Note: This is a 2-part article on saving on utility bills and economizing; the second part will run on 11.25.09

One thing I notice as both a working-parent and as someone who tries to be responsible with her budgeted cash is that so-called economic "experts" cannot seem to agree about when our national or local economy will turn around. One of the more depressing statistics I heard was that our beautiful state of Michigan might not see real turn-around until 2014. I sincerely hope that's not accurate in terms of forecasting, but regardless, I find myself looking for different ways to save money, just in case it is.

Here in the greater Ann Arbor area, we've not been quite as hard-hit with bad economic news as Wayne, Oakland, or Macomb counties have been. But I've picked up tidbits here and there lately that indicate we're beginning to feel the pressure more than we have been, and more people I talk to have an interest in not spending quite as much money as they have in the past.

One of my hobbies, so to speak, is being... um... thrifty. Or frugal. Or cheap. Whatever the word, it means that I try to spend as little as possible for the things we need - and I still try to maintain some balance. I enjoy the Art of the Deal when shopping and look for ways to stack coupons (using a manufacturer's coupon and a store coupon on the same item), or to coupon-match (buying something that's on sale and using a coupon at the same time).

But how do you save money that doesn't relate to buying things? We do specific things in the fall and winter that prepare us for the upcoming season of cold weather and that cut our bills down to size. Not everything is doable by everyone, but if you set your mind to it, you'll enjoy savings on your utility bills and a knowledge that the money saved will benefit your family in times to come. I've compiled a list of things we do and some ideas that I don't use but that might work for your situation.

Consider purchasing a programmable thermostat. There are models that run upwards of $100 or more, but there are just as efficient models for less than $35. I found ours for about $24 at a Big Box Store when we bought our home, and it works just as well as the $60 model we installed in our previous home. DTE Energy says that with a programmable thermostat, you can save ten percent a year on your heating bill. The trick is this, however: you must turn your thermostat back during the times you are not at home. If you buy a programmable thermostat and leave it at 78F, you'll not save any money over what you would with a traditional thermostat that doesn't get manually-adjusted.

But what do you do if you're home during the day? We started out with lowering the temperature by just a few degrees during the day. When we saw the savings roll in on our monthly heating bill, we couraged-up and turned it down a few more degrees. "But don't you freeze?" is a common question I hear. No, we don't. We dress for the season, which means our summer clothes (short sleeved shirts, shorts, etc.) get put away and we pull out our winter-gear: sweaters, wool socks, and long pants. When we dress for the expected temperature, we find it much easier to adjust inside the house, which is still infinitely warmer than the ambient temperature outside.

We also turn down the thermostat at night. We have warm, thick blankets on our beds, and my husband and I have a warming-mattress pad on our bed. We turn this on high to warm up the bed about an hour before we climb in and turn it down to low before we fall asleep. Scientists know that our body temperatures drop while we sleep, and lowering the temperature of the house while keeping warm blankets on the bed is a way to see appreciable savings in utility bills. If you have very young children, you'll have to adjust your temperature accordingly, as most doctors don't recommend blankets in a crib before the age of 2. This also works for us with our programmable thermostat: our heat kicks on about 5 minutes before we get out of bed in the morning, so it's warm in the bathroom when we shower and are getting ready for the day and the rest of the house is warming up as well.

Another means of heating our home comes through a renewable resource: wood. We have a wood-burning fireplace (we converted it from a gas-fireplace a few years ago) and we stock up on wood. The going price for firewood in Washtenaw county is about $75 per face cord, but I found that when I contacted a company that had done some landscaping for us and ordered multiple face-cords, the owner lopped off the delivery charge and gave us a discount on the volume. That was last year, and we're still working through that wood-delivery. Our fireplace has a device we installed that allows the heat to go out to the room, not up the fireplace chimney. This is the main complaint about energy-efficiency for fireplaces: if you don't use something that has the ability to shoot the hot air in the room, you'll feel very little benefit of the wood-fire. When we light a fire and get it going, our thermostat reads a solid 10 degrees above what we've set it at, which is a decent savings when it comes time to pay the gas bill. We close the fireplace-doors to insure that heat from the furnace isn't going up the chimney when we don't have a fire going.

Check back next week for the second installment on saving money on utility bills.

Sue is a full-time working mom, a homeschooler, a freelance-photographer and writer, and is trying to find balance in her life. She writes as often as she can at A Mother's Heart and can be contacted through email