Repsol YPF

The famous saying when two eat, three can too could easily be changed to when one eats, two can too. In other words, food expenses are greater for those who cannot share their food with someone else. In this regard, people living alone also have to incur all the remaining expenses of the home.

Get budgeting
In order to reach the end of the month in good financial shape it is essential to make a monthly budget of fixed expenses (rent or mortgage, electricity, water and gas). In this way, you will be able to discover small areas in which to save. Juan Antonio Alonso, marketing director of IDAE (Instituto para la Diversificación y Ahorro de la Energía) gives the following advice:

In the kitchen:
- Turn down the temperature of the electric oven or hob before you have finished cooking. If you have a ceramic hob use the energy saving setting.
- A pressure cooker uses half the amount of energy of cooking food in the traditional way.
- Use a dishwasher: washing dishes in the sink can be up to 60% more expensive than using a full up modem dishwasher.
- It is important to keep the back of the fridge clean and well ventilated. When fridges are functioning in bad conditions, they can use up to 15% more electricity.
- Regulate the temperature of the fridge according to the manufacturer's instructions. A centigrade less temperature means using up to 5% more electricity.
- Avoid using the iron for just a single item of clothing.  Try to wash clothes in cold water or at a low temperature. Modem detergents are highly effective, but ensure you are using phosphate-free varieties so as not to contaminate.

In the bathroom:
- Install a programmed timer in your electric boiler so that it only comes on in the early morning. You will thus have hot water the whole day long.
- If you can stand not having a bath, have a shower instead. A bath uses up 100-130 litres of water while a shower uses up 30-40 litres.
- Warming up the water with gas prevents a family from emitting up to half a ton of CO2 a year into the atmosphere on average.

Lighting:
- Whenever you can, install light sensors, which only switch on lights when people are in the room. Replace a 100 watt bulb with an energy saving one, which prevent up to half a ton of CO2 a year being emitted into the atmosphere.
- When you change the bulbs, replace the lights with energy saving lamps, which will help you save up to 80% of electricity a year.

Heating:
- Do not have the heating too high. Not only is it bad for the health, every centigrade of temperature uses up 5-7% more energy.
- Install thermostats in the radiators or a temperature regulator on the boiler. This is easy to install and immediately pays for itself. Switch off the heating at night and do not switch it on until the house has been aired and the windows shut.

Food:
- Buy fruit and seasonal produce.
- Cook food to last several days and freeze the results. You will thus avoid throwing away perfectly good food.
- If you only use milk for tea or coffee buy it in powdered form. You will thus avoid having to throwaway the whole carton just a few days after opening it.

Using the car:
- Start up the engine without pressing down the accelerator. Use first gear only for the first couple of seconds or six meters and immediately change to second.
- Try to keep your driving speed as steady as possible: avoiding unnecessary breaking, accelerations or gear changes saves energy.
- Encourage neighbours who live near to share car journeys.