Welcome
Welcome to HomeCareSavingsNut.com,™ a site dedicated to providing money saving advice,
tips and ideas on how to be frugal, save money on all your home care and maintenance
expenses and reduce your monthly budget to live more cheaply. Advice and tips on
interior home care, heating & air conditioning repairs, electrical repairs & saving
electricity, plumbing repairs, home appliances, home security systems, outdoor maintenance,
home weatherizing and car repairs & maintenance . Start reducing your home care and
maintenance costs by reviewing the tips presented below. For hundreds more tips,
advice and savings, click on the navigation buttons on the left. Tell your friends
and family about HomeCareSavingsNut.com so they can start saving too, and feel free
to add a link on your web site.
Interior Home Care - When spot cleaning carpets is no longer enough, and a general
cleaning is required, many people will either buy a carpet cleaning machine, or borrow
or rent a machine. When you figure in the cost of the machine and shampoo, this is
not necessarily the most economical way to go. It can also cause mold and mildew
problems because of the excess water left in the carpet. Consider hiring a professional
carpet cleaning service that has one of those large, truck mounted steam cleaners.
They will clean your carpets better, leave less water in the carpet, and it will
be less work for you. They will even move your furniture for you (although you will
most likely need to move it back once the carpets dry). And, most importantly, professional
carpet cleaning can be relatively inexpensive; often under $100.
Heating & Air Conditioning - If you have a forced air system, it may not be working
efficiently because you have leaks in your duct work, causing much of the heat and
air conditioning to escape before it gets to your rooms. Try turning on your system
and, where accessible, inspecting the duct work for leaks. Fix all holes and seams
that are leaking with a good tape recommended at the home improvement store. Interestingly,
you should not use duct tape, since this will not stay adhered over the long term.
Electrical Repairs & Energy Savings - If one or more outlets does not have electricity,
and a wall switch is not the problem, determine if the outlet without electricity
is a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) socket, or perhaps is on the same line
as a GFCI. GFCI sockets are generally located in bathrooms and other areas where
water is present, although the GFCI socket that may control the socket without electricity
could be in an adjacent room. Look around. GFCI sockets have little reset buttons
that you push to reset the circuit if for some reason it trips, which can be a fairly
common occurrence. Push the reset button and see if it solves the problem.
Plumbing Repairs - Often, clogs in sink drains are addressed by pouring some Draino
down the drain and hoping for the best. This may work sometimes, but is often a
temporary fix and does not totally remove the source of the problem. Since most of
these clogs are in the pipes under the sink, try removing the “goose neck” under
the sink and cleaning it out. This is easily done by just unscrewing the coupling
where the pipes join. At most, a larger wrench is required to grab the coupling.
These joints are made to unscrew and be detached and then screwed back together
again, without any leaks. It is easy. Just put a bucket under the pipe when detaching
to catch any water. Once the pipe is cleaned out you should have “clear sailing”
well into the future.
Home Appliances - Refrigerators and freezers, because they are on 24 hours a day,
consume a large percentage of the average household’s energy budget. However, energy
savings can be achieved through proper refrigerator and freezer maintenance and settings,
as well as proper food storage techniques. Make sure your refrigerator and freezer
are properly maintained and set up for efficiency. If your refrigerator has a power
save switch use it. However, use the anti-sweat switch only when needed if moisture
is forming on the outside of the refrigerator door. If you have a manual defrost
refrigerator or freezer, defrost it before frost buildup reaches ¼ inch. Make sure
your refrigerator and freezer are not in direct sunlight and, if possible, in conditioned
space rather than a hot garage or storage room. Allow sufficient space on the sides
and back to allow heat to dissipate from the compressor and condensing coil. Every
few months clean the refrigerator’s and/or freezer’s coils in the back and the air
intake grill in the front. Make sure the door seal on your refrigerator and freezer
seals tightly. This can be checked by closing the door on a dollar bill and seeing
if the dollar bill is held in place tightly. If not, the door may need to be adjusted
or the seal replaced. If interested, visit michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html
for an easy way to calculate the electrical cost of running refrigerators and other
appliances.
Home Security Systems - Many systems offer the option of having the system connected
to the security company’s central monitoring station by telephone line so the system
is monitored off-site and police or fire are called to the scene if warranted. Be
aware of the following considerations of having central monitoring. There is a monthly
charge for this service which can range from $10-$30 per month or more. This is a
big profit center for security companies, and most local security companies contract
with one of the few regional and national companies that provide the actual monitoring.
So, prices vary widely for the same identical service. It definitely pays to shop
around. Definitely try not to pay any more than $10-$15 per month. And make sure
your home insurance company knows you have monitoring. You should get a discount.
Outdoor Maintenance - Replacing missing caulk and repairing any obvious holes in
the exterior of your home is important for moisture control, pest control and energy
conservation, as well as preparing your home to be re-painted. It is easily done.
Every year or so, survey the exterior of your home for wall cracks, openings around
windows and doors, etc. As appropriate, re-caulk with a high quality exterior caulk.
If the re-caulked area is to be painted, make sure the caulk you use is “paintable”
or the paint will not adhere.
Home Weatherizing - Conduct an energy audit to determine where your home needs weatherizing.
Before you can effectively weatherize your home, you need to determine just where
energy losses are occurring. You can conduct this audit yourself, use an independent
energy auditor or many utility companies will conduct free or low-cost home energy
audits to determine ways to improve energy savings. Try going to EnergyStar.gov to
see if they perform energy audits in your area. Also consider ResNet.us for a list
of certified energy auditors. It may also be possible to offset part of the cost
of making your home more energy efficient with incentives provided by utilities and
governments. Look on the web site of your utility company and on the web site of
your state energy office, which can be found at NASEO.org under “Member Center.”
Car Repairs & Maintenance - Most tires are rated and guaranteed for a certain number
of miles (such as 50,000 miles, etc.). If your old tires have worn down prior to
being driven the stated number of miles, you may be entitled to a reduction in price
for your new tires, assuming you are buying the same brand of tire. Check with the
tire store. Also, if your tire is being replaced because of a defect, you should
receive a mileage allowance for the purchase of your new tire or tires, resulting
in a reduced price.
Thanks for visiting HomeCareSavingsNut.com™ and we hope the ideas and tips for saving
money on all your vehicle needs and expenses will make life just a little bit better
for you and your family.
