The latest at

You can save up to 8 gallons of water per day by shutting the water off while you are brushing your teeth in the morning and at night.

Wow!  Eight gallons per day times four people in my household.  That is nearly 1000 gallons per month.  That’s $7.50 off my city bill! Definitely worth.  Any think of the additional savings if you shut the shower off while lathering up or shaving!

And just think, with all these money saving tips, you’ll have more to spend at your favorite resale shop in Scranton, KS–Rumors HAS IT! It’s a double savings because of all the great deals you’ll find at Rumors HAS IT!  “Save the Planet One Outfit at a Time” by shopping and consigning resale at Rumors HAS IT!

Cya in store soon!

Rhonda

• Use cold water to operate your garbage disposal. Cold water use saves energy and is the recommendation of most disposal manufacturers.
• When washing dishes by hand, use a sink stopper or dishpan so water - hot or cold - doesn’t rush down the drain. Remember, too, that hot water running needlessly not only wastes water, but it wastes energy as well.
• Set your water heater to 120 degrees F, which will produce plenty of hot water and still save energy.
• Wrap your water heater with a water heater blanket, especially if it’s in an unheated area of your home. The blanket could save you up to 10 percent on water heating costs. (Some newer models are so well insulated that you don’t need to wrap them. Check first to see if adding an insulating blanket to your water heater will affect the affect the warranty.)
• Conserve hot water by installing water-saving showerheads.
• Repair leaky faucets. They waste water and energy.

Shop and consign at Rumors HAS IT! resale store in Scranton, KS.  ”Save the Planet One Outfit at a Time”

Cya in store soon!

Rhonda

Ceiling Fans help save energy in your home. A ceiling fan helps circulate air and makes you feel cooler which enables you to use your air conditioner less and keep it set at a higher temperature when you are using it. According to this site a ceiling fan cost about $.18 per 24 hour period to operate versus $2.91 per 24 hour period for a window air conditioner (this is based on an electrical cost of $.1012 per KWH) To get the best ceiling fan for energy savings, look for a product approved by Energy Star. Energy Star approved ceiling fans have more energy efficient motors and blades to help maximize your cooling power.

Be sure to shop and consign at Rumors HAS IT! resale shop in Scranton, KS to “Save the Planet One Outfit at a Time”

Cya in store soon,

Rhonda

Check this site out for ways to save electricity with your clothes dryer. Some of the tips are:

• Clean the lint filter after EVERY load. Your dryer works more efficiently when it’s not pushing air through lint.
• Dryer sheets cause an invisible waxy buildup on your lint screen making it harder for the dryer to push air through, so clean your lint screen with a toothbrush and water occasionally.
• Close the door to your laundry room in the summer to keep it from heating up your whole house and working against your air conditioner, and in the winter, keep the laundry room door open to help heat your home.
• Consider using an outdoor or even an indoor clothesline.  Here is a site with more information about hanging clothes and lots of other money saving tips.
• Run around the house naked–you’ll have less clothes to wash. (I’m not sure about this tip.)

Don’t forget to shop and consign at Rumors HAS IT! resale store in Scranton, KS to “Save the Planet one Outfit at a Time”.

Cya in store soon,

Rhonda

In this tip I am going to share a couple of sites that I found very interesting. I live in a small municipality with city owned utilities, our utility costs are high and the city has recently had to pass along some increases making the costs even higher. So, I’ve been really looking for ways to cut our electric and water bills. We’ll talk about electric today. Obviously, we all know turn the lights off when you aren’t using the room and turn the thermostat down on the heater or up on the air conditioner. But, I have always wondered how much are different things really costing me and how much am I really saving? I’m hoping that by knowing some of this I can get my kids to understand the importance to our budget of keeping the lights turned off.

Click here and check out this electrical energy calculator. On this site you can determine how much a load of laundry, a shower, a light bulb etc is costing you. This calculator is using the national average of .1012 cents per KWH, (Kansas average cost is .0771 cents per KWH) in our city we pay .1025 cents per KWH, so the calculator is actually just slightly less than our costs here. I started plugging different things into the calculator and discovered that:

