Well, since 95% of the board responded here, I will add my .02 cents
1) I hate cell phones, but have to have one for work. I chose the Cingular pay-as-you go account and with as little as I use it, $50.00 last me about 4 months (including SMS alerts from my Elk system and credit score alerts from MyFico.com). At the end of a call my cell then displays how much I have remaining.
2) Solar Power: I currently have several panels totalling 1.2 Kwh so far and add a new panel when funds become available. Although I use much more than this when I'm home, it decreases my electric bill simply because I'm decreasing the amount of usage on the grid and hence, my meter runs slower. The biggest investment was the $2300 Fronius inverter that can handle my future solar panel additions. Every time I add a panel, I can tell the meter is running slower and also the decrease on my electric bill is nice. If I am out-of town (low energy usage), then I actually backfeed extra juice into the grid and reap that reward.
3) Credit Reporting: Yep, identity theft is a fact nowadays. In addition to my free credit reports, I subscribe to MyFico.com and swear by it. Within minutes of anything changing on my credit report I'm alerted via email and a cell phone text message that "something" changed. I then log into www.myfico.com to find out the specifics. Cost? $89.95/year ($7.50/month). This is cheap to be able to know your credit score anytime you want to know.
4) Elk/UPS: I have a dedicated 30 watt solar panel and charge controller to keep my UPS and Elk batteries up to snuff. I have two batteries in the bottom of my Elk can wired in parallel. The wall-wart will kick in via a relay if the battery voltage gets below 10 volts because of clouds, storms, etc but in over a year of usage this has never happened.
5) Hot Water Heater: I have yet to go solar on this, but have rules in my Elk to turn the hot water heater on for 35 minutes at 6:00am, 12:00pm and 6:30pm. Since I wrapped the electric water heater in insulation, the water stays hot pretty much all day long. I can override this with a button on the Elk if company is over or hot water usage is otherwise high. In general, my hot water heater runs for just over 1.5 hours a day and I've never felt I was without hot water.
6) Dishwasher: To save money, you really shouldn't have one but I'm lazy when it comes to the dishes. I have an energy efficient model with a timer so the dishes get washed in the wee hours of the morning. It heats its own water so I don't have to rely on heating 50 gallons of water before the dishes get clean.
7) Lights: 99% of the lights in the house are CFLs. This greatly cuts down on energy usage. The outdoor, motion-sensing security lights are powered by solar and consume no electricity from the grid. You can find them cheap at Home Depot, Lowes, etc. MUCH better than the 120v, 500 Watt (x2) energy guzzlers they replaced plus they will work during a power outage!
