Money saving tips

Flushing the toilet:
People in desert regions must be appalled that in the west we use drinking water to flush a toilet. Dirty dish water and bath water works just as well. All you need is a regular size bucket filled to about 2" from the top to do the trick. Make sure the water level in the bowl is at the normal height, not down low after a prior bucket flush or it wont work. Next, DUMP the water into the bowl, don't pour it in or it wont work. You have to raise the water level up fast. That's how toilets work.

Milk:
It's perfectly alright to freeze milk. It's not quite as good as milk that hasn't been frozen but for coffee or cereal you wont know the difference. I have been freezing milk for years. I have 2-32 oz. yogurt containers of milk in my freezer right now. The energy spent freezing the milk will be reclaimed when you put the frozen container in the fridge as it melts back to a liquid.

Washing dishes:
Hand washing uses less water and electricity if it's only you and maybe 1 other person, If you have a large family and generate a lot of dirty dishes a dish washer is probably a better choice. If you're really creative you might want to rig up a way of catching the water from the dish washer to flush the toilet but this is kind of extreme and can create a big water mess if you aren't careful. A washing machine is another source of a huge amount of flush water but this is even more dangerous than a dish washer due to the large amount of water and the speed a washing machine pumps out the wash/rinse water.

Drying clothes:
Use a clothes line, with pulleys from the back door or window. Not the kind out in the backyard where you have to carry a laundry basket full of wet clothes down a flight of stairs and walk to the clothes line. That may be "country" but it's a lot more work than a pulley system used by city folks. Just imagine if you lived on the 5th floor of an apartment building and you didn't even have a back yard. I grew up in New York city in a row of 5 buildings which had 40 families and no one had a clothes dryer. Most didn't even have a washing machine. Clothes were washed in the kitchen sink by hand.

Soda:
About 2 weeks ago I happen to be at a nearby convenience store when I looked at the little soda cooler near the checkout. I was so shocked that I decided to snap a picture of it. Are people so conditioned to fork over almost 2 bucks ($1.97 with 5% sales tax) for a 20 OZ bottle of soda? I buy Sams Club Cola at Walmart, a 2 litre (68 OZ) bottle costs 65 cents tax included. You can fill 3, 20 OZ bottles and have a cup left over. The final cost works out to 19 cents for that $1.97 bottle of soda. I have several empty soda bottles and it's no big deal to fill 3 of them from a 2L bottle of soda. What would you rather pay, 2 dollars or 2 dimes?