5 Old Fashioned Ways to Save Money on Energy Bills

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Need some new and different tips on how to save money on energy bills? Here are some “new” tips to try as we travel back in time!

Need some new and different tips on how to save money on energy bills? Here are some "new" tips to try as we travel back in time!

5 Ways to Save Money on Energy Bills

We are getting serious (well, at least getting better) about trying to conserve energy throughout our home. I don’t care to waste any of our hard-earned dollars on electricity that we don’t need.

Having lived in a farmhouse has inspired me to think about those who have lived there in the past and how they might have coped with things. Our previous house was built in 1890 and didn’t have indoor plumbing until the 30’s. We aren’t sure when the electricity was added.

But I would imagine from what we found in the house that it was after the plumbing. (There used to be a well in our old basement, which means they would not have had the well pressure tank and pump like we have today. It would have been a manual pump that would have allowed them to have running water without any electricity in the house, very smart!)

So today, I hope you will travel back in time with me and get some tips on how old-fashioned ideas can help us save in today’s modern world!

lantern

Use Lanterns

In our home, I have a variety of oil lamps and lanterns that we can use to light only the space we use when we need it. Yes, you still have to purchase oil to run these lamps. However, the idea behind using them is that you will only light them in the space you need to burn when you need to light them (since you always want to stay in the same room as a lit lantern).

There’s no need to light up the entire house when everyone is in the same room. I love the ambiance an oil lantern gives versus the harsher light of a light bulb. 🙂

A Solar Lantern is a great modern alternative if you are concerned about an open flame in your home. We have several of these Solar Lanterns and LOVE them.

Just ordered the solar lanterns. Living in north central Louisiana we get bad weather from Texas and hurricanes from the gulf. Last night lost power and batteries dead!! Thank you for the great information.

Debra, Little House Living reader
Measuring Spoons

Manual Kitchen Appliances

Remember those old rotary beaters that your grandma kept in her kitchen drawer? They use no electricity and still get the job done!

How about a manual ice cream maker? If you aren’t into one of the old paddle styles, you can check out something like this Ice Cream Ball.

There are many things you can pick up like these on a small scale, or if you really want to go all out, you could look into manual grain mills and larger kitchen appliances. A good place to look for some of these things is antique shops.

Tip: I have a BIG list of Off Grid Kitchen Appliances and Gadgets here.

Skip the Washer and Dryer

Do you think you could live without a washer and dryer? I’m not sure that I could live without a washer, but an alternative to use once in a while or in emergencies is a good thing to think about. Something simple and inexpensive like this Breathing Washer would do the trick.

I would have a clothes wringer as well. (I manually washed our clothing for about a month last year when we had no washer and dryer; a wringer would have helped immensely!)

Then, for a dryer, of course, you can easily replace it with a clothesline or an indoor drying rack. We personally do not have a dryer and have replaced it with an indoor drying rack from Lehmans, and I don’t miss it at all.

I try to conserve energy as much as I can and also water. I use an alternative to your Breathing Washer mentioned in your article mostly for smaller loads of laundry or light things. I had hubby drill about 6 half inch holes in a rubber bathroom plunger (bought at the dollar store) and another larger hole in the center of a lid fitting a 5 gallon bucket (free from our local bakery). The plunger handle inserted in the lid of the bucket filled with nice sudsy water works like an agitator on a washer works and cleans clothes just fine (I have to supply the energy to work the plunger to clean the clothes). I wring the clothes out by using the wringer on my inexpensive mop bucket which has wooden rollers. I haven’t tried it out for heavy laundry (like jeans) but I don’t know why it wouldn’t work. I love your blog Merissa and have followed your story from the beginning. Love it!

Jeanie, Little House Living reader
Kids in Trees

Respect Family Time and Changes in Seasons

As I mentioned above, you will save money if your family is together in the same room in the evening, sharing the electricity in that one room. In days past, the families would spend time together in the largest room in their home in the evening instead of retreating to individual rooms.

Not only is this a great way to save on electricity, but it’s also a great way to increase family togetherness time! Another thing along these lines is to respect seasons. When it’s dark earlier in the winter, head to bed sooner than you would in the summer.

Use the summer to work on extra projects while you have the daylight, and use the winter to rest. This isn’t always possible, but something to consider.

Family time is so important…and with all the technology available to everyone…it’s almost non existent for many now. Great tips on saving energy!

Heather, Little House Living reader

Save on Heating and Cooling

We’ve always lived without air conditioning so over the years, we’ve come up with many ideas on how to stay cool without using extra electricity in the summer. You can read the complete list of How to Beat the Summer Heat ideas here.

If you use electricity in your heating, there are many ways to save as well. Use extra blankets on your bed at night. Make a homemade heating pad and place it on your feet before bed. Wear extra clothing around the house during the day, and always ALWAYS wear socks in the winter! (They help regulate body temperature.) Get more tips on how to Save on Heating Bills here.

