In the world of personal finance online, I have occasionally saw a few tips for saving money that just seem to be above and beyond the call of duty. I don’t care how much money I save, I will not stop bathing. I will not stop using deodorant.  I will not stop using my air conditioner or heater.  Although I like the idea of it, I probably will never manage to stop using my dryer, either.

So it is with some embarrassment that I tell you that three of the six lights over my bathroom counter are out, and I’m not changing them on purpose, and in large part because it is cheaper not to. Oh, we could certainly afford to change the light bulbs. We even have light bulbs to fit it.  When they first went out, at almost the same time last fall, we just didn’t get around to buying new bulbs for a few days.  After a while, I started thinking that we might as well use the clear glass ones we already have instead of the frosted glass ones.  Sure, it would look weird until the others started going out, but if you’ve ever seen our bathroom, you’d know that beauty is not its strong point.  After that, I started realizing that the light in there was enough even for me, who likes brightly lit rooms, and Evelyn was much happier about them being out.  (We change her diaper on the bathroom counter, directly under those lights.)  So I weighed the situation.  On one hand, broken light bulbs doesn’t look that good, and the brighter the better, as far as I’m concerned.  On the other hand, if we didn’t change them, we didn’t have to actually put forth effort, PLUS it made our baby more content, my husband doesn’t like it that bright either, and well, we are no longer paying for the electricity those bulbs would require.    It’s win-win!

My point here really is that you don’t always have to make huge  sacrifices to save a penny.  This tiny little thing has saved us a little bit of money over the last few months. It’s not enough to fund Evie’s college education, but every time you make a choice like that, you’re closer to your financial goals without even giving up something you care about.  Use a little less laundry detergent or stop buying fabric softener, let your hair air dry instead of blow drying it now and then, make a meal in the crockpot instead of the oven, use one square less toilet paper. You know what they say–a penny saved is a penny earned. (To be honest, a penny saved is better than a penny earned, but that’s another post!)