Many times, the solution to having more money in your account is not to earn more, but to spend less money than you normally use.
Here I show you how to save at home with these 15 simple tricks to reduce your electricity, food, bills, and water expenses with small gestures that you can start today.
Table of Contents
How to save money at home (15 useful tricks)
1. Use more ceiling fans
In those hot seasons where when you get home the first thing you come across is all the hot rooms, you always use an air conditioner or small fans.
Well, you are aware that one of the biggest expenses at home is the electricity bill and how much these devices consume energy, so instead of going towards that solution that in addition to everything, it is expensive to obtain these devices, use something else ecological and that will save you a lot of money.
Ceiling fans are excellent for keeping rooms at a comfortable temperature and contrary to what you think, they also work for cold times where the air is hot.
You set it to rotate upside down and it will make sure to push all that hot air you need to the ground.
Do you see? Goodbye energy-consuming heating.
2. Wash with cold water
The heating, heater and everything that has to do with giving heat or making something hot have excessive consumption of energy, so the more you avoid using it, the better.
I know many people who prefer to wash their clothes with hot water instead of cold when in reality the difference is almost zero and what they do is that at the end of the month their electricity bill is 50% higher than mine, and I wash with cold water.
Start to abandon the habit of heating water to wash clothes and go to the side of washing them with normal water, without heating it.
3. Use the dryer less
Following the same principle as the previous ones, if you have space to dry the clothes you wash, then why use the dryer?
I’m not saying that you totally eliminate its use, but if you really don’t need it and you have a large space to hang your clothes, reduce the use.
The dryer is like a hairdryer and about 4 times worse due to all the energy it needs and the habit you should have of setting it as hot as possible so that it dries clothes faster.
If you have an automatic washing machine, surely you have the spin which already leaves your clothes well-drained and your whole house will not drip when you hang it.
So it’s time to unplug your dryer and avoid its use as much as possible.
4. Turn off the lights
When I lived with my parents, I had to stand behind them telling them to turn off the lights or I just ended up doing it myself.
I am sure that you or at least another person who lives with you has this bad habit and although leaving a light on for 5 minutes is not the end of the world when you receive your bill when you leave more than one for more than that time because you forgot to turn it off later if it will be a harder hit.
If you leave a room either for a few minutes or for the rest of the day, always remember to flip the light switch and turn it off.
If you are at home, you don’t need to have the lights in every room on. Keep only the ones that are in the space you are using at the moment.
Are you in your bedroom? Then you don’t have to have the one in the kitchen or the next room turned on.
5. Don’t waste water
If you have a leak in your home, fix it as soon as possible.
On the other hand, if you are someone who leaves the taps open, lasts more than 20 minutes in the shower, or instead of a shower, you are more fans of long baths in a tub, then you better start trading all that for something besides more. ecological, which will help you save money on water consumption.
A shower of 5 to 10 minutes is more than enough since the rest of the time you only stay under the water without washing as such.
Baths in a tub consume a large amount of water and especially when you have the habit of getting out of the bathtub and in the same way going to the shower to finish cleaning yourself.
Also, get used to closing the taps while you are not using the water and avoid leaving any open at all costs.
Simple things like these will help you have an extra amount of money for your savings or any expense that you want to do.
6. Check your pantry
It is common that every day or at least once a week, you go to the nearest supermarket and make purchases of things that you think you do not have at home.
However, more than once it must have happened to you that when you arrived and opened the pantry there were one or two containers of the same thing you just bought.
So to avoid spending on things you already have and don’t need, for now, always check your pantry and even the refrigerator.
In this way, you will not buy repeated things and you will be saving money for others, in addition, it will also help you keep track of the expiration date of the products.
7. Repair things
When something breaks in your house, it looks worn or old, instead of throwing it away, take it and see how you could repair it or what other function it can fulfill in your home.
The best way to avoid having to buy something new and make that expense is to simply repair the old.
I know that sometimes you will not have another and you will be forced to buy something new, but the more you can avoid these types of expenses, the better.
Look for specialists who can repair it and it will be much cheaper.
If you do not even want to invest in a specialist or because it is something delicate that you do not want someone else to touch, see how you can repair it yourself.
8. Write down everything you spend at home
At least once a month there is an unforeseen expense in the house, it can be something extremely small and insignificant, or something that represents more money than you would like.
These types of contingencies are what make your savings not see much the light when you are almost forced to spend what you had saved to solve that problem.
Now, when you take either from your savings or your remaining budget for other expenses, you usually forget to write down that expense.
