With my mom, you weren't allowed to run the dishwasher or take out the kitchen trash until they were FULL, because otherwise you wasted water/soap/trash bags. Not really a good way to save money.

Some people don't realize that appliances do require maintenance, and regular cleaning.

One of my brothers invited me & my father to visit him at his first apartment. He'd been there over a year. He warned us that the clothes drier was very weak- he'd have to dry clothes for hours and hours. I asked him when he'd last cleaned the lint filter.

'Lint filter?' says he. 'No, it hasn't got one.'

Uhuh. I located the door, pulled it out and it had a 3 inch thick mat of felted lint. A year's worth of drying... :^)