hike in living costs. Since moving to Houston, I have only shopped there twice now: once a few months ago, and last month for this experiment. One thing I am particularly happy to report is it appears Wal-mart has taken strides in the last several years to incorporate more natural and organic products within their stores. In this case it is very positive that Wal-mart has such influence on consumers’ pockets; the potential implications on the food chain are great if Wal-mart continues down this path.

I was able to purchase the following organic/fresh/minimally processed/non-HFCS products at what I consider to be a decent price:

• Nature Valley Granola Bars
• Preservative-free Chicken
• Sun Chips
• V-8 Fusion Juice
• Kashi Cereal
• Kraft Natural Cheese
• Hormel Natural (No Preservatives) lunchmeats
• Back to Nature Crackers
• Organic Yogurt
• Bread

These are the following items that I looked for to meet my above criteria, but did not find:

• Ground Beef, Flank Steak, beef of any kind
• Cornish Game Hens
• Sour Cream
• Blocks of Cheese

My total bill came in at $97.43. I was only able to use $1.05 in coupons. I have to say, I certainly bought extras during this trip (like flank steak), and we needed to stock up on meats, so I feel like I could have knocked the price down by $20.00. I also spent $20 at Froberg’s on fruits and veggies.

Overall, that puts us at $233.73 for our groceries for the month of August. This is $66.27 less than what we used to spend on groceries before couponing and sales shopping, so I still saved us money from this high while buying mostly fresh, natural, organic, non-HFCS and minimally-processed foods. Still, I was not able to use as many coupons as I thought I could during this experiment due to the much lower availability for coupons for products with these characteristics. Also, while Whole Foods certainly has a much broader array of these types of products, I was still pleasantly surprised by what I found at Wal-mart and optimistic about what the implications could be for the food chain in the United States.

I’ll confess, I typically only shop at Whole Foods a few times a year when I have been on the run and feel like picking up some fresh premade food for dinner. As far as shopping the actual aisles, I was unsure of what I would find in terms of cost.

Before heading out the door to Whole Foods, I did some research for coupons. I found a few websites that house printable coupons for natural and organic products, such as healthsavers.com, mambosprouts.com, and a great article on about.com. I also did a search on the grocery coupon database on couponmom.com for natural and organic coupons. The following is what I found:

• Eggland’s Best Cage-free/Organic: Smart Source 5/03 and 6/28, $0.50 off
• Smucker’s Natural Peanut Butter: Red Plum 5/03, $1.00
• Terra Chips: Smart Source 5/03 and 6/07, $1.00
• Mahatma Rice: Red Plum 4/26, $0.75/2
• Blue Diamond Almonds: Smart Source 5/17, $0.50
• Boca Meatless Product: Smart Source 6/7, $1.00/2
• Nature Valley Granola Bars: Smart Source 5/31, $0.75/2
• Silk Soymilk: Smart Source, 6/14, $1.25/2 half gallons
• Brown Cow Farm Yogurt coupons
• Organic Valley Dairy/Egg coupons
• Kashi coupons

I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of manufacturer coupons scattered throughout the store. Perhaps this is due to the economy, or maybe Whole Foods always attaches manufacturer coupons to products throughout the store.

In total, I spent $113.30, with coupon savings of $8.00. All of the products I purchased were HFCS-free, fresh, and most were organic. I also spent $23 at Froberg’s for fruits and vegetables. The groceries that I purchased will last me for the next two weeks.

This is significantly more than I normally spend on groceries. For my next shopping trip, I will be going to Wal-mart and attempting to buy HFCS-free, fresh, and natural/organic. I am hoping for a lower cost. Let’s see what I find!

I have to say…not much. From the beginning of July until the end, I managed to find $0.14. Here is the breakdown: one dime and four pennies.

I have to say, I think there is a lot of competition here. There seem to be a decent amount of homeless people in certain areas of Houston, and any change shining on a sidewalk would be better spent by them anyhow. I also did not get a chance to go to the laundromat to try and find loose change that people have dropped (and come to think of it, moving a vending machine or two probably would have helped as well).

Let me know if you all have any luck. One of our readers managed to find a $20 bill!

Read the first article in this series here to understand the outcome. As a synopsis: I am experimenting by setting a pool of money aside for the month of June ($500) for things like food, clothing, extras, entertainment, etc. Anything that I “save” (i.e. at the bottom of receipts when a store claims you have ‘saved’ money, through coupons, or other discounts), I am going to set that money aside to deposit into my actual savings account at the end of the month.

As I approach these last few days in June I feel heavy and limp with the task ahead of me. It is time for me to tally up my receipts and savings from the month to see how much I owe myself, and I know it’s not going to be good. How can saving money ever not be a good thing? When you know you are going to owe yourself more than you actually have. That’s right; I have managed to save beyond my means this month, meaning I am going to be in debt…to myself.

