Winterizing Your Home on a Budget-Week 4

-
Winterizing Your Home on a Budget
Week 4
Winter has arrived and trying to keep your home warm is quite the challenge.  If you are not planning
on how to heat your home efficiently then you are planning on failing at the job.  
Just think about it. If you are heating your home to 70 degrees and it is 20 degrees outside then you
will be heating the outside and your furnace will run non-stop resulting in higher heating bills.  
This series is geared towards simple things you can do to help eliminate heat from escaping and
keep your heating bills in check while on a budget.  
This week’s focus is on your Preparations for Winter.  
Take care of your Water Heater.  It is time to flush out your water heat and check it for leaks.  When I
have my furnace services, my technician also checks my water heater.  In addition, several people
have suggested turning down your water heater a few degrees and/or wrapping it, since during the
winter time warm water seems hotter than it really is and the wrap keeps the warmth in the heater
system.  I have not tried this yet because we keep our water heater at a low temperature already.
 
Be Prepared to Shovel.  Check and make sure you have snow shovels, ice melt/salt, etc.  During
this time of year the prices will be at a premium and you may not be able to get what you need once
a snow storm comes.  I try to prepare the year before because I can usually get a deal at the end of
the season when stores are trying to get rid of these items.  Then I just store them in the garage and
I am set for the new season.
Check your electrical outlets for drafts.  If you find them, insulate them with wall plate insulation
gaskets.  A 25 pack will run about $10.00 - $15.00.
Make sure you have a winter survival kit that includes a flashlight, batteries, matches, non-electric
radio and enough food and water for seven days.

If you have missed any of my previous weekly posts on Winterizing Your Home on a Budget,
you can scroll down and view them on the blog or search using Winterizing Your Home.

Hit the subscribe button and never miss a post.  There are more tips and tricks to living the sweet life
on a budget.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Keeping Cool Without an AC- Part 5

-
Image
  The news is full of headlines indicating that energy shortages are on the horizon for most of the world. Over the decades, we have become reliant on the coolness of our air conditioners and have forgotten how we survived without them. It is now time to rediscover how to stay cool without our AC. Our 5 part series provides ideas on how to beat the heat this summer without the AC.     House Adjustments- Part 2 By placing house plants, such as English ivy, ficus, and spider plants, throughout your home, you can drop the overall temperature of your house by 10 degrees. In addition, house plants are air purifiers and add oxygen to your home.     For quick relief, create a personal mister to help drop the temperature of your skin: thus making you feel colder. Some people combine a spray bottle and a fan to create a cooling effect. However, I use just the spray bottle with cold water throughout the day and it keeps me cool. In addition, we use cooling clothes to cool us down by placing the
Read more

Frugal Five: #73

-
Image
  The Frugal Five: #73 With inflation on the rise and salaries not increasing, our ability to make ends meet keeps going down.    Therefore, we must be more careful with our money.   The Frugal Five is a series where we celebrate the daily or weekly activities that help us live a frugal life.     1- “Potluck” lunch At work this week, we are having a potluck appetizer/dessert party for a colleague’s 60th birthday.  Everyone is expected to bring an appetizer or dessert for the party.    Since there will be a lot of food provided by everyone, I am not bringing my lunch that day and will eat from whatever people have brought.   In addition, on Friday, our social committee is providing us with a turkey lunch feast.     2- Picking up a Cheap Turkey This week at Kroger, if you spend $25.00, then you can purchase a Kroger turkey for just $0.49 per pound.  Although we do not prefer dark meat, we decided to take advantage of this deal and planned for what to do with the dark meat.     No worries
Read more

Frugal 5: #26

-
Image
  The Frugal Five: #26 With inflation on the rise and our salaries not being able to keep up, it seems like we have taken a pay cut and must be more careful with our money.   The Frugal Five is a series where we celebrate our daily or weekly activities that help us live a frugal life.     ** Sorry for the lack of pictures. My week has been really busy and I just didn't get around to it. 1- Fall Garden Harvest    With the weather turning cold, we harvested the tomatoes that were left and made dice tomatoes out of them.   This will come in handy for making our taco soup and chili in the upcoming weeks.   In addition, we are able to add a few jalapeno peppers to the dishes.  Our dried mint was placed in containers for making tea this winter and fresh clippings were added to the drying rack.     Finally, our seeds are dried and ready for storage for next season.      It was a lot of work but worth it.  2- Free Item Coupons This week several companies sent me free product coupons, so I
Read more