If you’re in the US, there is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) WaterSense program, which allows you to find high-quality, faucets, water-efficient toilets, shower heads and much more. The Watersense program has been introduced in the US in 2006, and this program helps people buy more water-efficient appliances and fixtures. Imagine that products that have the Watersense certification save up to 20% your water, and they perform sometimes even better than your current, traditional appliances.

WaterSense contractor Kathleen Brady says that” a family of four typically spends more than $800 on water and sewer services every year. But switching to WaterSense-certified appliances can make a noticeable difference on that bill.” Basically going from a toilet manufactured before 1994 to a WaterSense toilet will save a family of four around $90 every year.

And the environmental benefits that come along with it are also very important to keep in mind. I think this quote from their website says it all the best:

“If one out of every 100 American homes retrofitted with water-efficient fixtures, we could save about 100 million kWh of electricity per year — avoiding 80,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.”

Here are teh main 3 steps involved in budgeting your money in a proper way:

• Calculate all your earning income (salary and any other income you are currently getting). For example if you are working in a restaurant as a waiter/waitress, calculate all the tips you are getting as well. If you are divorced and you are getting child support, add that in too.
• Identify your expenses. Take into account all your personal expenses, your housing expenses, everything that goes out in terms of money, add it in.
• Now compare your earning with your expenses. If you have more income, all is good. But on the other hand, if your expenses outweight your income, you have a problem that you need to address.

Sadly there are very few people who do that in their personal lives. We all think that budgeting, financing is only for corporations and the accountants at our day job. But once you learn to budget your own personal finances, with time you will start to see a pattern, and should the pattern be on the downslope, you will be able to bring it back up. But if you are not budgeting, how will you know when is it  time to tighten the wallet a bit more?

So here are 5 ways that you can save money in any situation.

• When you’re out shopping, use coupons and rebates. You can use coupons for gas, oil change, all sorts of groceries, books, and pretty much anything else around the house. When you’re flipping through neswspapers and magazines, make sure to cut out those coupons. Every penny counts.
• Use coupons for online shopping. There are some great discount  coupon places for pretty much anything that you want to shop online. Coupons for clothes, for website hosting, for domains, for any sorts of pills, for movies, you name it, for anything. Use them. Just Google ‘discount coupons’ and you’ll be busy for a week!
• Don’t buy new books, use the library. Or use one of the many internet book exchanges, where your only cost is the postage cost to ship your books. Some are international, like Bookmooch.com, yet others, like Paperbackswap.com are in the US only. You can get the latest Stephen King in new condition at less than $2 a pop. Also libraries are great ways to read books without having to spend money on them. Use all these free means, they’re there for you!
• If you have magazines/newspapers subscriptions, cancel them. You’ll be amazed at what all you can find online. Pretty much every small newspaper has an online edition, free for you to read.
• Bundle cable and internet together. If you have internet connection, and you’re also paying for cable, and you have them from different sources, enquire if you can get both in one place. It will save money in the long run!