These are good ideas….and when we add things like this to our lives and practice them regularly, they cease to feel like such a big deal…we just get used to them….like a new GOOD habit. 🙂 We use rice bags in our beds in the winter and keep the heat lower and it works great. Thank you for sharing this.

Gentle Joy, Little House Living reader

Find many more Frugal Living Tips here on Little House Living!

I can’t wait to hear your ideas as well! What do you have to add to this list of 5 ways to save on energy bills? What are some of your favorite old-fashioned ways to save on energy? Have you tried any of the above?

Me and Kady

Merissa Alink

Merissa has been blogging about and living the simple and frugal life on Little House Living since 2009 and has internationally published 2 books on the topic. You can read about Merissa’s journey from penniless to freedom on the About Page. You can send her a message any time from the Contact Page.

This article on How to Save on Energy Bills was originally posted on Little House Living in April 2014. It has been updated as of October 2023.

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45 Comments

  1. Love it! I’m a bit “Little House” myself. I miss the simpler times. Here’s my idea, can you imagine how much energy would be saved if everyone would turn off the televisions for two hours each night and just read, to themselves or their children? One of my fondest memories is the winter I read “Farmer Boy” to my children because we had no tv. It was a cozy winter with a wood stove for heat and just me and four children living the Little House dream! Thank you!

  2. Just ordered the solar lanterns. Living in north central Louisiana we get bad weather from Texas and hurricanes from the gulf. Last night lost power and batteries dead!! Thank you for the great information.

  3. As an almost 54 year old female I find it harder and harder to do things manually as my shoulders and arms do not have the strength they used to. I am finding I rely more and more on machines to do the hard work for me and I am thankful for them. It would not be feasible for me to knead bread dough anymore so I am happy to spend the electricity to allow my bread machine to it for me. I agree with the ambiance of lanterns and candles but we cannot see if we desire to read unless we have bright light now. Maybe if we had always done things without electricity we would be able to do them that way now. (???)

    1. I really agree with you. Having arthritis I am not able to do washing and drying without machines. In former times we would have lived together with 2 younger generations, doing the hard work for us, today in our small houses it is not possible. I guess we just will have to live with higher eletricity bills. 🥴

  4. In my area, heat and humidity are the worst drain on our energy usage. The heat index raises actual temps in the 90’s and low 100’s to 105 or more each day for at least 4 to 5 months. Keeping the thermostat at 84 is all we can take and still be able to sleep at night with all the humidity here. Most months of our 6 month summer, our utility bill averages $450.

    I try to do all my baking early of a morning. Since we eat mainly vegan meals with a lot of beans, I have “bean cooking” days. I cook at least 3 cups of 4 or 5 dried bean types (big soup pots full.) Then I divide those into 2 cup portions and freeze them. I also freeze the bean broths separately. This is great for not having to heat the whole house up more frequently by boiling beans that have to cook for hours.

    I also use my two crockpots 3 to 4 days a week. And about the rotary beaters–I have great memories of how my sister and I were allowed to whip the cream for special dinners at my grandmother’s house. She was born in 1884 and never had any electrical appliances.

    Many is the time over the years that I had to wash clothes for our family of seven, bent over the bathtub, wringing them out by hand. I can’t do that anymore!

  5. We had to use our kerosene lamps just this morning, electricity went out for about 1 hr. We are so dependent on getting things done at the flip of a switch nowdays. Get a lot more done without the TV on that’s for sure!

  6. We have friends who live on St. Croix.. They have outdoor solar lights (the garden variety) that they bring in at night to use. Saves a bunch on their electricity.

  7. Great article. I could do without a dryer, but never without a washer! I often wash clothing by hand, but I don’t think I would attempt towels or sheets. Great tips. I think the lanterns would be great – I imagine quiet family time around them!

  8. We use to use oil lamps when we lived off the grid. We had to be careful because on cold nights we didn’t want to open any windows of course and would soon find that the light would go out because of lack of oxygen. It was something we learned to do wisely and still stay warm. My favorite lifestyle change was the fact that we observed the seasons. We went to bed when it was too dark to work any longer and woke up just before the sun rose. In fact, I still enjoy doing that! I need to do it more often!
    Mrs. Joseph Wood
    http://www.amomentwithmom.com

  9. Great ideas. Not sure I would want to live without a washing machine, but I regularly use my clothes line for sheets. Love the smell of freshly line dried sheets from the sun. Congratulations on your new home!

  10. family time is so important…and with all the technology available to everyone…it’s almost non existent for many now. Great tips on saving energy!

  11. I had to call my electricity company last week and the lady said is there anything else I can do for you? I said is there a way to make it cheaper and she looked and for signing up for a year ( and there’s a zero cancellation fee, the paperwork came yesterday ) I got 6 cents/ kwhour reduction. Pays to ask!

