I remember as a kid playing The Game of Life. {Does anyone else still have a vintage game box like this? If so, you’re our hero.}
The car moved forward and backward. You’d pick up new children out of the blue, acquire a house and spin away to see how far you needed to move. There were all types of “life” situations in the game that either helped you progress or sent you on a retreat. Things happened so quickly, I had no idea adulting would feel like that {kids do sometimes just appear out of the blue, after all – we woke up one day and wondered how we got like this}. But I really don’t remember anything about home savings. And they claimed it was a game of “skill.”
You typically acquired a home in the game, but there was never a chance to improve your home… on your own at least. It seems to me that if it’s a game of ‘skill,’ maybe there’d be more to it than simply spinning, reading a card, and making an arbitrary decision here or there. Maybe it’s because Milton Bradley debuted the game in 1860.
I guess energy and home savings waren’t all the rage back then.
But in real life, they were rocking the newspaper as a little home energy savings to keep out the wind – which was actually quite clever back in the day.
Today, we want to share some of our favorite summer home maintenance tips that not only keep your home running smoothly in those hot summer months, but can also help cut down on costs.
You know, the tips that aren’t covered in Life, Monopoly, or any of those other games in the growing-up years. Because we’re pretty sure that they also didn’t have an option to buy a home warranty, so when a problem arose you could just flash your card and keep moving your little car {or thimble} forward.
But more on that another day. With a home warranty, you can rest assured that when an appliance or system breaks down – because it’s not a matter of if, but when – that it will be taken care of without costing an arm and a leg.
So let’s start simple, because sometimes it’s not new knowledge that we need, but simply being reminded of things we already know.
• Proper caulking or weather stripping of your doors and windows every year will retain, as grandma would say {and now us because we’re officially becoming grandma}, the “bought air.” A simple process that can save you a lot of money.
• Knock the hot water heater gauge down. The heater should not have to run on high during the warm summer months.
• And speaking of hot water, when those summer vacations roll around, turn off the water heater completely. Casper the friendly ghost won’t mind the cold showers, and it won’t take long for it to reheat when you return. Just don’t forget ;}. Some even have a “vacation mode” setting!
•Buy a programmable thermostat, especially if your routine takes you away from home daily. Why do you need to keep the house comfy for your sofa?
• Make sure your door sweeps actually fit your door, and your threshold is adjusted properly.
• Have your A/C unit tuned up to make sure it is working properly. A good cleaning of the unit on a regular basis will not only keep it running longer, but it will operate more efficiently as well.
• Try bumping up the A/C all together and using some fans. A fan uses a lot less energy than cooling the entire house. Bonus tip: it makes a nice white noise for sleeping.
• Replacing or fixing old window seals, is always a good idea too.
We had a new one thrown at us this past year, and even though we cleaned the pool up a bit {okay, a lot} there was still a learning curve.
We did learn a ton in the first year of ownership on a pool and all things DIY. Some of it mimics things we knew about saving money in the house. Like…
• Keep the filter clean so it doesn’t have to over-work. And keep the skimmer clean daily, especially of frogs. {The kids love rescuing these not-so-little guys – Ashley, too. Even if she is afraid they will bite.}
• Install a timer on your pump so it only runs for the specific amount of time it needs to – which is typically one hour for every ten degrees of the outdoor temperature per day. So if it’s 80 degrees outside, run the pump for eight hours.
• Run the pump at night because in case you didn’t know this little fact, energy costs fluctuate throughout the day and guess when it’s the cheapest? Yep, at night.
It’s been kinda fun since we got the hang of it!
We hope you stay cool this summer in your game of Life. Remembering some of these little tips will help save on your monthly budget.
Have an inspired day!
SHI says
These are great tips! we recently just changed out our old thermostat to a new programmable one and wow I notice our electric bill went down a good bit.
Rebecca says
I’d never thought about turing off the water heater when on Vacation, great idea! Also, we had the seller of our current home add an AHS warranty to our house, they were amazing, saved us time and money and so much easier to work with than the last home we were in and the warranty we had there.
Aslam and sons says
Great post! These are useful tips for homeowners.
Emily Clay says
Home maintenance is money and time spending process. After reading your post I thought we can save hundreds of dollars on home maintenance. Thanks for sharing this adorable tips with us.