Welcome
Welcome to the Household Section of SavingsNut.com, dedicated to providing money
saving advice, tips and ideas on how to be frugal, spend less and save more on your
household expenses. Tips on cooking on a budget, interior home care, major home
systems including HVAC, electrical and plumbing systems, outdoor maintenance and
even pet care and shopping coupons. Start reducing your household costs by reviewing
the tips presented below. For hundreds more tips, advice and savings, click on the
navigation buttons on the left.
Cooking on a Budget - When making a favorite meal, make a large batch and create
“frozen dinners” for you and your family. Since you are already cooking, the amount
of extra work and energy cost is minimal. Or if you like, set aside a “cooking day”
once a month and prepare many kinds of meals for future use. All you need are some
freezer containers for the types of portions you prefer, enough freezer capacity
and a little organization. Most any kind of meal will freeze well. Even many breakfast
items can be prepared ahead of time and frozen. For instance, mix up a large batch
of pancake mix, griddle the pancakes and freeze them. When you would like pancakes,
just pull the pancakes out of the freezer, microwave and enjoy. Or make a batch
of muffins and freeze them. Preparing all kinds of meals ahead of time will result
in nutritious meals you and your family will enjoy, that can be pulled out of the
freezer on a moments notice. And you will save a lot of money. It’s really that
easy.
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 or provide the best cleaning. 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. Look around for the best price, they vary greatly. But make sure
they use the large truck mounted steam cleaner, not just a hand unit.
HVAC/Electrical/Plumbing - Many people believe an annual service contract with an
air conditioning/heating repair company is a good idea, as is having an annual inspection
of your system. Most heating/air conditioning companies like to sell these contracts
because they are very lucrative. However, if your system is all electric (i.e.,
air conditioner and/or heat pump) these systems are designed to operate without annual
maintenance. Clean the air filter and that is about it. At some time in the future,
if you have a problem, just call a heating/air conditioner contractor for service.
Keep in mind, an annual service agreement is essentially an insurance policy. The
only real benefit is if something goes wrong you will usually receive a discount
(perhaps up to 100% depending on the type of contract) from the normal repair cost.
So, like other insurance, if you have a lot of problems with your system it can
work out to be a good deal. But, since the air conditioning and heating contractors
make a lot of money on these contracts, in general they are not a good deal. You
end up paying for an annual system inspection you probably do not need, and for the
privilege of getting a repair discount on repairs you probably will not need, at
least not to the degree that you will recoup the cost of the service agreement.
Outdoor Maintenance - Whenever your beds need mulching, either for weed control or
simply for looks, just buy and spread some mulch an inch or two deep. But if you
have large bed areas and require a lot of mulch, do not buy mulch in bags. There
will be one or more companies in your area that sell all different types of mulch
in bulk and deliver it by truck. Just measure the square footage of the areas you
want to mulch and the depth you want to apply the mulch (usually about 2 inches)
and figure out how many square yards of mulch you need. Just have the company dump
the mulch in an area that will allow you to take your time to place it in your beds.
It’s a bit of work, but your beds will look great and you will save some money.
And keep in mind, when you have mulch delivered, you only lift it once when you place
it in your beds. If you buy bags of mulch at the store, you lift it into the shopping
cart, lift it into your car, lift it out of your car and probably lift it again to
place it in the beds. That’s a lot of lifting compared to having mulch delivered.
And you can save even further by joining with one or more neighbors to buy mulch
at the same time to save on delivery fees. Some mulch companies even have trucks
that can deliver different quantities to different homes at the same time, so splitting
up the pile of mulch with the neighbors is not a problem. Visit our yard and gardening
shopping sites.
Pets - For many pets grooming is important to their health, as well as enjoying them
as a pet. If grooming is done professionally it can be quite expensive. With a
little bit of knowledge and effort, most grooming can be done at home, for a fraction
of the cost of a professional. Not having to fit appointments into your schedule
and transport the pet can also be a great benefit. Your vet, groomer and pet store
can give you some tips on how to properly and safely groom your pet. Videos and
sometimes courses are also available on how to groom certain pets. And check the
Internet for information on how to properly groom your pet. If you can learn to
groom yourself, you can learn to groom your pet. Find pet care products and medications
here.
Thanks for visiting our Household Section and we hope the ideas and tips for saving
money on your household expenses will make life just a little bit better for you
and your family.