You already need to keep track of them but for some reason, we always forget to write down those extra things that we had to spend during the month and when you get to the next one you don’t remember very well what you spent it on.
Not only will it help you keep track of it, but it will force you to put in more effort the following month to make up for that unexpectedly used money.
9. Invest in energy-saving light bulbs
Every time I enter a house, there are more times that I see normal bulbs which consume a large amount of energy, instead of saving ones that would help you save more than 70% in consumption.
I know that energy-saving light bulbs are more expensive than normal ones, however, they are not MUCH more expensive either.
Also, being someone who used to have warm light bulbs and is not very economical all over the house, I know that the electricity bill sticks a lot in my pocket just by leaving them on for several minutes.
After I switched to energy-saving light bulbs, I started saving a lot more money on my electricity bill than I thought.
On the other hand, something you should not know is that the bulbs that help you save energy have a much longer and longer life, and especially if they are led.
While a normal light bulb lasted me a month, a saver-led light can last me up to 6 months or a year depending on how much I use it and no, I am not exaggerating.
10. Place large windows or bay windows
A good window is a great investment and if you take it down to the level of having glass doors to the patio or the windiest place, even better.
Before I told you that one of the things that you spend the most is heating or air conditioning, that’s why I suggested using ceiling fans instead of so many appliances.
But together with the ceiling fans, you can also add openings to your house, windows or sliding doors, so that it is much easier for the air to run through it and you do not need to refresh your home in another less ecological way.
Although it can be a bit expensive to create more windows and all these kinds of things, you will appreciate it when you see the electricity bill.
In case it is very cold, you only need to close them and a couple of blinds or curtains so that light enters without having to open them and expose yourself to the temperature, in addition, you give more privacy in case that is what you are worried about.
11. Save on phone
If you are one of the people who love to call or use your cell phone a lot, this is also a household expense since where you usually consume it the most is while you are there.
If the one you spend more on is the landline than even your cell phone, then start by lowering how much you use it a bit and save more on your phone bill.
Basic services are more expensive than most would think before owning your own home, so the more you save on them, the more money you have left for you.
The phone is like something indispensable, but try to use it only when it is strictly necessary and do not spend hours talking about it.
12. Make a budget
I already mentioned that you should write down all the unforeseen expenses that occur in your house, but that it is also very important that you take note of everything you should spend on and from there, create a budget.
This will allow you not to spend more than you should on household expenses and perhaps even save more than what you had stipulated.
Keeping track of all your expenses is the key to saving either at home or on other things and while you do it, you will see a lot of savings in your little pig.
So sit down once or twice a month and budget along with monthly spending planning.
13. Eat fresh
Most people believe that going to the market weekly for fresh vegetables and fruits represents more expense than simply shopping for the month.
The same goes for protein like chicken, meat, or fish.
Believe it or not, it is the opposite. There must be many times when you lose some of your food through carelessness or because it’s just too much food and you don’t have the right time to cook it all.
So in the end you just end up spending more money on consumables than you think.
So I recommend you go weekly or every few days to the market and buy everything fresh, this will not only help you save money but you will start to have a healthier food habit and consume everything for the day without keeping them for so long.
14. Fix the little things FAST!
There are times when faults or unforeseen events arise that affect you drastically and you must solve them as soon as possible, but when they are more insignificant and small things, you usually let them pass for several days or weeks, even months and when you realize it, it got so much worse.
When you have a small fault at home it is better to go directly and repair it as if that affected you on a large scale at the time since when you decide to leave it for later, it will always be like that and in the end you will have to spend more on its repair because it got worse with the weather.
So, as minuscule as it is, repair those little details as soon as possible to avoid that later your bank account is practically empty for always delaying its repair.
Something as small as a leak in the bathroom or kitchen can result in a total plumbing change and a lot of money, rather than having just a piece or two changed at the time you saw the defect.
15. Use your car as little as possible
It is not a secret that gasoline is not cheap at all, but if you also add all the oil changes, parts that you have to replace at some point, it ends up being a bigger expense than you would like.
So instead of taking your car to even the corner, use the walk or bike method more.
It is very comfortable to go everywhere with a car, but if that represents one of the biggest expenses, it is better that you manage it a little better and all that, take it to your savings.
In addition, in the process, you help the environment and on the other hand, it does not cost much to walk to the corner, I have seen people who take it to go a few blocks just for laziness.
Cheer up a little more too and see it as a way to be more active in turn.
Probably wanna read:
- How to avoid spending money unnecessarily
- How to be more organized with your money
- Errors that lead to financial problems
