Six Strategies to Reduce Home Spending

With the economy the way it is, it's natural to want or need to cut back on unnecessary spending. Although each change you make may only save a little, over the course of a year, the savings can really grow. So if you're looking for ways to decrease your home-related spending and increase your savings, try these 6 money saving strategies:
1. Mortgage-Compare your current interest rates with your current rate. Check into refinancing if possible.
2. Utilities-Consider swapping often-used light bulbs with compact flourescents (CFLs) and switching off appliances (such as computers and TVs) when not in use. Install low-flow shower heads. Wash clothes at a lower (or cold) water temperature. Lower the temperature setting on your water heater by a few degrees. Install a programmable thermostat and set it to keep your home warmer in summer and cooler in winter when no one is home.
3. Lawn car/yard services-Stretch the time between mowing intervals to save on gasoline and/or yard-service fees. If you use a service, look for a local teen who will cut your lawn for less. Determine what other services-fertilizing, leaf raking, spring/fall cleanup, etc. you (or a local teen) can take over to lower costs.
4. Cleaning costs-If you have a house cleaning service, consider stretching the interval between visits. Ask if your babysitter or a local teen would add housekeeping tasks to their services for a fee less than you pay now. When cleaning your own home, switch from expensive, pre-formulated cleaning solutions to homemade ones using inexpensive ingredients such as baking soda, ammonia and vinegar.
5. Cable/Internet service-Discontinue unused channels, especially movies, and switch to a mail-order service for movie rentals or borrow from your local library's DVD collection. Check what speed your cable/broadband internet service provides and consider moving down one speed level to cut costs.
6. Phone service-Investigate Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) service to replace traditional land-line phone service. Assess cell phone usage and consider changing to a less-expensive plan. Investigate cost-savings from package deals for Internet, TV, land-line and cell service.
These are just a few suggestions to consider to help lower/reduce our home spending in these difficult times. There are many more. Do a little research and you may find other things you can do to help reduce your spending and ease the strain/stress for now. Hope you enjoyed these suggestions. Thanks.

Making our Home Eco-Friendly and Green

In these tough economic times we can all use some help. One thing we can do is to make our home more eco-friendly. This can even help if we're trying to sell our home. The market for true "green" homes is expected to grow from $2 billion to $20 billion in the next 5 years. There are many things we can do to make our home eco-friendly or green. Just a few of these are:
1. When replacing or installing appliances, go with high energy-efficient ones. These will help lower our heating, cooling and electricity bills.
2. Use low-flow water fixtures and water-using appliances.
3. When remodeling, building, adding on, use sustainable or recycled materials.
4. Install low-maintenance, drought resistant landscaping. This will help with the water bills as well as much less work for you.
5. Recycle as much as possible. This may help cut down on your garbage pickup and costs as well as making you feel better.
6. Improve your indoor air quality. One way to do that is to bring plants into the home. Many of them help clean the air.
7. Keep track of all improvements and records for the installations/upgrades as well as copies of before and after utility bills. This will help show any prospective buyers what all you have done. In short, hand them a "green" handout on your home.
Also, consider having an energy audit done on your home (ask your utility company or state energy office about this) and then follow the advice given.
Remember all of these things will not only help the environment, but also our wallets in these tough economic times and just plain make us feel better.