Things seemed to be going smoothly until about three quarters of the way into the month when I realized just how much “savings” I had accumulated. In fact saving money became my worst nightmare. A sort of mini-panic set in while I was at stores, wetting my hands with clammy perspiration and increasing my heart palpitations. It seemed like every store was out to get me with their flashy sales flyers, cornering me into “saving” more and more money that I just didn’t have. When I had to turn down good deals because I knew I would not have sufficient funds to pay myself the savings at the end of the month, I grew indignant, and then reserved. I broke a few times and bought some of those deals. Only it led to me being unable to spend any money for a period of about two weeks because I knew that would eat away at the stockpile of money waiting for me at the end of the month. I had to break the news to my boyfriend.

“Just so you know, I can’t buy anything again until July 3^rd”. The room gets quiet. My fiancee is sitting across the room in his chair, playfully throwing his football up in the air at odd intervals. Except now he places the football snugly under his right arm and holds it there.

“What?” I’ve gotten his attention; it is only June 22.

“You know that experiment I am doing for my column? Well, I have maxed out my savings for the month, so I can’t spend another dime until July 3^rd.” Silence again.

“It’s only 12 days away.” I add in a tone that suggests he’s the one being completely ridiculous and inflexible.

Sitting here tallying all of these savings up, I keep twiddling my thumbs like my grandfather taught me to do while waiting in nervous anticipation. I’ve gone over my limit, though I knew that awhile ago. I’ve saved more money than I even have in this pool of money, and so I can’t pay myself off. So this is how it feels to owe a creditor when you know you’ve got nothing.

Out of a possible $500 pool of money to be spent on groceries, entertainment, cell phone bill, gas, etc., I have saved (through discounts) $353, and spent $272. I am officially in the red $125. Whew. There, I said it out loud. That’s not so bad, right? But where does it end? Is $200 not so bad? Then $350? Then $400? I have to stop beating myself up over this. On the bright side, that does leave me with an extra $228 to stash away into savings this month above what I normally contribute each month.

Doing this experiment has led me to several conclusions. First of all, I am now a true believer in something I was only suspicious of earlier: retailers sometimes claim to discount a product, but it’s not actually discounted. Also, I’ve proven that it’s possible for me to be even more disciplined and to squeeze even more out of my money each month. Finally, while I never bought the pair of sneakers, I do now have an extra $40 sitting in my savings, and that extra cushion feels much more heavenly than any new pair of Nikes could.

Something I have always erred on the side of caution with—without ever truly knowing the impact on our budget—has been residual electricity use on electronics that are plugged in, but not turned on. My nearly tyrant policies with unplugging any and all electronic devices when not in use began several years ago when I heard a rumor from my friend Aurora that even though an electronic device is not plugged in, it still is tapping into a reservoir of kilowatts and adding dollars to your electricity bill. Turns out it is not just a rumor; Yahoo recently featured an article on this you can read about here.

I must confess, however, that my boyfriend and I have had an ongoing debate about just how much doing so actually matters in dollars and sense. We religiously unplug the following after each use in our household: lamps, coffeemaker, television, DVD player, Xbox, internet and router, air conditioners (we still have wall units), washer and dryer, printer, computer, phone charger, bathroom nightlight, and practically anything else that could be sapping the life out of our bank accounts. But how much money does this actually save us? I decided to find out if it is worth the effort.

I chose April to begin the experiment, and was going to try to duplicate my electronic use from the month of March, except this time without unplugging any of the electronic devices listed above (well the fish will finally be happy—just kidding, ofcourse we keep the fish tank running 24/7!). This included an allotment of 3 loads of laundry per week, 4 dishwasher loads per week, and the use of AC for 4 days (in March we had used the heater for 4 days, so I rationalized that the electricity use was about the same).

The only problem is that we had very hot and humid days near the middle to end of April, and so we finally gave in and turned on the AC. We ended up needing the AC for longer than 4 days. Also, something even more extra-ordinary happened: after keeping all of our appliances plugged in for a month, our electricity bill came in and was only $24 (typically we pay $70-$80)! Paul gleefully took the opportunity to argue that plugging in electronics must actually save on electricity costs, but I told him that it was a nice try, and that we needed to call our energy company to figure out what went wrong with our bill. Needless to say, I called the experiment off.

Still, I learned quite a few things about reducing electricity bills.

