All homeowners understand the realities of budget requirements. No matter how well you are doing in the business world, you’re always going to have some financial realities you must conform to. And that usually means cutting corners whenever possible. You’ll pay top dollar when necessary, especially if it means taking care of your family and friends. But you also need to cut corners while keeping your home in good shape. You can meet both requirements if you plan things out, so consider trying out one of these five ways to save money on annual home maintenance costs.
First of all, ask an energy auditor to come out to the house. You won’t be able to do anything about the rising costs of gas and electricity, but you can certainly cut down on your waste. Something as simple as a cracked window pane or a leaky HVAC system can well be costing you hundreds of dollars a year. The energy auditor will look over your home from top to bottom and uncover all of the ways you could trim your energy expenses and improve efficiency moving forward.
You might also want to make a list of the home maintenance tasks you are willing to tackle yourself. Not everyone is a DIY handyman, but you’d be well served addressing at least some of the simpler maintenance issues yourself. That doesn’t mean replacing electrical systems or retiling the roof. But you should be able to handle putting up new insulation, painting the walls or repairing the bathroom floor. You’ll save a ton of money over having professionals do the work, and will feel great about your efforts as well.
Even if you become a DIY master, you should avoid purchasing a whole bunch of expensive tools. You will certainly find continual reasons to use a screwdriver, a hammer or a pair of pliers. But some projects only come around every once in a while. If you’ve got a leak in the basement to deal with you can always rent the more complicated tools you need to deal with the issue. That will always save you money over buying every single gadget out there that you’ll only end up using once every five years.
When you do have to hire professionals to come in, try to pay them with cash instead of credit. This makes sense for a ton of reasons. First of all, you won’t end up accruing interest debt, which will raise the price of the entire project. Secondly, you may well be able to negotiate a deal. Maintenance professionals can often undercut their rates if you’re willing to pay the whole project off all at once in cash. So see what sort of discount you can get by going this route.
Finally, pick and choose the moments when it make sense to invest in new appliances. How many times are you willing to troubleshoot air conditioning problems at home before you’ll finally buy a new unit? There will come a day when the constant maintenance efforts and patchwork fixes are costing you more than a replacement appliance would. And if you purchase an Energy Star-rated device you’ll end up saving more money on your electric bills as well. Just try to weigh the pros and the cons and don’t be stubborn about continuing to keep a relic in action.