The broken dryer and my electric bill!

**Wendy Mack** · 04-11-2009, 10:43 AM

Ok this is my story.... the belt broke in my dryer and no one jumped at fixing it ... my husband or my 18 year old son.. they were the ones who told me dont' call the fix it man .. we will just get a belt and fix it ourselves cause the fix it man charges 50 bucks just to come to my house. Well long story short after a month my dryer is still broken and I have strung up clothlines upstairs in my son's old room that we are waiting to have money to redo for my 9 year old. And have been hanging cloths up there with a box fan blowing on them to dry them faster when the weather is bad.. then hanging them outside when its nice. Well after a month of doing this guess what ???? My electric bill that I just got in the mail friday says.... da ta da!!!!! $291 dollars!!!!! Thats like a hundred dollars less than the month before .. geeeezzzzz does the dryer really use that much electrcity?? I am soo glad my dryer broke... its amazing what you can do when you have to~!!!!!

**Sassyclass** · 04-11-2009, 10:52 AM

NICE!!! Oh yeah the dryer really uses that much electricity. I think a dryer uses more than any other appliance, I could be wrong though. I can't wait to start hanging my clothes out.Did that extra money help pay off the cc?

Cat

**ravenmaniac** · 04-11-2009, 11:02 AM

The dryer uses a lot of electricity. I'm slowly hanging clothes up, starting with mine. My husband complains about the way line dried clothes feel. I put the clothes in the dryer for 15 minutes to get the wrinkles out. Next I'm going to start hanging my husband's and ds's pants and shirts.

Good for you saving money on your electric bill!

**jmd5294** · 04-11-2009, 11:12 AM

Isn't it great? I hang our clothes out as much as I can in the winter, but I refuse to use the dryer in spring/summer/fall!

Liquid fabric softener (and a nice breeze outside) helps line dried clothing from feeling too stiff.

**frugal-fannie** · 04-11-2009, 11:17 AM

Quite a savings-you might not want to get it fixed.

**Wendy Mack** · 04-11-2009, 11:19 AM

Originally Posted by jmd5294

Isn't it great? I hang our clothes out as much as I can in the winter, but I refuse to use the dryer in spring/summer/fall!

Liquid fabric softener (and a nice breeze outside) helps line dried clothing from feeling too stiff.

Yup I splurge and get downy liquid for hanging cloths... i have been lucky to find it onsale and have some little coupons for it. I think I will keep the clothslines up in the room upstairs.. and when the cloths are hanging up just play hide and seek or something lol .. Lilly loves playing upstairs when the cloths are hanging up the fan going .. she said its her clubhouse!!!!

**mickee311** · 04-11-2009, 11:33 AM

Here's one. one of my husband's main computers broke last month. Electric bill came the other day and it was $165! $40 less than normal. Strange what wil put a significant dent in it, huh? Too bad he just fixed the damn thing. I bet our bill goes back up.

**zakity** · 04-12-2009, 02:39 PM

We save $20 a month in the summer by hanging out all our clothes. Well, we hang ours out when it starts hitting 60 as a high and it won't rain. I have hung clothes out as early as February and as late as November.

**Debbie-cat** · 04-12-2009, 02:51 PM

I started hanging my clothes out last week when our high hit the mid 30's. If it is sunny, at that temp, it takes most of the day to dry them. This week it has been in the 40's and fairly windy and it usually takes about 2 hours.

I do one load per day to keep up and I love hanging clothes on the line! Yippee for nice weather.

I read somewhere (depends on how much you pay for electricity of course and how old your dryer is) that it costs roughly .25 per half hour. Now that was back about 8 years ago and electricity has jumped dramatically. .... so I figure about $1.00 per load now. Each time I hang out a load of clothes I see the dollar bill floating in the breeze with them!

**rudypoo98** · 04-13-2009, 01:12 PM

I've bought my clothes dryer in 1982 the cheapest off brand I could find.The only reason it has lasted that long is because I've always hung clothes out and in the house in bad weather.I bought it for drying cloth diapers since back then I worked full time and sometimes I was getting close to running out.I hung the diapers up most of the time tho.I use the shower rod for clothes on hangers and have 2 wooden clothes dryers for winter.I have always loved hanging clothes outside I even go to my daughters house and wash and hang hers out.

**norcalmommy** · 04-13-2009, 01:26 PM

Wow, that is a big savings.

**craftypam** · 04-13-2009, 01:59 PM

Electric dryers are very expensive to run. Do you all have all electric homes?
Just another note about dryers. My brother was having trouble with his clothes not drying in his dryer. He found out the lint screen was all clogged up from dryer sheets. (the residue) He took it out and scrubbed it clean with soap and water and now his clothes are drying faster

**Wendy Mack** · 04-13-2009, 07:43 PM

Originally Posted by craftypam

Electric dryers are very expensive to run. Do you all have all electric homes?
Just another note about dryers. My brother was having trouble with his clothes not drying in his dryer. He found out the lint screen was all clogged up from dryer sheets. (the residue) He took it out and scrubbed it clean with soap and water and now his clothes are drying faster

You know i had a friend tell me about this .. she said if you can take your lint trap .. run water over it and it doesn't go through the holes... just take a scrubby and scrub the lint trap till water will go through the holes... ughh i tried mine and yup no water went through .. so i check it every couple of weeks! It really helps with how fast your cloths dry!