Best Time of Year to Lock in a Kilowatt Rate

Start by reducing your per kilowatt price. Here is a chart that shows the average electricity costs per Kilowatt hour by state (click on the link within the website to get an excel spreadsheet for 2007) to give you an idea of whether or not you are paying too much, or getting a really good deal! Prices per kilowatt typically go up during the summer months, and down during the winter months. If you are stuck in an electricity contract at too high of a price, you may have to pay your locked-in rate for several more months unless you want to pay a hefty fee to get out of the contract—our termination fee would be $150. But once you are at the end of your contract, it may be best to do a month-to-month flexible plan until you get to the wintertime and can lock in a lower rate for 12 months. You may pay more per kilowatt in those few months than you would like, but it will pay off in the end. Our current rate is $0.14 per kilowatt, and our contract will be up in November. Typically February is the best month to lock in a new contract, so we will probably do a month-to-month variable contract between November and February.

Find Out if there is a Demand Charge

Some electricity companies charge something called a Demand Charge which is determined by your highest peak demand of electricity during an on-peak. Check with yours to see if they have this charge. If there is a demand charge, the trick is for you to lower your highest demand rate. During your peak hour usage, make sure to only use one-two appliances at once. For instance, if you would like to run a load of dishes, and a load of laundry, load up the dishwasher, but don’t turn it on until after the load of laundry is complete. Check here for an example of a company who has a demand charge for more information.

Behavior Modification Based off of Evidence: When to Unplug

The Kill-a-Watt device will help you to pinpoint exactly what is running up your electricity bill, what might not be, and how much passive energy different appliances are eating up when still plugged in (a real treat for frugal people like us!). This nifty $20-$25 device gives you exact measurements of kilowatt usage from any appliance that can be plugged into a three-prong outlet. Here are some of the readings I measured in my own household to give you an idea of what might be costing you, and where best to put your efforts in reducing your own bill (take the kilowatt hour and multiply it by your price per kilowatt, found on your energy bill). Please note: these costs are for one hour only. In order to figure out monthly consumption, multiply the price by an approximate number of hours your appliance is used each month.

Run the Dishwasher and Washer/Dryer in the Morning or Evening/Night Hours

Because these appliances are large and generate excessive heat, using them during cooler hours will reduce your overall AC/Central air conditioning costs for the summer. Also, check with your electrical company to see if they charge less in the night hours for your electrical consumption because it is off-peak. If so, try to run dishwasher loads and possibly laundry before going to sleep to save some extra money. (FYI: I checked with Reliant Energy, and they do not offer this currently. See “Improved Technology” below).

Maintain Appliances

Help your current appliances run most efficiently by vacuuming them clean (cooling coils in back of refrigerator), and possibly changing or washing their filters (AC).

Turn your Water Heater Down

Now that the hot summer months are here, you probably will not notice a drop in your water heater temperature. Most experts suggest turning the water heater down to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. See photo below for where to locate your own temperature gauge on your water heater.

Use Cold Water to Wash Laundry

I have been doing this for about a year, and have noticed no difference between clothes washed in cold water versus hot water.

Pick One Night/Day a Week to go Off-the Grid

This family chooses to go off-the-grid every Saturday by unplugging all appliances and using candles instead in order to spend more quality time together and also to save money. Could be a fun experiment for you and your family!

Purchase Energy-Star Rated Appliances

Check out this link for products that offer an Energy Star Rating, meaning they will use less energy than their traditional counterparts. As you need to replace older appliances over the years, be sure to buy more energy efficient ones for long term savings in energy costs.

Improvements in Technology

Finally, electricity costs for residents in Houston should decrease in the next few years with improvement of technology that is taking place right now. According to a representative of Reliant Energy, Centerpoint Energy has begun (December 2008) to install new, enhanced meters into every Houston residence with the last installation planned for 2020. These new meters will send a signal to electrical companies every 50-60 minutes to show kilowatt usage. Your use of electricity during peak usage hours when demand is highest (between 4:00-6:00 pm) will be charged at your contracted rate. However, your electricity use during non-peak hours will be charged a lower per kilowatt rate.

As a result of this learning, we have incorporated some changes into our household for more efficient energy use. I have decreased the temperature on our water heater significantly (and Paul has not noticed yet!). We will continue to unplug after using appliances (even though it appears to only save a few dollars a year), but it will be much easier now. Our fish tank and wireless internet are always plugged in (24/7), and the other appliances in the entertainment area do not need to be. I have these two categories separated out into two different power strips, so now it will be easier just to unplug one plug at night. I am currently looking into purchasing a more energy efficient bulb for my floor lamp in the living room, as its watt usage is more than the watt usage for our television! Also, I was very surprised to learn how many watts are used for the little floor heaters that we have, and will be looking into replacing these with more energy efficient models.

After a month of pure, unheeded kilowatt use, it will be a bit of habit-changing to go back to unplugging. What sort of habitual changes will you be making in your own household?