One of the easiest ways to put more into your Mama Money Bags is to cut back up front. Less is more, after all. Here in my part of Pennsylvania, PECO supplies our electricity and gas for heat. They send these handy dandy charts every month to show you how you compare to your neighbors. Here's my most recent one, which says we are more energy efficient than our efficient neighbors. The thing is: our mid-century almost 3,000 sf house isn't efficient at all. I just do little things every day to save electricity. Exhibit A: my clothing rack. We have an electric dryer, but I usually hang and entire load to dry on this Ikea folding metal rack all year long. It's at least 10 years old, and yes, I do about a load of laundry every day, which isn't too surprising with a family of five. Other ways to save on energy: --Leave the overhead lights off. When I work (often from home typing on a laptop) I just use one small lamp with an LED light bulb. --Adjust your therm...