  12. I try to conserve energy as much as I can and also water. I use an alternative to your Breathing Washer mentioned in your article mostly for smaller loads of laundry or light things. I had hubby drill about 6 half inch holes in a rubber bathroom plunger (bought at the dollar store) and another larger hole in the center of a lid fitting a 5 gallon bucket (free from our local bakery). The plunger handle inserted in the lid of the bucket filled with nice sudsy water works like an agitator on a washer works and cleans clothes just fine (I have to supply the energy to work the plunger to clean the clothes). I wring the clothes out by using the wringer on my inexpensive mop bucket which has wooden rollers. I haven’t tried it out for heavy laundry (like jeans) but I don’t know why it wouldn’t work. I love your blog Merissa and have followed your story from the beginning. Love it!

    1. I would be interested in what kind of wringer bucket you use. I have the breather washer mentioned often. I live alone and only have small loads but a wringer would be helpful for the big loads like towels and jeans, etc. Thanks.

      1. The mop bucket that I have is made of durable polyolefin plastic and has a step plate with 2 wooden rollers. I use the mop pail for rinsing and wring the clothes out by pulling the clothing out of the bucket between the 2 rollers. I place my foot on the lid which has one of the rollers on it and pull the clothing out wringing it as I pull. I have wrung towels out but so far not jeans. It may not work as well for heavy jeans but would be worth a try. The one I have is similar to this one but not as expensive as this one. http://www.hardwareworld.com/Oval-Plastic-Mop-Pail-14-quart-pW3AU3L.aspx

  13. I agree with you on all fronts! … except that I wouldn’t bother with a ringer. 🙂 We used to wash clothes by hand when I was a kid, and I never did get the hang of using a ringer without breaking buttons or zippers.

    I’ve always been intrigued by the Wonderwash hand washer (you can search it on amazon.com) for hand washing clothes.

    And also, we’ve found that only cooling one room in our house with a window air conditioner satisfies our need to escape the heat during the summer, and keeps our electricity bill down. I think it cost us $10 extra per month – and I’m sure even some of that was due to our new deep freezer.

    1. Just a word of warning, I’ve owned the Wonderwash and it worked alright but wasn’t heavy duty enough to wash jeans and you would want to make sure you have a really good wringer because clothes are very very wet 🙂 We also used to only cool one room in our house with a window air at the old house and it worked great!

  14. These are good ideas….and when we add things like this to our lives and practice them regularly, they cease to feel like such a big deal…we just get used to them….like a new GOOD habit. 🙂 We use rice bags in our beds in the winter and keep the heat lower and it works great. Thank you for sharing this.

  15. I have been doing that for some time now I used lanterns I kept the house on low light. I do not use my dryer anymore. I rigged it so I have plenty of room to hang them in the hallway. I had previously bought a gas vent less stove to heat the house and it is working better than I imagined.
    I am now in the process of taking it to another level. I am now using a rocket stove I made from bricks but it is not as efficient as I want so I bought one even better and I bought a Coleman oven to use outdoors using wood and the Rocket stove I purchased. Right now before this new change I am paying a budget of $69.00 per month for gas and $63.00 a month for electricity. I don’t know how much lower I can go it is not far from the minimum bill.
    I pay zero for telephone since I use ooma.com for my phone it is better than any other landline I have ever had and using the minimal account option it is totally free… I have saved thousands in the last few years because of it.

  16. First off, I want to let you know I will be praying for your son. Secondly, I would like to tell how you much I truly love your website!!! I have been reading it religiously! So many wonderful ideas. Any way I can save money, and feed my family healthier meals is a blessing in my eyes. Thank you for taking the time to inspire people like me.

  17. These are some interesting ideas! I love using lanterns, too. I thought I was the only one, most people don’t like the smell of an oil lantern! Thanks for sharing at the Weekend Wind-Down party. Be sure to link back to us so that you can be featured! =)

  18. I think we should all be thinking about this topic whether is has to do with saving money or saving the planet! People are so senselessly wasteful when we stop talking about this kind of thing! I love what you are doing on this blog. I am longing for a simpler life and am slowly convincing my husband of the benefits 😉

    I have three thing ideas to add. First, when you are using lanterns (solar or otherwise), you can use mirrors to really increase your light. Put a light near a mirror and you double it! I figured this out when I used to live in an area that had frequent power outages. I could take a shower in an interior, windowless bathroom by putting two candles on the vanity! The 2nd thing about cutting back on electricity is to make sure to unplug everything that you aren’t using. I realize some won’t want to unplug a device like some TVs that have to be reset every time but there is no reason to have most of little stuff we use plugged in all the time. The last thing is to make sure you have light shades/covers that aren’t darkening or dirty. When we moved all of the ceiling/wall fixtures had shades with some weird tinting that makes them much less bright and clear (it was a brand new house but a poor design choice). As I replaced them over time I realized I could go from three or four bulb fixtures to one or two for the same light! The same goes for dirty fixtures. Clean out those bugs and dust!