• My daughter Sierra’s closet light that she leaves on 24/7 because she thinks she needs to sleep with it and then forgets to turn it off in the morning is costing us $4.50 a month. That is $54.00 a year! A 7 watt night light will only cost $.60 a month and last time I talked with her, she admitted she really didn’t need the closet light any more. (Update-she agreed last night she no longer needs the light and did just fine last night.)
• My husband does a pot of coffee everyday. That’s $.76 a month. No big deal-just interesting.
• My daughter Kallie loves to bake and always is baking cakes and cookies when the mood strikes. The oven costs $.16 each time she uses it for 2 hours. I can live with the $.16 in order to have fresh baked goodies that I don’t have to bake. (And she is an OUTSTANDING baker!)
• The dishwasher is $.28 a load ($8.40 a month) versus $.22 per load of handwashing. I can live with that too!!
• Okay, here is one where we can really save some money. The clothes washer. Hot wash, warm rinse is $.74 a load; warm wash, cold rinse is $.30 a load, and cold wash, cold rinse is only $.12 a load. We typically do the warm wash, cold rinse. Oh, wait a sec, I have a gas water heater, so I don’t think I would see savings on my electric bill on this one. Does that mean that a load of wash is costing me about $.12 a load plus my natural gas for the water heater?? I think we will switch to cold/cold for as many loads as possible!
• Now I do have an electric dryer, and according to the calculator, a full load on high heat costs about $.30 a load. Let’s see, we do about 15 loads a week, that is about $19.50 a month for the dryer. That surprises me! I thought it would be higher. I wonder how many loads I could hang outside, (or even inside to dry)? I bet I could save at least half of that. Now this site which seems more realistic to me (scroll all the way to the bottom) says that an electric dryer uses 5.4 KW per hour, my dryer takes about an hour and a half to dry towels and jeans-so if this site is correct, my dryer is costing me about $.80 per load for those loads. At 60 loads a month and figuring an average of an hour a load, my dryer is costing about $33.00 a month. I think we have some room here to make some savings. We’ll be discussing this in my house over the few days.
• Showers! Now this is interesting. We have a gas water heater so these costs don’t apply to our showers, but take a look at these numbers if you have an electric hot water heater. I am glad I don’t have an electric water heater (at least I think gas is cheaper). I figure each household member takes a shower a day for 30 showers a month. Thirty 5 minute showers is $9.26 a month, thirty 10 minute showers is $18.52 and thirty 15 minute showers is $27.78. There are 4 living in my home right now, so if all 4 of take 10 minute showers (and if we had an electric hot water heater), showers alone are nearly $80.00 a month. WOW! The price of smelling good! (I know gas is cheaper because in the summer when we aren’t using our gas furnace, our gas bill runs about $30-35 a month)

That’s enough statistics to ponder for today. I found some of this information very eye-opening and I hope you do too. I know we will be making some changes at our house. Visit some of the web sites listed above and figure some of your costs. You may find you have room for savings too.

And as always–”Save the Planet one Outfit at a Time” by shopping and consigning at Rumors HAS IT! resale shop in Scranton, KS.

Cya in store soon,

Rhonda

Not So Obvious Earth Day Tips

The following tips are some alternatives that just are not so obvious and are found in everyday purchases. Consider these ideas (you can probably think of more):

• Download music rather than purchase CDs. Benefits of digital downloads include the elimination of the need of plastic CD cases as well as the plastic wrapper.

• Cancel your newspaper subscription and get your news online. Reading your paper online saves trees and landfill space.

• This is a good one and really not obvious. Beer on tap! Buying your beer on tap is environmentally friendly! It tastes better, is less expensive and you can help the environment by keeping bottles and cans out of the landfills.

And “Save the Planet One Outfit at a Time” by shopping and consigning at Rumors HAS IT! resale store in Scranton, KS.

Cya in Store Soon,

Rhonda

Re-using items is an excellent way to re-cycle. Here is a list of things you can re-use. I’m sure you can add to this list.

