Top 5 Tuesday – Head Scratchers Edition

January 22, 2008 · Filed Under · 9 Comments 

Head ScratchersMy Top 5 Frugal Living Head Scratchers! - Me Kyle, I come in search of knowledge. If there is one thing I know for sure, it is that I know very little. With that in mind I have written down some questions that have been fluttering around in my skull, sometimes getting caught up in cobwebs. I call these questions “head scratchers” and today I have 5. If you can help answer some of my head scratchers with proof, please leave a comment and weigh in!! I would love to hear what you have to say.

  1. Boiling Water. Does it cost more money in terms of energy used to boil cold water on the stove, or to bring your kitchen sink water to hot and then fill your pan with hot water before boiling it?
  2. Running The Furnace. Is it better in terms of energy used to leave your furnace off while you are at work and then come home to a cold house and then turn the furnace on, or to leave the furnace on all day at a more moderate temperature and have a warmer home to heat when you come home?
  3. Driving The Car. Do you use more gas driving 65 mph or 55 mph? The obvious answer is 65mph, but you also get to your destination quicker. So my question would be: By driving faster, does the actual time you are not driving the car make up for the difference in consumption? In other words, by driving 55mph you are using gas for a longer period of time than if you were driving 65mph, so is the overall gas usage a wash?
  4. 30 or 40 Year Roof. Should I really invest the money in a 30 or 40 year roof? People, including myself, often say that frugality sometimes means spending more money for certain things to insure quality merchandise. But heck, if I invest in a 30 or 40 year roof (won’t be for awhile), there is a good chance I may not even be around to get the full value out of it!
  5. Paper or Plastic? Which is better. Paper disintegrates much faster in the landfill but plastic bags are recyclable (often at the actual grocery store). I have a feeling I know the answer to this one: None of the above, bring your own reusable bags to the grocery store!

Give me your thoughts!

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Comments

9 Responses to “Top 5 Tuesday – Head Scratchers Edition”

  1. Jennifer on January 22nd, 2008 3:40 pm

    1-always use cold water for human use, especially in an older house. Heavy metals can leach from pipes into the water when its hot, so if you are going to be eating/drinking it, start out with cold.

    2-Its more energy efficient to turn the heat down while you are gone *if* you will be gone for at least 4 hours. If not, its better to leave it the same because the energy to heat it back up when you get back will be more than you save.

    3-55 is better. Since you are going on *miles per gallon* gas consumption, not gallons per minute, and the number of miles is the same whether you go 55 or 65.

    4-If you sell the house in 15 years, you can tell potential buyers that there is still 15 years left on the roof, and that’s a plus. When we sold our house the fact that our new floors had a lifetime warranty was a huge selling point. The person who bought our house used to install flooring and he appreciated quality workmanship. Even if it didn’t affect our selling price (I think it did), it absolutely affected how quickly we sold our home. Plus that, to save money you would roof it yourself, and who wants to be up on a roof in the middle of summer? You are saving yourself weeks of work in the long run by going with the better roof too…

    5-I use plastic because I need something to scoop cat litter into, and I’m not about to fork out money for trash bags for kitty litter. Although paper bags come in handy for kids’ art projects, roasting turkeys and other things as well, so I get those too occasionally. I never just flat out throw away either kind of grocery bag though, they are all reused for something.

  2. Mrs. Micah on January 22nd, 2008 5:29 pm

    For the cars, sometimes there isn’t much difference between 55 and 65. I don’t quite feel like running the calculations…but it’s surprisingly close when I drive it.

  3. Chief Family Officer on January 22nd, 2008 9:12 pm

    You know, I never use hot tap water for cooking because I heard once that the heat can loosen chemicals in the pipes that then end up in your food via the water. (Similar to what Jennifer said.) But I’m pretty sure it would be more cost-effective to use hot tap water.

  4. Kyle on January 23rd, 2008 12:05 pm

    Excellent tips all. That makes sense with the hot water pipes, especially in older homes. I also like Jennifer’s reasoning on going with a high quality roof that will last.

  5. The Digerati Life on January 29th, 2008 6:43 pm

    very clever! I enjoyed your head scratching list. Frugality seems to be all about tradeoffs. It goes to show you need to think ahead and cover all the bases when you’re making a purchase decision.

  6. Kyle on January 30th, 2008 4:44 pm

    @ DL, so true. Think twice, buy once! Thanks for stopping by.

  7. bargainbtch on February 1st, 2008 3:51 pm

    A little late on this, and I don’t have the details but I remember learning in chemistry class some time back that cold water will actually boil at a faster rate than hot water. Something about the heat to the cold molecules makes them loosen faster, there for allowing more heat into the water, than starting with hot water which is already “pretty loose”. I’m curious though and my just have to do an experiment with dinner tonight.

  8. Kyle on February 1st, 2008 4:06 pm

    bb, interesting, let me know what your outcome is if you try the experiment! Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.

  9. Oxy on February 1st, 2008 7:08 pm

    BB is correct on boiling water. Cooler water will heat more efficiently than cold. BTW, adding salt to the water does not help much either. Conversely warm water freezes quicker than cold water.

    Jen is partially correct on the MPH vs MPG, a lot depends on the metals in your engine, and how far you have to go. Far too many formulas to make one brief “GREEN” statement.

    I had a new roof put on a few months ago. One thing , that I did NOT know, was if you mod the roof, by adding a satellite dish, the 15yr , 30yr or 40yr warranty is NULL and VOID.

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