You may be asking yourself what saving money has to do with investing. Well, it has do do with the opportunity costs of money. Saving money on utilities is like an investment that has guaranteed returns. In some cases, there is no risk whatsoever. If you replace a bulb with a more energy efficient bulb and are not satisfied with it you can take it back for a refund. Try that with an investment.

Saving money on your utilities may often seem like a small payoff initially but this is something that continues month after month, year after year. The savings can add up significantly over time. And the behavior of finding ways to save in your residence may lead to larger payoffs in other areas such as your business.

There is a story about billionaire John D. Rockefeller telling his barrel maker to use fewer lead drops to assemble oil barrels for Standard Oil. The barrel maker was using something like 42 drops of lead to assemble a barrel. Rockefeller asked him if he could use 37 drops. The barrel maker agreed. Shortly after this, several barrels reportedly broke open while being shipped. The barrel maker then discovered if he used 39 drops of lead the barrel would not break. This little change saved Rockefeller's company thousands of dollars a year.

Saving money on your utilities is something like the Rockefeller story. You don't want to be sweating in your house being miserable, but you don't want to be wearing a coat in your house in the summertime either. Saving is about reaching a compromise that works best for everyone while saving money. Now on to the project...

Kill-a-watt is a hand held device that you can use to see how much electricity you are using. You simply plug the device into an outlet, then plug in the device you want to check out. The digital display shows how many watts the device uses at a given time. If the power goes up or down, it is reflected on the screen. You can also monitor electrical usage over a period of time with it.

I recently purchased this device and decided to break down the numbers to see how much I'm spending and how much I could possibly save.

First, this device is large and it monopolizes a typical two prong outlet. It is often impossible to plug in to a crowded surge protector without pulling out other plugs first. For this reason, I recommend carrying around a extension cord or spare surge protector strip with your Kill-a-watt plugged into this.

Start plugging your devices into your Kill-a-watt and write down the watts used for each device on a piece of paper. Also test devices when they are on and when they are off or idle. Wattages may vary.

Next take all of these numbers and put them into a spreadsheet and find a way to lower your usage or eliminate things. Some things you may have plugged in that you aren't even using. Extra phones, for instance draw power all the time and are costing you money even if you don't use them.

In my case, I had an unused cordless telephone in the office and in the living room each drawing 2 watts. This phone isn't my primary one so, it is easy to unplug this and save energy.

Also, my entertainment center devices draw power throughout the day and night even though nothing is turned on. All of the little lights on the speakers, TV, DVR and other things draw power. In my case, it was drawing 12watts all the time. When I turned the speakers off it was drawing 8watts. The solution to this was simple, turn off everything using the power strip that everything is already plugged into. Now if I want to watch something on TV, I flip the power strip switch and it turns both the TV on and the xbox media center. So, this saves time and saves money. You may want to mount the surge protector in a convenient place that is easily assessable but that is also somewhat hidden.

Some other things drawing power in the office was my fax machine and laser printer. The fax machine was drawing 7 watts and didn't have an off switch so the solution was to unplug it from the back. Now the energy usage is zero for this device.

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