• Plastic grocery bags, take them back to the store and use them to bring bag your new groceries. Or use them as trash bags in your home, they are the perfect size for most bathroom, bedroom or office trash cans.
• Don’t throw away old books–donate them to libraries or schools or take them to sell, consign or trade at a used book store. Children’s books can be brought to Rumors HAS IT! and added to our Children’s Free Book Exchange shelf. Children bring in books and trade for one off the shelf. This has been a great way for children to get a new book.
• Use rechargeable batteries to reduce hazardous waste from dead disposable batteries.
• If you have old photos, journals, diaries, etc that you don’t want to keep, (but just don’t want to get rid or know what to do with), donate them to the local historical society. They will probably just love to have the items.
• Instead of using disposable paper towels, use rags, sponges or towels to clean up messes or for cleaning. I personally have bought several of those cheap packages of white wash cloths at a discount store (a dozen or two for like 3 or 4 dollars) to use for house cleaning. The kids all know the white ones are for cleaning and they are kept with the cleaning supplies. They are terry cloth and I love them for cleaning.
• If you have old craft supplies, art supplies, sewing supplies etc from hobbies which you no longer have time for and you just don’t know what to do with all those tubs of wonderful things–contact your local girl scout leaders or other youth organizations–they would really appreciate your donation of supplies.
• Plastic grocery bags can be crumpled up and used as packing material when you ship an item.
• Save the gift bags you receive with a gift and re-use it when giving a gift.
• Many organizations collect empty printer ink cartridges to re-fill, these include some office supply stores (I trade my cartridges for a ream of re-cycled paper at Office Depot). Our local post office also has a bin to collect empty printer cartridges.
• Donate your old eyeglasses to your local Lions Club for re-use.
• Donate your old magazines to doctor/dentist offices, or schools or libraries.
• Cell phones create problems in our landfills due to the batteries leaking poisons into our soil. Many organizations collect used cell phones. Often these used cell phones are programmed for 911 use only and are given to women who may be having trouble breaking from an abusive relationship.

There are many other items that you are disposing of that can be re-used. If you have ideas to share, please post your ideas. Everyone would love to hear.

And of course, shopping and consigning at your favorite resale consignment store Rumors HAS IT! is an excellent example of re-using items and keeping items out of our landfills.

Cya in store soon,

Rhonda

Did you know that houseplants actually filter the air in your house and help to rid your home’s air of pollutants in addition to making your home look pretty and welcoming?

Tips for making your houseplants work for YOU!

• Mixing night synthesizing plants such as orchids with regular plants make your plants work 24 hours a day filtering your air.
• Grow one houseplant per every 10 square yards to help keep the air clean in that area.
• Using a general mixture of plants will help filter out as many pollutants as possible.
• Protection from formaldehyde are provided from philodendrons and aloe plants.
• Protection against benzene and trichloroethylen are provided from gerbera daisies, peace lilies and English ivy.

The best Earth Day Tip of all — “Save the Planet One Outfit at a Time” by shopping and consigning at your favorite resale shop — “Rumors HAS IT!” in Scranton, KS.

Cya in store soon!
Rhonda

Toxic chemicals used in pesticides can be dangerous to children, pets and the environment. Try these home-made pest control methods.

• Ants: squeeze a lemon at their point of entry and leave the peel.
• Ants: Ants hate cucumbers, especially the peels. Spread cucumber peels at the ants point of entry–the more bitter, the better.
• Flies: Flypaper is non-toxic; however, you can make your own with honey and yellow paper.
• Don’t kill the spiders unless you are plagued with them–they eat other pests.
• Barriers around your home will act like barbed wire to keep creep crawly pests such as ants out of your home. Plants such as spearmint, peppermint, and pennyroyal planted around the exterior of your home will look nice, but also deter pests such as ants from entering your home.
• Another barrier–grind garlic up with water and apply around your home. Other barriers: cayenne pepper, bone meal, chalk, cinnamon, powdered charcoal or talcum powder. Some substances work better than others, so you’ll you have to test the different substances to find the ones that work best for your pests.

And don’t forget: “Save the Planet One Outfit at a Time” by shopping/consigning at your favorite resale consignment store — Rumors HAS IT! Scranton, KS.

Cya in store,

Rhonda

You can stop pouring money down the drain and help avoid environmental issues by skipping harsh chemicals in detergents and other cleaners. Make your own cleaners with simple ingredients you have around the house rather than buying products with harsh chemicals.

Try out the homemade cleaner recipes listed below: You’ll save money (and we all love saving money right?) and you’ll be helping the environment at the same time. You’ll be pleasantly surprised and pleased with the performance of these homemade cleaners-I know I was. The best part is, most of us have these ingredients in the house already and by using these homemade cleaners, we no longer have to buy dozens of different cleaning products that are targeted to individual cleaning tasks. (That also saves storage space in your house-another good thing!)

• Combine baking soda and vinegar, flush with boiling water for an effective drain cleaner.
• Use lemon juice to remove mildew.
• Use corn starch for a carpet deodorizer.
• Combine 1 cup white vinegar and 1 gallon warm water for a floor cleaner for vinyl type floors.
• Clean wood floors with 1/2 cup white vinegar mixed with 1 gallon warm water.
• Make all purpose cleaner by combining 2 tablespoons ammonia, 1 teaspoon dish detergent, 2 cups rubbing alcohol, 4 drops food coloring (optional) and a few drops of your favorite essential oil for a fresh scent (orange or (more…)