Summer savings

I  guess I was on a blogging binge yesterday. It can happen... 😃 

We've had a few weeks of nice autumn weather, in March and April, but especially for the past two weeks it's been very hot around these parts. It might not be "officially" summer yet in the northern hemisphere, but the weather is certainly more summer-like than spring-like here! I'm aware of the fact that summer is not something everyone necessarily enjoys, especially very hot summers. I still prefer summer over winter though. Even though we don't have very cold winters, I quite enjoy the heat. The added benefit of summers is that there's a lot of things you can save on. 

Air conditioning: Our days without putting on the air conditioning are probably numbered, we can only delay it so much... But, every day without having to put it on is yet another one! Yeah, I know living without air conditioning is the ideal, both frugality wise as environmentally wise. There was a time when I didn't want one for these two reasons, but I'm glad we eventually purchased one. It was during a heat wave, when temperatures outside reached nearly 50°c... (which is 122° f). Living in a desert without air conditioning can be like living in Siberia without heating! It didn't feel as a luxury anymore and we were so relieved after ours was installed. Both my husband and me suffer from the heat when it reaches a certain temperature in the home. He sweats a lot, and gets warm easily. I'm quite the opposite, where the heat kind of stays in my body and doesn't come out because I can't sweat. I also have asthma and a lot of muscle contractions during the summer which both decreased immensely since we have an air conditioning. Still, we try to be relatively frugal with it - we put it on when it becomes almost unbearable and it's set on 26° c (78° f), never lower. We only have one unit in the living room- I guess that's one of the benefits of living in a small home. In our bedrooms we have fans, and I actually prefer sleeping with a fan on rather than AC. Also, the air conditioning is not on all day long. That's how we still try to use it minimal but still make it more bearable during the summer heat. Still, I've found that our "minimal air conditioning use" tends to be cheaper than minimal heating during the winter. 

Another way of saving on utilities is by using cold water. Our pipes are outside the house which means the water heats up fast. On very hot summer days that means you can have a warm shower with "cold" water. This applies to the washing machine too- I usually turn the temperature setting completely off, as it's usually still at least 30°c, if not more. Same with doing dishes. We also try not to cook dishes with a long cooking time to avoid heating up the kitchen, and use the oven less. 

Speaking of laundry: since line drying is something we do all year round, it's not necessarily a saving, but it is much easier now than it is during the winter. Also, since the house isn't cold like it is during the winter, we wear less layers of clothes. Less clothes = less laundry. 

Gas: our car is mostly used to drive and pick up the children from school. Since they have a three month long break during the summer, we're defenitely saving on gas. We still use the car during the summer break, but much less than our average use. 

Fun things: since it's so hot here, it's not adviced to go outside during most part of the day, so we really need to find ways to entertain ourselves at home. This usually happens to be a lot cheaper too! We do enjoy going outside at night for a stroll and an ice cream every so often. Vacations are not something we do a lot, last year was the first time in 4 years that we went on a small vacation. To be honest I'd rather stay home, but I did enjoy the children having a great time. I'm not sure whether we'll go on a vacation this year or not, but if we go, it'll be as frugal as possible. We don't go abroad but stay in our country. Since we live in a small country, it's just a few hours drive to get to the coastal region. 

Food: we generally eat less during the summer, and prefer lighter meals with more veggies. In season produce is quite cheap here, fortunately, so that's a big saving right there. I've also noticed that some foods that can spoil quickly (like eggs) tend to be cheaper during the summer months.