Saving money in the household: Lowering costs for singles and families
Do you live in a household with children? Then you certainly know that it is not always cheap to keep children busy and happy. But not everyone lives in a family or in a household with children. There are also enough younger and older people who live alone or simply without children. For this reason, we have compiled all the helpful tips for you on how you can save money in a household with children, but also in general.
How you can save money as a family
Are you aware that you can save money as a family? And we’re not talking about the child benefit you’re entitled to if you do. No, we are talking here about discounts, subsidies or tips and tricks on how to save money on toys or leisure activities. We have collected and summarised all these suggestions for you in the following.
Use state subsidies for families
if necessary
In addition to child benefit, low-income families also receive state subsidies. The state provides grants especially for the education and upbringing of children. For more information, it is best to check with your municipality and see if you are entitled to state subsidies.
Which grants you can use:
- Maternity pay
- Child benefit
- Child allowances
- Co-insurance (premium-free)
- Parental benefit
- Deductible amount for single parents
- Riester pension
- Care costs
- Support
- Change tax class
- Building allowance
Restrict the use of technical equipment by your children
Parents like to buy their children everything they want. However, one should also consider whether the children really have a great benefit from these products. Especially the newest technical devices would like to have many children starting from a certain age, nevertheless one should keep in mind that the use of the technical products seems appropriate only starting from a certain age. Because anyone who is honest will notice that children at such a young age do not yet need the latest game console, the latest tablet or the latest smartphone.
Monitor family spending
It is always important to have an overview of your expenses, but this is somewhat more difficult when there are several members living in the same household. For this reason one should look at the expenditures of the individual family members in order to reduce these if necessary together. A budget book, for example, is very helpful here.
Family discounts – How you can save money with children on leisure activities
Not only certain groups of people can benefit from selected offers, but also families. So anyone travelling with their family can save money at cultural events or leisure activities such as leisure parks or swimming pools. You can also save money in the cinema if the children are under 12 years old.
Of course, it is important that children have toys. Nevertheless it is at least as important to spend time together as a family. Build sand castles, go for a walk or play a community game together at home. This not only promotes the social behaviour of your child, but also creates unforgettable memories with each other.
How you as a family can pass the time:
- Play community games
- Go for a walk
- Build things together
- Do homework together with your children
To make things together – from toys to outdoor benches
It doesn’t always have to be the most expensive or newest toy. A great alternative is to make toys together for your children. There is no limit to your imagination! Not only the toys for the children can be made by yourself, also a small bench or a bed can be easily made by yourself. You just need a few Euro pallets and you are ready to go. Let your imagination run wild!
Create a cooking plan
Create a cooking plan and plan your meals accordingly. This allows you to see what food you still have at home and what you still need, similar to a shopping list. So you can not only save a lot of money, but also time. This is because if you have already planned what will be cooked in one day, you don’t have to think about what you could cook and then maybe find that you don’t have all the ingredients at home.
- Plan your meals ahead of time
- You see what food you still have at home
- You don’t have to worry about what you can cook as you have already planned it through the cooking plan
How to save properly in the household
There are many ways to save money in the household. One does not always have to resort to drastic measures but can save a lot of money by small changes in his everyday life. In the following we have collected a few tips and tricks for you on how you can save a lot of money in the household.
Turn your water off
If you brush your teeth or wash your hands, you should definitely turn off the water. This means that when you soap your hands, you turn off the water or brush your teeth. If the water does not run all the time during these times, you can reduce your water consumption costs in the long run.
How to wash your laundry in an environmentally friendly way
Saving money on laundry can make it easy and environmentally friendly. For example, you should not use the short washing program of your washing machine. The reason for this is that with these programs, a lot of energy has to be generated very quickly, which ultimately significantly increases your costs.
Washing at low temperatures
Another tip is that you should wash your laundry at a lower temperature. Here it is recommended to wash the laundry at about 30 to 40 degrees Celsius. This is not only because it protects the fabric of your clothes, but also because you consume 33% less energy. The only garments that you should not wash at low temperatures for hygienic reasons are pieces such as socks, underwear, bed linen or pieces in which you have sweated a lot.
- Don’t use a quick wash program
- Short wash programs are more expensive, because a lot of energy has to be applied in a short time
- Wash your laundry by hand now and then
- Wash your laundry at low temperatures
- Weather items such as socks, underwear, bed linen or where you have sweated a lot should not be washed at low temperatures
Showers instead of bathing – save water in the bath
If you want to take a nice bath from time to time, you are welcome to do so. However, it is not advisable to bathe daily or almost daily. This has the simple reason that bathing consumes almost 180 litres of water, much more than showering. So of course you shouldn’t do without bathing in the bathtub, but you should just limit it a little more to save more money on water consumption.
