Laundry Money

I read somewhere, "My husband works hard for his money so I work hard at saving it at home."  One way I've tried to always help, is by line drying our clothes.  A clothes line was one of the first things we put up when we moved.  We have even moved our clothes lines with us (my Dad made us a nice one while we lived in MD so I loaded it up to take with us to ME when we lived there).  While living in ME, we also put up a huge wheel and pulley type clothes line that we got in Amish country.  Many people would stop in our driveway and take pictures.  That always seemed so funny to me!   I was tempted to ask them to come and help fold it all :)

The Tightwad Gazette author says she saves her family $20 a month by line drying 50 loads of laundry a month.  (this was written in 1992 so I'm sure it's alot more now!)  After I just read this, I tried to figure out how much laundry I do a month.  I think I do 15-20 loads a week.  So, we almost double what she does.   How rewarding to know I can save our family $120 a year  just by hanging our laundry out 6 months of the year. (I tried the drying racks in the house and just couldn't handle the clutter so must use the dryers in the winter).   This is one "chore" I don't mind doing at all.  I love going outside, hearing the birds and chickens,  and hanging it out and then looking out the window and seeing the clothes flapping in the breeze.  Now the folding, that's another story :),  but the clothes smell so super fresh from off the line and there's nothing like getting into crisp, fresh smelling sheets! Super COZY!