While researching for our upcoming home repairs, I stumbled upon an article over at This Old House. Josh Garskof has put together a list of 50 nifty tricks for big do-it-yourself savings. What sort of nifty tricks? Tricks like these:
Close closet doors to lower the square footage you’re heating (and cooling). Shuttering closets along exterior walls also helps to insulate the house.
Get gently used tools, electronics, and furniture from Freecycle, an online community of folks who swap what they no longer need for stuff they can’t do without.
Appeal your property tax assessment yourself. One in three homeowners who do so are successful in getting their fees reduced, according to the National Taxpayers Union.
Get a free tree. Many municipalities gladly provide and plant ornamental trees in the swath of grass between the sidewalk in front of your house and the street.
Actually, if you own an “antique” home like we do (and even if you don’t), the entire This Old House website is a great resource. Where else can you learn how to build a table from stair parts?
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Those are some great tips and loved the links. I generally do most of the work on the house myself. Not only is it a great learning experience, there is also great satisfaction from doing it yourself.
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My parents have an “antique” house as well. While their neighbors are trying to modernize, my folks are restoring, so my father has become the master dumpster diver for authentic doors, moulding, and hardware.
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Restoration works three ways: it’s often cheaper than a modernization if you’re doing it yourself (the effort is in labor, not materials,) it’s better for the environment because you’re reusing something that would otherwise go to the dump instead of using new product, and it fits the house better. Antique houses often lack that big swath of front yard, too.
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I signed up for their email updates a while back. They’re always full of interesting and useful information (like the info. in this post).
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A lot of their savings amounts seem unreasonable. For example, if you were to do everything they say to save on energy costs, you’d be saving about $240/month on electricity/gas. I don’t even *spend* half that much right now. They also say you can save $50/year by making your own cleaning solutions. Assuming windex and such cost about $3 per bottle, that would mean I’d have to be buying 17 bottles of windex/409/whatever every year, even if I could make my own for free, to save $50 a year. I think I replace household cleaners (aside from dish soap) less than once per year on average. I don’t have 17 different kinds.
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Tyler, the savings amounts on these sorts of articles are always unreasonable. I never know why they list them. They make crazy assumptions, as you note. It’s not just this article — it’s all articles like it. Still, it has some good suggestions.
I just wish that articles like this would say, “I did X, Y, and Z and saved $124 in six months.” I’d find those more useful. And believable!
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It looks like its time to put the closet doors back up. Kids kept knocking them down so I just took them off. The tree is a good idea also. I live in Tucson, AZ. Anything I can do to lower the temp is a step in the right direction.
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That article ticks me off. They provide no back up for these amounts and many items are simply suggested maintenance, upgrades that make more sense to do as things die, buying/renting/hiring off-season or canceling useful services or features. Maybe I’ve just grown out of hearing the benefits of these things and just assume them. Seems like too many places are just fishing around trying to make it up to their number of tips.
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someone please explain how, over a number of years, paying every January’s mortgage in December will make any difference. I don’t get it.
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@mrfixr
It won’t make a difference. You can only do this once. And when you do, you “short-change” the next year. Eventually there’s going to be a year where you don’t do this, and you’ll pay and extra $500 (or whatever the article claims the savings is).
In other words, this comes out in the wash. If you’re pinched for cash one year, this might help. Otherwise it’s a lame tip.
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I guess I’m one in three! I successfully challenged my tax assessment three years ago and got it lowered. I can’t remember the exact amount – a few hundred dollars I believe. And they also corrected some mistakes about our house in their computer system which may have saved more in subsequent years (although a few of the errors were corrected in their favor as well).
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Thanks JD! and you know, come to think of it I’d rather get rid of #16 the “fall yard-cleanup crew”, clean my own gutters, and keep #43 the “trash pickup service.” I mean really… otherwise good article: nicely formatted, attractive font, orderly numbering…
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@J.D.
Although, you pay more in interest earlier in the mortgage, so if you do it “now,” it will create more of a tax benefit “now” than it would “later.” And it’s always better to take the money “now rather than “later” as well.
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My parents’ house is an antique one with some specific modern influences. Regarding me, when I’ll have my own home I’ll choose a modern one
.
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I was thinking the same thing about the mortgage tip…it’s good now, but it’s only a benefit the first year you do it.
Thanks for the list of tips, though…it was a fun read. And I’m going to check into the escrow thing. I think I’m not allowed to pay it myself, but it’s worth double checking.
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I never realised a laptop uses 80% less electricity than a desktop. Is that really true?
Won’t affect me anyway, I do use a laptop but my battery last for 7 mins when unplugged. Unless I am watching a DVD and it last for 3 mins.
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Re: upping the deductible on your homeowner’s insurance.
We looked at doing this in our new house that cost about $275,000. Changing the deductible from $500 to $1,000 came out to roughly $5 a month in savings; in other words, if we had to make any claim in the first 100 months we owned the home (8 1/3 years), this would have cost us money.
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I told my wife there are two major ways to deal with the recession. One is to earn more income. The other is to reduce expenses. Your article heps us do the latter. Thanks!
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Great article! These are very helpful tips! Thanks for sharing, I’m happy to visit this site, I’ve learned many tips from you regarding savings.
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