3 Ways to Save Time and Money This Spring
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This post is sponsored by Energy Ogre. All thoughts and views are my own.
Spring Cleaning is one of those essential rhythms that helps us get a fresh start and gets clutter out of our homes. But it is also important to spring clean your schedule and get some unnecessary responsibilities off your plate.
When most of us think of spring cleaning, we think of getting rid of old clothes (that will likely sit in the back of your car for months before you actually donate) or organizing the pantry for better function. And while those are great things – the impact only lasts so long. The closet will fill up again and the pantry will become disorganized after the first trip to costco.
So how can you get the most impact out of your spring cleaning season?
Focus on the things that are going to free up your time, energy and money. Having more of those three things doesn’t necessarily bring you happiness, but it does bring you options. When you have more margin in your schedule and in your finances, you are able to do more of the things that are truly life-giving. You get to be more proactive instead of reactive.
And if you are wondering where to start, keep reading for three EASY areas to free up your time and money this spring!
Review your ongoing commitments
Start by doing a good evaluation of where you are spending most of your time, outside of work and necessary family commitments.
Do you need to be on a school committee for each kid?
Is there something you said yes to last year but you don’t really feel like you are the best fit for the role now?
Take a hard look at what you have committed your time to and if you feel like those roles are the best use of your time and gifts at this point. If you no longer think it is a fit, plan to give them a heads up that you will be rolling off soon. With the school year ending soon, many organizations are going to be asking for commitments for the next school year, and it will be easier for everyone if you can give as much advance notice as possible.
Donate Unused Items
It actually does take up extra energy every time you have to walk around a box of old baby toys in the garage or search through mounds of Tupperware that never seem to have the matching lid in sight.
These may be easy items to decide to remove from your home and minimize some of the mental and physical clutter that they bring.
Done having kids? Go ahead and donate those baby items in your garage to siblings who are having your nieces and nephews or to a local women’s shelter.
Another easy place to reduce clutter is in the kitchen. Go through your cabinets and find one appliance or tool that you can donate. There is definitely something that you haven’t used in 6 months (or a year) that you can part with. And it is probably that KitchenAid Mixer that you got as a wedding present that hasn’t been used since before your first anniversary.
Delegate Responsibilities
One of my absolute favorite things to do is find responsibilities to delegate elsewhere. Bonus if it not only saves me time but money as well.
About a year ago, my family moved and had to go through the hassle of choosing new providers for all of our utilities. Honestly, it gives me hives just thinking about making all of those decisions, especially since I am not at all passionate about home utilities.
This was a great opportunity for us to delegate the responsibility of choosing an energy company to Energy Ogre. They actually are passionate about finding the best energy providers in your area and do a dang good job and searching out the best deals.
For $120 a year, Energy Ogre does all the hunting and deal digging to get you the best price on your energy rates. They manage your contract, your rates and even opt you out of a contract if they find a better deal that will save you more money overall. As much as I know it would have benefited us, my husband and I would have NEVER actually kept an eye out for a better deal after making our first choice. And we had definitely been overpaying for energy before making the switch to Energy Ogre.
Our energy bills went from $500+ to under $200 each month on average. This makes a huge difference in both the time and money we are saving by not having to find all those deals ourselves!
Best of all it takes only a minute to see how much you could save by using Energy Ogre with their Savings Calculator.
With the money we saved, we are able to take a kid-free weekend away later this year. Use the Savings Calculator and start dreaming about what you could do with the savings from a lower energy bill!
Spring Cleaning can be about way more than a little organization – it can be a great time to set up savings that will pay off big time by the end of the year.
The spring season is actually one of the best times to get max savings on your energy bill so don’t miss out on taking just one minute of your time to use the Savings Calculator and see how much you could be saving each month!
If you do sign up for Energy Ogre, use code MATTIE to save on your annual payment!
