Stop Spending on the Non-Essentials in your Home

I'd like to welcome Anna Hicks who has written a post especially for DIYbyDesign.

Most people spend the majority of their money on things for the house that they don’t genuinely need. Then, when then things go bad or there is an emergency, they are left to stand there and wonder “but I earn plenty of money! Where did it all go?!?” Here are some ways to make sure that this does not happen to you.

Figure out what your priorities truly are. What good does having the most expensive furniture in the city matter if someone can break into your house with nothing more than a butter knife and steal all of that furniture out from under you? Home security definitely matters more than aesthetics. That doesn’t mean, though, that you need to spend a fortune on it. There are lots of companies, like home automation expert Vivint for instance, that will outfit your home with the latest in home security (video surveillance, automatically locking doors, motion sensor lights, etc) without eating up your entire savings account.

Do you really need to keep everything you’ve ever purchased? At some point we all toe the line between “frugal saver” and “hoarder.” Why not go through that jam packed garage and sell the things you don’t need? You’ll clear up a lot of space and earn some extra money that you can put toward home repairs or property tax bills.

Once again, it’s worth checking out companies like Vivint if you’re facing exorbitant household costs. Having automated thermostats and other appliances can help you save quite a lot of money on your utility bills—money that you can save up to move to a better home or spend on the fun things that you’ve been giving up because your power bill has been so high.

If you just remodeled the bathroom six months ago do you really need to completely gut it again? If you’re bored with how it looks (or it simply turns out that it doesn’t function as well as you thought it would) there are quick and more affordable ways to fix it up. Change a few small things before you have the entire thing redone again. Then, take the money that you would have spent on the remodel and put it into a high interest savings account to serve as your “emergency fund.”

It’s easy to get caught up in a game of trying to keep up with your neighbors, especially if you live in a competitive neighborhood. Before you lose control, though, it’s important to examine the priorities we talked about at the beginning of this article. What good does having a lot of expensive stuff do for you if your home isn’t secure and you can’t stay afloat during an emergency?

Thanks Anna.

-Judy