3 Ways You Can Start Saving Money on Your Home

Are you ready to start saving money? Who isn?t? Most people would answer ?yes? to this question yet many are paying unnecessary expenses without realizing it. Here?s a few things you should keep in mind in order to spend less money on your home, starting today.

1. Buy Generic

Did you know that the difference between a store-label ?generic? product and that produced by the manufacturer you know is often so negligible that you wouldn?t be able to tell one from another in a taste test? If you don?t believe this, try it yourself. The reality is, there?s not a whole lot of difference between cereals or even window cleaners — the extra dollar you pay is just going toward advertising costs. Sometimes the products are even produced by the same company — one just gets put at a lower price in order to increase the number of consumers they can sell to, while still netting the consumers willing to pay extra for perceived ?premium value.? Stop being that person and start seeing savings on your grocery bill.

2. Update Your Appliances

Did you know that over the past few years, large strides have been made in making products energy efficient? A refrigerator today can be twice as energy efficient as one purchased 25 years ago in the 1990s (yes? believe it or not, this decade is now quite far behind us!). If all your appliances are now as old as college graduates, it might be time to turn them in for something new. Realistically they?re going to start costing you money in repair bills, anyway, and you?ll also be able to advertise new appliances when the time comes to sell your home, as well.

3. Alternative Electricity for Your Home

Did you know that the actual generation of electrons — what produces electricity — now accounts for less than a third of the cost you actually pay for said energy? This is because energy companies are often hiking up the costs — they have a pretty good hold on the market, after all. Everyone needs energy to do even something simple in their home. What you may not realize, though, is that you get to choose your power suppliers thanks to the deregulation of electricity markets. You can opt instead for alternative energy companies, especially if supporting green energy is something that matters to you (you can opt, for example, for energy companies that produce energy through wind power). Alternative electricity for your home ultimately allows you to shop around, rather than be forced to accept a single price.

How would you go about obtaining alternative electricity for your home? Would you be up for getting new appliances that are increasingly energy efficient? Let us know your thoughts.