Saving for the Average Person: Procrastinate and Save!

People by nature tend to put things off. I know this first hand because my husband and I are those people.

Why paint the shed when it is 75 degrees out and we could be fishing??

So the gutters need realigning…the game is on!

The attic has 1 inch of 50 year old wool insulation in it…But Boston Legal is on!

Our house has had a lot of modern day owners…none of whom we are learning, stayed here more than 7 years. We are here 7 years THIS year and have done more to this house than any owner since the 70’s.

In the past year alone we replaced the 40 year old Lennox furnace which ran like a champ until the last day. Unfortunately, she had no computer brain like today’s furnaces and she just worked too hard.

Since we were at it, we decided to put in something this home has never had: air conditioning. Not that we have been able to use it. Seems we have to update our electrical from 100 amp to 200 amp first. And what would be the point of A/C with 80 year old windows??

Unfortunately (again with the unfortunately ) we had to put a steel liner and caps on our chimney first so that new computerized furnace could work and call me crazy, but heat seemed more important than A/C. Especially since we live in northern Illinois.

After that budget was busted we had to replace our 50 year old cast iron well pump that sat under our basement stairs like a goblin waiting to bite us. In it’s place we had a submersible, computerized (I am seeing a pattern here) pump installed. It is quiet and gives us water. Everything the old pump was not.

Some new drywall here and there and a few kitchen cabinets sucked the rest of our money out the drafty windows.

A few months rest from home improvement expenses brings us to yesterday. That is when I noticed that three of our neighbors were having their driveways sealed. Crap…you guessed it…we have never had our driveway sealed. And I know the previous owner who was here for 5 years never had it sealed. 12 years is a long time in a harsh winter state not to have a sealed driveway. So today some men are coming to seal our driveway.

Yesterday my husband was also off of work, so I took advantage of that fact and nagged him until he went into the attic to check out the insulation situation. Or I should say LACK of insulation situation. After hitting his head twice and hurting his knees on the joists the situation was no better. We still have 50 year old, wool insulation that is not thick enough to keep a fly warm.

The space is not that large, only a total of 500 square feet, so we made the call to an insulation guy who is giving us a deal on the highest warmth factor insulation we can buy: R-60. They will be here Friday.

Now I told you all that to tell you how to save money. Yes we had a LOT of expenses this past year, but by planning ahead and calling around before we needed to, we saved money.

Here is a break down:

Furnace and A/C bought in early spring as a combo deal. We shopped around and saved about $700.

Chimney work: Shopped around and found a company that would give us a military discount and combo discount on several jobs, IE: liner, 2 caps, cleaning fireplace side of flue and rerouting some exhaust pipes to our furnace and hot water heater. Savings: $500 less than 2 other companies.

Submersible pump on well: Again shopped around and found a guy who was honest and willing to work with us. Last December he came out and quoted us $2300. I balked at the price and cried a bit about all the money we were dumping into our money pit. I also added that we really needed a new pump since our old one had to be turned off when we were not using water or it would blow.

He then said that he had a pump that was taken from a new house and replaced with something twice as expensive because the new owner was a nut. He said that pump was only 2 weeks old and basically never used since the owner was not even living in the house. He still had the box and paper work and it was under warranty. He sold us that pump for $400 less than new!

Then he said we could save another $300 if we dug up the well head ourselves. It took my husband and I less than 2 hours to dig up the well head. In the end getting our water running again cost $1600 instead of $2300.

Driveway sealing: By being lazy about it and waiting until the very last minute we are getting 2 driveways that can hold 6-7 cars done for $175! Why? Because the seal coat guy has just enough sticky driveway sealer left in his tank to do our driveways and we are the last costumer of the season. PLUS he will have new costumers next year, because when I told my neighbor how much we were paying he told me he paid someone else twice as much and he has less driveway than us!

Attic Insulation: $375 for 508 sq. ft of R-60 blown in. Will pay for itself in saved energy bills. The owner said he will give us a guarantee on that in writing and good for 6 years!


Moral of my story? Life is expensive and being home owners makes it more expensive. But if you shop around and ASK for what you want there are deals to be made. Most people just get a quote and hand over their credit card. DON’T. Always ask for a better price and always call someone else if the first person says no. There is always someone who will say yes.


Mandi Gordon: Money Correspondent
Mandi's column, Saving for the Average Person, published every Thursday to Gather Essentials: Money…is the average persons guide to saving money on any average day.

Mandi lives in Northern Illinois with her husband Bill and daughter Beth. She enjoys saving money and sharing that knowledge with others. She knows there is enough confusing money info out there- it's time to start understanding and saving!

Keep up with Mandi's other postings and Gather articles by joining her Gather network.

Just click here or copy and paste:

http://mandi.gather.com

Then click the orange connect button on the left hand side of your screen.


You can also find Mandi and other Money correspondents at:

http://money.gather.com