When it comes to improving your financial picture, small steps can yield big gains. Whether you’re saving for a down payment or dealing with increased expenses having just moved into a new home, the following tips are great ways to save money in a variety of areas. Start today and you’ll quickly notice the positive impact on your bottom line:
1. You’ve probably heard this since you were a kid, but really…turn off all lights when you leave a room. Train your kids—usually the worst offenders—to do the same.
2. Have an honest conversation with yourself: If you haven’t used your gym membership in more than six months, cancel it. You can always rejoin and probably take advantage of a better deal when you do. Some gyms will even offer to “freeze” your membership, allowing you to pick back up after a certain period of time.
3. Save Starbucks and the like for a special treat. If you buy a $4 coffee five days per week, that’s $80 per month. Record your coffee-buying expenses for a month and see what your own personal damage is…then adjust accordingly!
4. Ditto for lunch. Even grabbing a burger at a fast-food chain adds up. Start packing your lunch instead. An easy way to accomplish this is by cooking extra at dinner or on the weekends, then packing lunch-sized portions in advance. If you’re banking on making lunch during the morning rush, odds are you’ll run out of time and end up buying lunch instead.
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Monday, May 18, 2015
Building a Basement Garden
Have you always dreamed of having your own vegetable garden, but are sparse on space? You may want to consider building a basement garden. But before you get started, peruse the recent advice from thesimpledollar.com on collecting the highest return on investment for your basement veggie patch.First, note that a single industrial grow light retailing for about $300 would be required to convert a clear 80 square foot basement area into a greenhouse space. A grow light that size uses 1,000 watts of energy - so running it 12 hours a day for 3 months equates to 1,080 hours of use.That will cost you between $120 and $150 per season.Seeds could be as cheap as $3 per growing session, assuming that you’re not using heirlooms, in which case there would be a one-time cost of $4 or $5, according to thesimpledollar.com. All told the space, energy and supplies are estimated to run $1,640, or $164 per season for the first 10 years.
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Sunday, May 17, 2015
Money Matters: Financial Commitments Extend Beyond Price of Home
When you begin searching for a home, most prospective buyers go into the process with an idea regarding the price range they can afford, however, according to many real estate experts, people often forget to factor in all the costs involved.
In order to make sure you’ve accounted for everything, it’s important for buyers to make a list of all the expenses associated with purchasing a home and prepare themselves ahead of time for the money that is required once a new home is purchased.
When it comes to buying a house, there’s a lot more to worry about than just the price of the home. In addition to the mortgage and the interest that comes with it, buyers need to be ready for everything from taxes to insurance to the cost of maintaining the yard.
When preparing a list of financial commitments, you should always begin with taxes. Property taxes can add hundreds of dollars to your monthly mortgage payment and can increase depending on school and town budgets. A home is normally taxed on its assessed value, an amount equal to a fraction of its appraised value.
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In order to make sure you’ve accounted for everything, it’s important for buyers to make a list of all the expenses associated with purchasing a home and prepare themselves ahead of time for the money that is required once a new home is purchased.
When it comes to buying a house, there’s a lot more to worry about than just the price of the home. In addition to the mortgage and the interest that comes with it, buyers need to be ready for everything from taxes to insurance to the cost of maintaining the yard.
When preparing a list of financial commitments, you should always begin with taxes. Property taxes can add hundreds of dollars to your monthly mortgage payment and can increase depending on school and town budgets. A home is normally taxed on its assessed value, an amount equal to a fraction of its appraised value.
Continue Reading...
Looking for a Green Home?
When house hunting, “green” may be on your list of things to look for. But what does “going green” really mean? Some homes claim to be green, but when inspected, aren’t as environmentally friendly as they seem. Make sure to follow these tips when looking for an eco-friendly home.
The first important tip -- check the home's heating and cooling system. Depending on the climate, a radiant floor heating system is more efficient because it pumps heated water through tubing under the floor surface, rather than traditional hot air or water units. Radiant heating allows for more even heating and may even result in cleaner air due to less dust moving.
Having an on-demand water-heating unit also helps with efficiency since it only heats water as needed instead of keeping it hot all hours of the day. Also, make sure to only use "Energy Star"-rated appliances.
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The first important tip -- check the home's heating and cooling system. Depending on the climate, a radiant floor heating system is more efficient because it pumps heated water through tubing under the floor surface, rather than traditional hot air or water units. Radiant heating allows for more even heating and may even result in cleaner air due to less dust moving.
Having an on-demand water-heating unit also helps with efficiency since it only heats water as needed instead of keeping it hot all hours of the day. Also, make sure to only use "Energy Star"-rated appliances.
Continue Reading...
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