Cheap Ways To Make Your Home More Energy Efficient

Cheap Ways To Reduce Power Bills

Lots of people dream about alternative systems that can reduce reliance upon grid energy. These are great, but they require an large upfront investment. For example, it might take several years to get home solar energy to pay for itself.

You may eventually free yourself from the power company, but it can take several years to actually recoup your investment in the form of cheaper electric or gas bills and payments from the power company for excess energy produced. Consider some cheap DIY home projects to make your home more energy efficient!


Does your home really have enough insulation? 

You might be able to enjoy a very quick payoff in the form or lower utility bills and a more comfortable house if you simply add to your home. Most U.S. homes are insulated, but most do not have enough. Besides, there are lots of gaps in the walls, around fireplace mantels, in window frames, and even below doors that leak out the air you have spent a lot of money to cool or heat.

DIY Home Energy Efficiency Projects

The best news is that a lot of these energy efficient improvements can be made as a DIY project at home. If you tackle adding more insulation to your attic, for example, you might only need to spend a few hundred dollars, and this money might be recouped within a year or two. If you need to plug up some drafts in your home, you could fix a lot of problems with inexpensive weather stripping, sealant, or even duct tape, and you could get your money back in months.

How To Make Your Home More Energy Efficient 

You could start with any cold or hot spots you already notice in your home. Speak with the helpful salespeople in the store to get ideas for affordable ways to fix these problems. You can also find websites that will help you figure out if you have enough insulation in the attic of a house that's a few years old. Many very new homes have plenty of insulation, but houses that are a decade or more old may not. A simple inspection of your attic should tell you a lot

Your long range goal might be to free yourself from the grid, but you will want a well-insulated house anyway. In the meantime, lower your electric or gas bill today. That might give you the extra funds you need to make more improvements in the future, and that is a very frugal course of action.

Healthier and Possibly Cheaper Recipe Substitutions

Healthier Recipe Substitutions

I was preparing a little lens on cheap grocery shopping and decided to touch on recipe substitutions that might help some folks save a little money. This started me thinking about recipe switches that might do the following:

1. Be healthier
2. Save money
3. Be on hand if the original was not - i.e. be handy
4. Taste just as good

My main goal was to be healthier, but if the alternative was also healthier that would be good too.  I put taste as no. 4, but it should actually be fighting with number 1.

Substitute Tomato Soup for Oil in Cake

Anyway, this one actually goes back to rationing days during World War II. It calls for using tomato soup in cake instead of oil. It cuts out a lot of the fat, and is an inexpensive substitution. You can see an example recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-tomato-soup-spice-cake/

Unsweetened Applesauce for Sugar, Oil, or Butter 

This is another surprise that really works.  1 cup of unsweetened applesauce is naturally sweet, and it only has about 70 calories - or about 1/10 as much as a cup of sugar. If you use it to replace sugar, try it in something like oatmeal cookies. You can use it as a replacement for oil in sweet breads and cakes.

Stevia for Sugar 

This is a natural sweetener that is very low in calories and also provides fiber. Stevia is sweeter than sugar so watch the amounts. Also, at first glance it may seem more expensive, but again - you should not have to use as much.

Turnip or Cauliflower Mash for Mashed Potatoes 

Honestly, after I cook and season turnips they seem pretty much like potatoes to me. If you have some really sensitive eaters at your family table, try half and half. You can also grate cauliflower to replace rice. You'll do better on the calorie count either way.

Turnips made my list of easy vegetables to grow yourself.