Here are even more ways to save money in your home. They might even be a break on the environment too!
Buy a portable water bottle. There's no need to buy packs of water bottles or soda cans in bulk. To eliminate plastic and aluminum waste, buy a durable bottle (maybe one for hot drinks, one for cold) and fill up before you go out to the office, for a jog—anywhere! You won't have empty containers lying around anymore, and they won't end up in landfills either.
Tip: If you're a bottled water user because you can't drink tap, consider a water purifier that can fill up your bottle without the extra cost (or tap water taste).
Get in the habit of turning off the lights. Okay, it sounds too silly to work, but simply forcing the habit can cause big changes for years to come. If you just make yourself turn off all the lights in a room before leaving it, you soon won't be able to stop yourself from flicking the switch as you walk out the door. Every room, every time. I once got so used to shutting down the light in my pantry, that I couldn't help but pat the switch to check that it was off every time I walked by. My family laughs at me, but it gets the job done. Pretty soon you'll notice a dip in your electric bill. If no one's in the room, the lights better be off!
Set limits about eating out. It can be just too easy to run by a fast food place on the way home from work, or to opt for service at a sit-down restaurant when making dinner feels like a chore. These solutions are fine sometimes, but after a while, eating out can be costly. If you're the type to be tempted, set a weekly limit on how many times you can skip out on home-cooking. If you tell yourself you can only eat out once or twice a week, you'll use more of the food in your kitchen before it goes bad. It'll be healthier and less costly, too.
Label your foods, every time. I'm definitely one of those people who's skeptical about the expiration date on groceries. I like to know for sure that my food is fresh, so in addition to eating the freshest products in the beginning of the week, I also label foods that have been prepared or re-packaged. That is, every time I save leftovers from my homemade dinners, I'll keep them in a Tupperware that has a little note written about when the food was prepared. Or, if I open a block of cheese, for instance, and I want to repackage it into my own plastic bag after use, I make sure to copy the expiration date over to the new bag. Sometimes I even cut out the nutrition facts label and tape it to the new container. Also, remember that when preparing dips or sauces, the dip itself may outlast its ingredients. In this case, I like to make a note like, “prepared with milk that expires on 8/25”.