Here’s something you can do to save money in your house while also teaching your kids a valuable lesson about conserving, saving, and taking action.

For a while now I have been thinking about the energy that all of my various electronic appliances use when they are plugged in. These appliances are called Vampire Appliances because, even when you are not using them, they draw energy.

If you weren’t yet aware of this, it’s time to get aware. The list of devices that uses energy when “off” is huge. TVs, stereo equipment, computers, DVD players, video game units, printers, fax machines, PVRs and set top boxes, garage door openers, and much more.

Here is a great FAQ and a table of power consumption by device type.

The simple math you need to know: For every 1 Watt of “standby power” that a device draws, it will cost you about $1 per year. This stuff ads up fast! I looked at the list and realized that my various gadgets are probably drawing several HUNDRED Watts of power unnecessarily, most of the time. That’s a lot of wasted money.

So here’s what I think is a good actionable “job” you can give your kids. Have them go around the house and identify everything that is plugged in. Everything. Mark it all down.

Then make a list and figure out what needs to be plugged in and what really doesn’t need to be plugged in. Simply unplug things that aren’t used often enough to justify leaving them plugged in.

Then make a list of devices that DO need to be plugged in but probably could be unplugged at night. For those appliances, consider buying a simple mechanical timer like the one in the picture here. These tiny timers cost about $6-8 at my local hardware store and they can be set so they go on and off at whatever time you like. My advice is to use these on the appliances in your house that you use every day, but they consume lots of standby power while they are unused at night. Just set the timer to go on and off at whatever time you like.

Consider this simple example: I have a sub-woofer on my basement home theatre. The table I referenced above tells me that this thing costs me $10 per year to operate. Plugged into the same outlet is my surround sound receiver. I usually leave it ON, and I hadn’t really thought it was costing me much because, although it’s on, it isn’t actually amplifying any sounds. Well, that looks like it’s costing me $40 per year! I could easily put these on a $6-8 timer that would turn the devices on only for the 3 hours (max) of the day that they get used. The timer pays for itself in a few months, and from that point onward it’s money in the bank.

Another example where I could use one of these timers is my Wi-Fi router and cable modem. Surely they consume quite a bit of energy and are ALWAYS left on. But do I really need to have my Internet connection on (and broadcast throughout my house) in the middle of the night? Likely not.

Maybe I’ll just wrap up with another short story that taught me a HUGE lesson. I had 2 leaky toilets last year. Not big leaks, but the “flapper valve” at the bottom of the toilet tank was letting water drop through (from the tank to the bowl), such that the tanks would start to refill themselves every few minutes. I didn’t think much of these leaks because I was busy with other stuff and I never stopped to do the math on how much water it was wasting.

… That was until we got a surprise water bill. Seriously we got a bill that was about $400 higher than normal. So I started doing the math. I looked at the toilet to see how quickly it was leaking water. Then I calculated how much water per day it equated to. Since I had two toilets in this situation I multiplied by 2. It was horrifying. I was wasting several bathtubs worth of water every day. Ouch! Fixing the problem cost me $12 at the hardware store. New rubber flapper valves. That’s it.

So go around your house and see what you can identify in terms of potential energy and utility cost savings. I think you’ll be surprised with what you find.

Enjoy your children AND your wallet
Chris Thompson

Lately I’ve been collecting as many successful healthy snack, meal and dessert recipes as I can. I’m testing them, making notes, and preparing to launch a free recipe book for parents.

Today I made two awesome dishes. The first was Coconut Chocolate Macaroons. The only ingredients I used were milk, butter, honey, cocoa powder, coconut flakes and oatmeal. The original recipe I followed called for WAY more sugar than was necessary, so I substituted less natural (unpasteurized) honey. They taste much better this way. They literally took 15 minutes to make including cleanup.

The second dish was Chocolate Beet Brownies. These took me more time to make because the organic beets had to be peeled, sliced, and then simmered for 20 minutes before creating beet paste. From that point, the whole recipe took me about additional 20 minutes and tastes wonderful. In addition to beets, the recipe uses eggs, extra virgin olive oil, whole wheat flower, honey, stevia (natural sweetener) and a few other basics in your kitchen. Super healthy compared to most other junk food desserts.