- Up to 180 litres are consumed during bathing
- You can take a shower for 10 minutes without turning off the water
- Turn off the water while showering while soaping and save even more money
Shock ventilation in winter – reduce heating costs without modernization
Not only in winter, but also at any other time of the year, you should use shock ventilation instead of permanent ventilation. By opening all windows for a few minutes, the air humidity is exhausted and you reduce your energy requirements. So open the windows completely several times a day so that the air in the rooms is properly exchanged and you do not lose any heat.
Rinse dishwasher vs. by hand – Consume less power in an environmentally friendly way
An old myth is that the dishwasher costs more than washing dishes by hand. But that’s only partly true. If you turn on the dishwasher several times for smaller things, you will actually consume more water than you would when washing up. However, if you only turn on the dishwasher when it is really full, you can reduce your water consumption and save a lot of money.
Use drinking bottles instead of plastic bottles – recycling and reuse
Of course, most plastic bottles have a deposit on them, so they can be recycled. However, in the long run, plastic bottles are not only more polluting for the environment, but also more expensive than drinking bottles made of glass or other materials. With drinking bottles there are no limits! Whether large, small, colourful or monochrome – there are endless variations of drinking bottles at affordable prices.
- Recycling as an alternative to disposable containers
- Almost 3 billion disposable containers are consumed each year (source: German Environmental Aid)
- With drinking bottles there are no limits for creativity
Irrigate the garden – When is the right time?
It’s the same with meals with diets – if you want to lose weight properly you should eat at certain times and not eat to stimulate your metabolism. It is similar with the irrigation of your own garden. If you water your garden in the morning or evening, you can help the earth to absorb the water better. This not only allows you to reduce your water consumption considerably, but also helps the environment.
- The earth absorbs water better at certain times
- The best times are morning and evening
- You thereby lower your water consumption
- They no longer water at unnecessary times, when the earth cannot absorb the water so well anyway
Rainwater collection – Natural irrigation to save money
Do you know how you can save even more money when watering your garden? By collecting rainwater! This is very easy with rainwater bins or tanks. These can be above ground or underground and collect all the water. This means you not only need to use less tap water for irrigation, but you also need to use the most natural resource available to irrigate your garden.
Separating the garbage – So you protect the environment and your purse
There is always talk of separating the garbage, but many people think this is only for the sake of the environment. This is partly true, but there are other reasons for waste separation. These reasons include, for example, the cost factor of a residual waste bin. Did you know that a residual waste bin costs up to 800 euros a year? Now imagine you wouldn’t separate garbage. This would mean that you would have much more waste in the residual waste bin, so that you would not be able to get there with one and would then have to pay more money.
Advantages of waste separation
- Remaining waste bins cost up to 800 Euro per year
- If garbage is not separated one needs more remainder garbage tons, thereby the annual costs for the garbage ton increase
- The yellow, blue and organic bins are free
- They do something good to the environment with it
If you have the possibility to burn paper or to put on a compost it is all the better. You could reuse the compost for your garden, which would not only have saved you on waste separation, but would also have done something good for your garden.
Heat water in kettle
Are you aware that heating water with a kettle can save you more money? This is because heating water on a hotplate or hob consumes more energy than a kettle. Of course one often thinks that the kettle has to produce a lot of energy in a short time, which makes it more expensive, but this is not the case. If lime has formed, heat dissipation is prevented, which is why you should decalcify your kettle regularly.
The water boiler at a glance
- More comfortable than a hotplate
- The heating lasts about 2 to 5 minutes, depending on the quantity
- Water heated by the kettle usually costs only 2 to 4 Cent
- It should have an automatic shutdown to keep power consumption as low as possible
- Always only heat as much water as is really needed
- Thanks to regular decalcification, the heat dissipation can be restored correctly
- Decalcification by household remedies such as: Citric acid or vinegar
- Thanks to good insulation, 80 percent of the energy flows into the water and only the remaining percent into the environment
- Watch out for the Blue Angel, Germany’s eco-label
Nevertheless, you should still question the use of the kettle: Do you really need boiling water or is it enough just when it is hot? For this purpose, for example, a temperature controller in the kettle makes sense. In addition, you should only heat up to 1.5 liters in the kettle if you want to use it for cooking. Otherwise the energy consumption rises again and you have not saved in the end.
Lucrative Cooking and Baking
Did you know that you can save a great deal of energy and therefore also money when cooking? There are a few simple tips on how to minimise your energy consumption when baking and cooking.
Save money on baking
- Don’t preheat the oven
- If you have previously used the oven, use the residual heat after switching off for a new use
Save money on cooking
- Always use a lid for cooking so that less water vapour and heat escape and less energy is needed to generate heat
- Use the reheating of the hotplate just like baking to save money efficiently
- Let warm foods cool down completely before putting them in the refrigerator
- Cook more to consume less energy while cooking and eat the leftovers in the next 1 to 2 days