Welcome! This is our 100 ways in 100 days series on saving money by reducing your expenses. If you are new here, consider subscribing to our RSS feed to get post as soon as they are available. Not sure about RSS feeds? For a description, and a brief tutorial, check our RSS Page.

This action will only apply to those of you who do your laundry in-house. If you use coin operated laundry, or a laundry service (why are you doing this if you are trying to save money?), this will only help if you someday begin to do your laundry at home. If you can not use this tip, read no more; just be sure to check back tomorrow!

Now, for those of us who can benefit from this. Your clothes dryer is one of the most energy eating appliances in your dwelling. Whether it be gas, or electric, drying your clothes naturally will make a tremendous difference in your utility bill. Remember how we told you that we had gradually brought our electric bill down by $45 over a five month period? Well, the month that we started doing this caused an $18 drop. Nearly half. Now I will grant you that our dryer is not the newest, most energy efficient model, but I know that you will see a noticeable difference if you try this as well.

One thing that we found though (just a personal issue) is that we could not tolerate the way the clothes felt so stiff after being air dried. We tried fabric softener in the rinse cycle, but nothing seemed to help. We eventually compromised and let our clothes air dry most of the way, then we placed them in the dryer with a dryer sheet for about ten minutes just to soften them a little. Drying for ten minutes is still a lot cheaper than drying for an hour a load. Let us know how it affects your bill once you start implementing some of these actions.

Action point: For one month hang clothes either on a line outside (if available), or on door jambs, shower curtains, etc. inside the house and see the difference in your utility bills. Another aspect to consider is that during the winter time, due to the drying of your inside air by heat, this will add some much needed humidity to your dwelling. In the summer time, this same humidity is removed by your air conditioner! Have a great day!

For an interesting book on creating you own electricity, and even selling some back to the electric company Click Here!