If you live in NSW, your electricity bill is going to go up by around 20% from the beginning of July. So now, more than ever (even if you don’t live in NSW), you should be thinking of ways to reduce your energy use. Here are a few that I recommend:

• Use energy saving light bulbs
  These are significantly cheaper to run than your old incandescent bulb, and many businesses are giving them away, with some even coming around to install them for you for free too, because they get carbon credits which they can then use to either offset their own emissions or sell to others who need them. The only down side to tis kind of bulb is that they can take a little while to warm up, meaning that they won’t reach their full brightness immediately. But they last much longer than incandescent bulbs too, meaning you’ll save even more in the long run. (When I moved house, I took all my energy bulbs with me… am I the ultimate cheapskate or what!)
• Turn off devices at the power point
  These days, convenience means we never turn things off. Our electronic gadgets and appliances are always in “standby mode” awaiting our beck and call, which means that they are still consuming energy, and by some accounts may be responsible for as much as 10% of your total energy bill. My parents do this as a habit. Me, I’m too lazy (plus my PC is busy helping to save the world, electricity bills be damned :-)

Ultimately, the best way to reduce the cost of electricity is to use less of it. Turn off lights when you’re not in the room, and think twice about buying that big plasma TV – yes, I still have my chunky old 68cm Sony.

Lastly, you could also consider using natural gas if it’s available in your home, but that’s another post for another day. Make sure you don’t miss it by subscribing to THRIFTerrific!

Have you found yourself eating out less and less as the recession starts to bite? There’s one area which isn’t suffering in this current economic climate: groceries. Supermarkets (and book sellers) are doing a roaring trade as a result of more people cooking and eating more meals at home, so there are definitely bargains to be had!

Here are a couple of shopping tips to help you fill your fridge without emptying your wallet:

• Pick the right time to shop
  If you go to the supermarket in the late evenings just before the shops close, especially before weekends and public holidays, you’ll be able to pick up bargains on items that are due to expire or have entered a discount cycle designed to clear out stock. Back when I first moved to Sydney I used to live directly upstairs from a Woolworths, and by cruising for mark downs, I saved hundreds of dollars and ate like a king (mmm… nothing beats the taste of fresh roast chicken on the cheap).
• Spend less by buying more
  Look out for grower’s markets in your area and buy fruits and vegies by the box. It’s always better than the tasteless supermarket stuff, and is probably healthier too. A word of advice though: try and get a few friends together to share with (about 3 couples is ideal). One time, my Russian housemate Vladimir and I shared a box of tomatoes – bad idea! We ended up eating tomatoes for breakfast (tomato and cheese toast), lunch (sliced tomatoes in sandwiches) and dinner (in curry)!

What are your tricks for picking up supermarket bargains? Share them in the comments, below!

A handy tip for thrifty bookworms who like to buy books at cheaper prices than in bookstores: use Booko. This fantastic Web site will do all the hard work for you of checking prices on all of the major retailers’ Websites, adding shipping costs, and even converting foreign currencies into Aussie Dollars!

As an example, one of the most useful and prized books in my library is The Cook’s Companion, by Stephanie Alexander. This retails for around $100 in most bookstores and the cheapest I’ve ever seen is $89.95 at KMart or Big W, but Booko shows that at today’s exchange rate, you can get it from The Book Depository for around AU$67 (including free shipping to Australia)!

Now’s the perfect time to buy, with the AUD on the rise again after a pretty rough patch thanks to the Global Financial Crisis. Remember the time when it almost achieved parity with the US dollar? Oh. My. God. I went on the biggest shopping spree back then…

Another tip guaranteed to save you a few bucks on books: sign up for Borders’ Shortlist newsletter. Discount vouchers accompany each issue, and occasionally the offer will be better than usual, like 40% off books, or 30% off DVDs. Even with their “premium pricing” this often results in some pretty good deals. Or you could just follow me on Twitter and I’ll keep you posted whenever one of these crops up.

Now you have no excuse not to expand your minds and your libraries!

With the cost of petrol (or gas, for our friends across the Pacific) ever rising, driving is becoming an increasingly expensive exercise. But of course there’s no avoiding it, is there? Getting to and from work, taking the kids to soccer practice, going shopping for groceries – we are all slaves to the tyranny of distance. And thanks to our “wonderful” government, public transport just doesn’t cut it.

With that in mind, here are 3 very simple things you can do to squeeze the most out of every tank:

• Keep your tyres inflated – next time you fill up, stop over by that “air and water” sign, and check your tyre pressure. Driving with flat tyres not only makes your tyres wear out faster, but also decreases fuel economy because of rolling resistance.
• Get rid of excess weight – are you around the equivalent of an extra passenger each time you drive? Think about all the excess weight that you are carrying: in your glove box, boot, and other storage compartments. It all adds up – moving all of that weight around takes energy!
• Avoid idling – when your car is not moving and the engine’s on, it’s still burning petrol. If you need to stop for any length of time, consider turning the engine off.

If you have tips of your own on ways to save fuel, share them in the comments section below!

Welcome to THRIFTerrific, where the little things matter. In this blog, I hope to share with you a number of tips and tricks to help improve your life. Like it says in the blurb at the top of the page, we let so much opportunity pass us by because it’s too small or insignificant. But these little things can add up over time, and accumulate into very big things – just think about that red paperclip guy.

The tips that I’m going to share here aren’t going to be expensive or hard to do. They’ll be the little tweaks, quirks and oddities in life that I’ve discovered, which you can exploit to eke that little bit extra out of the things that you would normally do anyway.

And of course, none of this would work without you. My writing for THRIFTerrific is only one very small part of the equation, so make this blog your own: write comments, send me your tips and tricks, and share this blog with your friends!