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For most of us, the electric bill is the largest utility expense we have each month. And with the cost of common fuels rising sharply every single day, this expense is only going to get worse. The best thing we can do, is to start reducing how much electricity we use in our homes. There are actually many easy ways to do this too.

For most of us, heating and cooling the home is at least 50 to 70% of our monthly electricity bill. So many of these tips will address ways to heat and cool for home more efficiently.

1. Insulate your home. Older homes particularly have many cracks and crevices where air can come in or escape. During the summer, the cooler air from inside will rush out, or the hot air will come in. You can help reduce this loss by simply adding insulation around doors and windows.

2. Insulate your windows. Even after you install weatherstripping around the windows in the cracks and crevices, you may still be allowing heat in during the summertime if the sunshine strongly into a window. Likewise, in the winter time cold can come in through the window panes as well.

One of the best ways to insulate your windows, is to simply hang curtains, shades, or blinds. There are insulating curtains which can be hung at your windows in both the summertime and wintertime. These insulating curtains help block the hot air in the summer, and the cold air or in the winter. They have the added benefit in the summer, of keeping the strong hot sun from coming into your home and fading your furniture, or simply heating up the air.

3. Create your own shade. You can easily create your own weather control around your home, by simply planting bushes and trees, or installing awnings and porches. Bushes and trees are the easiest and least expensive, but they can’t take time to get the most benefit from if they are small when you plant them.

Planting a bush approximately 5 to 6 feet tall in front of a window which gets lots of sunlight in the summertime will help shade that window, and it will help cool the air that passes by it. You can also plant a tree which grows from 12 feet to over 25 feet tall, and it will provide shade for the roof of the home. When planting trees to create shade in the summertime, make sure that you choose one which will shed its leaves in the winter. This way it will not block the sunshine in the winter when you need it or to help heat your home.

If you don’t have the room or desire to plant trees and bushes, simply try a well cared for lawn or garden instead. The simple act of having lush greenery around your home, even in the form of simple grass, can lower the temperature by several degrees.

Many people don’t realize this, but one very simple way to start saving money very quickly is to actually start tracking where you’re spending money on a day-to-day basis. Pennies add up. And every time you stop for a quick coffee or soda, pick up an extra magazine, or even buy a pack of gum or some candy, it takes money out of your budget. Most people have no idea how much money they actually spend by buying a little bit of this and a little bit of that every day.

In fact, if you make a habit of always paying things with paper bills but never any change, and just start sticking the change in one spot regularly, you may be surprised at how fast that money adds up.

If you need to reduce your spending bill, then you need to get a handle on where your money is going. And the only way to do this is to write it down consistently. Save every receipt you get, and sit down every day with those to add up how much money was actually spent that day. You may be surprised to find, that even though you only spend a little bit here and there, the total amount is much more than you expected it to be.

Keep track of every expenditure you have. When you pay a bill, write down the exact amount you paid. If there were any additional expenses added to the bill such as credit card fees, you need to note those down too.

If you track where you’re spending money every single day, and track exactly how much you’re spending down to a penny, you will start knowing without a doubt where all of your money is going. Once you have an idea of where the money is going, it will then be much easier to sit down and create a spending budget for your household. You may choose to create a budget for each individual person as well as the house in general, or you might just want to create a general family budget which is separate from the necessities budget for the house.

Trying to make a budget without first knowing where all of the money is going though will not work. In fact it will just be an act of frustration. Because money will be flowing out, or it will be short in one area or another, and you won’t be able to understand why. So by first writing down everything you’re spending you can get a much more accurate picture of where the money’s going. And you can also see where you may have some bad financial habits, so you can start working to correct those problems while also getting your budget working much more efficiently for your family.