Buying a home is a big investment! Yet, it’s only the start of your long-term financial commitments. When you first become a homeowner, you’re automatically responsible for your own home maintenance. But, if you’re not careful, what could be hundreds, can become a fortune!
Of course, you should expect to pay for some home maintenance because nothing remains brand new forever. But it doesn’t have to be expensive! So, you want the job done right but you don’t want to break the bank? No problem! Have a look at some of these tips for saving money on your home maintenance.
Four Ways you can save on your home maintenance!
Focus On Prevention.
It’s entirely possible to prevent or delay some expensive home maintenance tasks. For example, here are some extremely costly tasks you’ll have to deal with at some point:
- Replacing your boiler
- Repainting your home
- Repairing/replacing the roof
All of these tasks can set you back hundreds, maybe even thousands of pounds if you’re not careful. And they’re unavoidable! But, you’ll need to do them more frequently if you’re not focusing on prevention. The average boiler lasts around fifteen years, but yours may need replacing after ten if it’s not looked after properly. At the same time, you could extend its life to twenty years simply by using preventative maintenance. All you have to do is get it serviced once a year and focus on using less energy. This means the boiler isn’t overworked and any minor issues are noted and dealt with before they manifest as life-ending. In this case, preventative maintenance is the difference between changing your boiler once every twenty years or once every ten years.
The same goes for other tasks too. For example, if you touch up your outdoor paint regularly with a protective primer, it should stay in better condition for longer! And let’s not forget about your roof. It also needs to be serviced at least once every few years or as soon as issues present themselves!
Over the course of your life, prevention can save a fortune on so many home maintenance tasks.
Invest In Quality.
Picture the scene: you just spent a lot of money buying a house and now you’re keen to save some cash. It means you’re inclined to purchase things for your home that are more budget-friendly than others. This can seem like a good idea, yet it’s a problem when you think about home maintenance costs.
You might want a nice deck outside, but you also don’t want it to cost a fortune. As a result, you buy the cheapest decking material you can find. The trouble is that cheap decking is prone to rot and will cost a lot of money to maintain and keep it looking in excellent condition. If you visit the website in this link, you’ll see other decking materials available, such as aluminium? It’s more costly upfront than cheap decking materials, but it has the benefit of being much easier to keep. It lasts longer, stands up to the elements better and doesn’t require extensive cleaning.
You can apply this line of thinking to so many other aspects of your house – like the washing machine. Look at a site like Currys and you’ll find washing machines ranging from a couple of hundred to a few thousand. It’s super tempting to automatically pick the cheapest product – but is it the cheapest over time? A more expensive washing machine could handle bigger loads so you’re doing fewer washes per week. It also might have a better energy rating, so it costs less to run. This already saves money, but consider the build quality too. A premium washing machine is likely to last a lot longer before it needs to be replaced or repaired, which saves money over the course of a lifetime.
You get the point! To truly save money on home maintenance, start investing in quality items that last. This doesn’t mean you always need to buy the most expensive thing you can find; choose whatever item presents the best value for money.
Do It Yourself.
A little bit of DIY can go a long way in the savings department.
Sure, there’ll be home maintenance tasks you have to outsource to someone else. Major plumbing tasks – or the previously mentioned boiler replacement – should be done by trained professionals. There’s no way to avoid paying for help in some situations, which is why you should try to do everything else yourself.
Here are some home maintenance tasks you can theoretically pay someone to do, but are more than capable of handling alone or as a family.
- Carpet Cleaning
- Window cleaning
- Gutter cleaning
- Mowing the lawn
- Fixing leaky taps
- Replacing damaged door hinges
- Interior painting
- Some flooring jobs
- Sealing, depending on the severity
The list can go on forever. You’ll be surprised at how many tasks around your home are easy to do. As a golden rule, try to do everything on your own unless there are big risks involved. If there’s a chance you can cause a bigger problem by making a mistake, or the task is extremely technical/dangerous, then call in the pros. Otherwise, DIY home maintenance will help you spend a lot less money.
Maintain A Good Frequency.
The final way to save money on home maintenance tasks is by maintaining a good frequency. What the hell does this mean? It refers to how often you perform maintenance. Let’s take vacuuming your home as an example; how regularly do you do this?
If it’s only done once every two months, dirt and dust can accumulate and pose bigger problems. Suddenly, your carpets are harder to clean as dirt is now ingrained in the fibres. A regular vacuum won’t do the trick, so you either invest in an expensive steam cleaner or call a professional to help.
Conversely, imagine you vacuum once a week. You don’t give dirt or dust time to ingrain itself into your carpets, so they’re easier to clean. You’ll be able to handle the task with a normal vacuum cleaner and avoid splashing the cash.
The same theory can be applied to almost any maintenance job you can think of. If you maintain a good level of frequency, you stop the job from being overly expensive. The longer you leave it, the harder it gets to perform the task which usually means it will cost more to handle.
Have you found other ways to save on your home maintenance?
From one homeowner to many others, I am always looking for different ways to save on my household bills. Be it maintenance bills, electricity, heating or anything else! Share with us how you go about saving the pennies in the comments below!
Interested in more home-related articles? Check out these below!
- Creating a comfortable space in your home.
- Reasons to buy your own home.
- How to organise your kitchen.
- Get the best out of your renovation!
- The connection between home and health.
- Displaying artwork in your home: Why?
- Level up your spring clean!
- Making the most of your backyard!
- 9 Creative Ways to Use Glass in Your Home Decor.
- Customising your window blinds.
- Outdoor lighting on a budget.
I love all these ideas to save money on home maintenance! Thanks so much for sharing them!
The article pertaining to cost-effective strategies for home upkeep offers homeowners with helpful insights and recommendations. During the discourse on cost-effective measures, the significance of upholding heating and cooling systems became apparent. The efficient operation of furnaces and air conditioning units not only facilitates energy conservation but also mitigates the need for expensive maintenance.
These are great ideas! We are always looking for ways to save money on home maintenance. It feels like it’s never ending!
Excellent post. Owning a home at times is challenging, especially with maintenance. These 4 ways great ways to save on maintenance costs.
These are excellent tips for maintaining the home. It’s such an important investment. Keeping it repaired and preventing problems is a great way to protect that investment.
Thea are four great tips on how to save money in home maintenance. Definitely investing in quality is so worth it in the long run especially.
Homeownership is a lot of maintenance! I am a DIY kind of person but I think I am getting overwhelmed! I still do things myself though.
Great post, I don’t own a house but this would be great to have for the future. Thank you for sharing!
I save by doing many home maintenance tasks. Someone stood on my letterbox and broke the lid off. So I asked for one as a gift, and my son installed it. My daughter is really good with flat packs and can repair many things.
Getting a home warranty is money well spent. It helps pay for unexpected home repairs. Highly recommend.
I always do my own maintenance when I can. It’s cheaper and more satisfying.
Definitely important to keep your house well-maintained! Also love a bit of DIY to save money 🙂