With summer comes a multitude of short weekend trips or longer family vacations. Amidst all of the preparations for these getaways sometimes we can forget about leaving our house in a condition to save some money while we are gone. Here are some ways to save some money while you are away:
- Turn down the air conditioner. This is the biggest one! Unless you have a house sitter staying in your home there is no need to blast the air conditioner for an empty home.
- Lower the temperature of the water heater. Hopefully you are off laying on a beach or swimming in a pool so it doesn’t matter if the water heater back at boring old home isn’t hot while you are gone.
- Use a light timer. It is always a good idea to leave a light or two on while you are out of town, just in case, but there is no need to leave one running all day. Simply set a lamp with a timer to turn on once it gets dark outside.
- Unplug. Unplug electrical items that do not need to be consistently plugged in such as lamps not in use or cell phone chargers.
- Double check, double check, double check! Make sure all windows and flues are closed. Also make sure that there are no leaky faucets or any water source left running.
In general when we think of vacations, money saving does not often jump to mind, but with these tips hopefully the burden on your wallet can be somewhat lessened while you are off having fun!
