Save Water – Shower With A Bucket!

Shortly after moving into our new-to-us 1954 single family Cape we of course started discovering issues. One was that the water pipes inside the house were all only half-inch diameter – smaller than more modern houses.The result is that in order to get sufficiently warm water for my 6am 2nd floor shower I must run the shower for up to a minute or more before I dare to step in.

One feature I like is the older 3.5 gallon size toilet – even though modern low-flow toilets use only 1.5 gallons per flush I found myself needing to snake through clogs in the ones we installed in our old house at least once a month.

But after a full 3-month water billing cycle showed we were using the maximum amount in the lowest price tier (up to 15 CCF per cycle – “CCF” = Cento Cubic Feet = 748 gallons per CCF) I decided to work on offsetting the inefficient toilet and shower routines.

By implementing a few small changes to my bathroom routine, in the first week I cut my net water use in half, saving nearly 100 gallons! Here’s how:

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Quick Tip: Where to Get AAAA Batteries

That’s not a typo – i do mean quadruple A! If you are thinking of getting an electronic device that uses them (e.g., an active capacitive iPad stylus) but are thinking “where do I find AAAA batteries?” – fear not! You probably already own some.

How so? If you have a 9-volt battery then you have six AAAA batteries… because that is what’s inside:

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Check What Amazon Is Selling You

[I previously posted this information on my Facebook Page – it was quite popular so adding it to my blog during holiday shopping season seems relevant.]

I keep some items in my Amazon account’s “saved for later” queue when I don’t need them immediately but know I will want later. This was the case for the best-priced listing of 24-count box of Duracell Procell AA batteries.

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When I next decided I needed more batteries I logged into my Amazon account, went to the “saved for later” area, and in the batteries listing clicked “move to cart.” Fortunately before I clicked “buy” I looked at the item in the cart and realized it was NOT the box from a non-Amazon vendor for $11.44+free shipping, but instead was an Amazon Prime vendor for $1 more!

I do have Amazon Prime, but the Prime-eligible items are not always the best deal even with its free 2-day shipping. And as far as I know there is no editable setting which instructs Amazon to alter non-Prime choices to Prime. In fact, when looking at an item’s description they will sometimes tell me there is a non-Prime seller with a better price or quicker delivery.

I deleted the item from my cart and tried the move a couple more times – the same thing happened: the item as it appeared in “saved for later” was not what was in my cart once I clicked “move to cart.

The solution I found was to leave the unwanted, more expensive choice in my cart – THEN I was able to go to the less expensive item’s listing, add it to my cart, and after that delete the unwanted one from the cart and purchase the wanted version.

So always double-check that the item in your cart is from the seller with the price that you chose!

Semi-Boston-centric Money-Saving Tips

Tip #1: More Ice Cream For Less $

I get ice cream several times a month at local chain JP Licks. This week I accidentally discovered how to get a lot more ice cream for less: order a Chipwich, which is a serving of ice cream between two chocolate chip (or other type) cookies.

While exact quantity probably depends on the server, I discovered:

– The single Chipwich is prepared when you order, so you may request any ice cream flavor (not just vanilla).

– The amount of ice cream is at least equal to their “small scoop” which in a cup or cone costs $3.99, and is much more than their “kiddie scoop” costing $3.09

– A Chipwich = a “small scoop” + 2 three-inch-diameter cookies, all for $3.29!

Bonus JP Licks tip: Join their Cow Card loyalty program and get points for every purchase (either by swiping the keytag or using the iPhone or Android app code). 50 points gets you a $5 credit for free food!

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