I look forward to sharing more about what I’m putting together, but I hope this short post reminds you that there ARE ways to eat healthy without taking a lot of time, and without sacrificing flavor.

To your health, and the health of your family!
Chris Thompson

I think that a lot of parents realize that too much juice is a bad thing. So if you catch yourself saying wondering how to reduce the amount of juice your toddler drinks, I’ve got an idea that works really well in my household, and I’m happy to share it with you.

Why Should I be Worried That My Toddler Drinks Too Much Juice?

If you’re not already convinced that drinking too much juice is a bad thing, you need to stop and simply think about how much fruit is required in order to make a glass of juice. It actually takes about 4 oranges to get this amount of juice. Fruit is great, but cramming such a hefty amount of it into your stomach all at once is not such a good idea.

Not only is your child consuming far too much fruit at one time, but when you drink juice (rather than eat fruit), the sugar passes to the intestines and is absorbed into the bloodstream much faster than if you just sat down and ate some fruit.

The sugar in fruit juice is called fructose, and just because it comes from a fruit doesn’t make it “healthy”. Sugar causes the body to release a massive surge of insulin, and the insulin works to remove sugar from the bloodstream. The sugar goes away, the insulin lingers, and you’re left with a not-so good feeling in your body. Ever wonder if this contributes to toddler behavior problems?

Simply put, I sincerely believe that fruit juice consumption should be limited to a half glass per day in kids. If they want more, give them actual fruit. Cut up apples, pears, or other fruit and have them snack on that along with fresh vegetables such as celery, carrots, etc.

A Great Fruit Juice Replacement

It’s called … WATER. Yes I’m serious, but I think there’s a great way to “spruce it up” so that it is more interesting for your child. You can show them this “treat” and make it exciting for them so they ask for it.

Here’s what you do. Take about a teaspoonful of lemon juice from concentrate. That’s about a cap full if you buy it by the bottle. Mix the lemon juice with a splash of fruit juice such as OJ or Apple Juice. I mean just a splash for flavor. Then, add a couple of ice cubes and top up the cup with fresh cold water.

Regular water is great – and you should encourage your kids to drink plenty of it. But for something special, this easy recipe adds some natural flavor to the water while severely limiting the amount of sugar in the drink.

If you’ve got kids in your house then you probably feel like you are always cleaning. I know that my wife and I feel this way!

This morning I was cleaning the kitchen. I’ve lately become more critical of all the junk that people buy, which creates waste. With cleaning supplies, I really prefer to keep it simple and not buy products that are built for one purpose. I prefer vinegar to clean surfaces, floors, etc. I like to use baking soda to scrub sinks, and stuff like that.

But we still have disposable stuff like those oh-so-popular disinfectant wipes. With so many people worried about Swine Flu and other germs, I bet we’re in good company. My wife loves to buy these things to clean counter tops, etc. Then they get thrown away. I’ve included a picture here of the brand we buy from Costco.

After we finish using the wipe to disinfect a surface, I have started to re-use them for the nasty, dirty jobs around the house..

Today, for example, I grabbed the “used” wipe after my wife was finished cleaning the counter. It was still in perfect shape so I rinsed it and got to work.

Here’s what I cleaned using ONE single wipe (and plenty of rinsing). And here’s a picture of the wipe AFTER having done all that work. Notice it held up to a lot of punishment!

1. I scrubbed two kitchen sinks with baking soda
2. I cleaned the grime off our gas range
3. I cleaned off all the nasty dust and grime from the kick board under the cabinets
4. I removed the plastic grate from the bottom of the fridge and washed it off, including washing

If you buy disinfectant wipes, please don’t throw them away after a 5-second counter wipe-down. Rinse it off and find some other nasty cleaning job you can use it for THEN throw it away. You’d never want to use a dish cloth to clean dust and grime, and it is a hassle to keep a separate wash cloth just for the nasty stuff … so using disinfectant wipes is the perfect alternative.