With the current state of the economy, it’s important for every family to do their best to save money around the home. This can help secure their financial future and make it possible for them to weather the years ahead, no matter how tough things get. Read on to see some of the methods that you and your family can use to save money around the home. These are going to prove to be some of the most valuable lessons that you learn about money.
Insulate Your Home Well
A home that’s properly insulated is going to be great for the environment as well as your energy bills. This is evidenced by the fact that a typical family spends roughly one-third of its yearly heating and cooling budget, about $350, on air leaking into or out of the house via gaps and cracks that shouldn’t be there. That said, perform an inspection of your entire home, especially around your doors and windows. If you find any cracks or gaps, either find a way to seal them yourself or talk to an expert to come and do it for you.
Maintain Your Home
While maintaining your home may feel like an expenditure that you can avoid, this is not the right move to make. That’s because when you ignore making fixes around the home that are necessary, you’re only postponing an issue that’s inevitable and giving it a chance to get a lot worse. Keep in mind that homeowners will, on average, spend between 1% and 4% of a home’s value each year on repairs and maintenance. These tend to increase as the house ages, with a home worth $200,000 costing at least $2,000 every single year. As such, you need to include home maintenance in your budget and you may end up making your maintenance expenditure regular and predictable.
Get the Right Window Treatments
Your windows can also play a considerable role as far as your energy bills go. With inefficient window glass accounting for 25% of the energy bill of a regular home, it’s clear that you can make savings by getting better window glass. Pair this with the right window treatments, such as shades and draperies, which will make a positive difference when used the right way. Closing them to prevent excessive sunlight from filtering into your home, for instance, will help you keep your home cooler. You’ll also keep your home’s interior looking good for a long time since UV can fade colors on upholstery and the natural finish of the wood. As such, you should spare some time to make sure that everyone in your family knows when to open and close drapes or shades if you install some.
Turn Off Unused Appliances and Lights
Finally, there’s no need to leave lights and electronics on if they’re not currently being used. This is because doing so means that they’re consuming energy while no one is actually using them. Your entire family can thus benefit from forming the habit of turning off any electronics that they’re done using. Take the savings a step further and buy power strips. These will make it easy for you to turn off all unused electronics easily and do away with the power-leeching that takes place when they remain on standby. You could also change your home’s bulbs to LED bulbs, which are going to be better as far as energy consumption goes.
With these tips, you and your family can make your home more energy-efficient. It’s worth forming these habits early on as your children will grow up knowing what they need to do to minimize energy use around their own homes.
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