  19. Not just socks, but knee-high socks are so much warmer!

    Thanks for joining the WWDParty. Please be sure to link to us in the future so we can pin and feature your posts.

  20. Great tips. I spent a year without a washer/dryer with two in cloth diapers, and I seriously hope I never have to go through that again. :p Haha. Thanks for sharing at Savoring Saturdays. 🙂

  21. I raised 4 kids,(2 in diapers’).and never had a washer or dryer’ It was
    the Laundromat when I had money or the wash tub and washboard. I finally got an automatic washer when the kids were teenagers,then used
    it only a few times and we ended up moving to an Indian Reservation,
    and NO running water. I finally sold the washer. Now in my old age,I’ve bought 3 Amana washers in the last 12 yrs,and the 3rd just
    quit’ Now it’s too spendy to go to the Laundrymat,so guess I’ll have to
    start looking for the washtub again.

  22. Hi Merissa! Great tips- I think a lot of people seem to shrug off the “put on an extra layer” tip in the winter and say that it is just being a little”too tight” with the pennies but it does make a massive difference…if only more people actually realised this, they’d be surprised by the savings!

    1. It really does! The biggest thing for me is always wearing socks and slippers…if the feet are warm that makes a huge difference!

  23. One thing you did not mention was turning off your heat at night. We have a forced air furnace, not zoned. The last person to go to bed at night turns it OFF. The only times we don’t do that is when we expect temps below 15 F that evening, especially if it is windy. We sleep in a cool room upstairs in a heated waterbed or if downstairs, in a bed with an electric blanket. I estimate that we have saved at least 1/3 the cost of oil each year over leaving it on, even with the programmable thermostat. And that was set for 65 days and 60 nights! As long as you don’t have people with medical problems that make it a problem to have a cold house in the morning (the lowest we ever saw it was 53 degrees and that was before we started leaving it on when the temps were mid-teens or lower and windy). It probably took an hour or less for the house to get up to the daytime 65 degree setting.

  24. I don’t think we could go without a washer and dryer but I do unplug them to help lower my utility bills. And I unplug the toaster as well. You have some great tips.

  25. I would like to find a couple of solar lanterns that could be used to really light the dining room and small living room. I’m looking for something that would fit in with a vintage, cottage decor, so nothing too outdoor-campy looking like bright-colored plastic, or garden-y looking, such as frogs or plants. A more traditional lantern style is what I want. I have looked through hundreds of choices on several websites, and while I’ve found a few lanterns I like, the reviews say they wouldn’t provide enough light for indoors. Any suggestions?

      1. Thanks. I figured if anyone knew, it would be you! I know you are very busy, so you can just suggest some websites or brands to look for, if you wish.

  26. Love the ideas! Would love to cur ac, but in florida I can not stand laying in a pool of sweat all night, the house can turn into a furnace… we do try to hold off using the heater, though

  27. I love your ideas, Merissa- thank you for sharing them with us at Treasure Box Tuesday. My clothes dryer went out almost a year ago, and I just haven’t ever gotten it fixed. The longer I went without it, the better I liked it. Now I don’t think I will get it fixed. I have a clothes line in the backyard. I love the smell and feel of clothes dried outside. 🙂 Now, granted, I do not have kids at home, and I live in Texas, where it is frequently warm enough to dry clothes outside. It wouldn’t work for everyone. But I like it. 🙂

  28. for sure..dry clothes outside.i use night lights..only wash clothes when a full load…lots of ways..I guess it goes back to what my mom taught me…thanks

  29. One way to cool a room without AC is to hang a wet sheet over an open window. It works wonders, especially in a breeze.

  30. Probably all your readers have already read the Laura Ingalls Wilder series, but for anyone who hasn’t, read them!! Especially The Long Winter. She is amazingly descriptive about so many things the family did to be self-sufficient.

  31. Good morning! I just ordered two solar lamps and am very excited for them to be delivered. I live in Mississippi and we definitely has a use for them. I prefer candles over oil lamps simply because of the heat they generate while in use. After hurricane Katrina I learned to use mirrors to reflect candle light, wonderful. I have a propane stove, water heater, and dryer so my electric bill is low during the winter but the summer the ac makes it go up. I enjoy your blog, I believe that is one of your gifts.

  32. In the winter months I don’t use my heater at all. I place bubble wrap (bubble side down) on all my windows and put plywood between blinds and window, helps to keep the cold air out of my apartment. Earlier this year when it was in the single digits outside, my apartment was 65 degrees (I can handle that by just bundling up with my sherpa hoodie and blanket).