It’s Not Too Late to Save Money with These Fall-Time Chores

While the first day of fall may have come and gone, you still have plenty of time to prepare your home for the harsh conditions of winter.

Prioritizing your household maintenance, even late, can help you reduce your utility bills. You’ll thank yourself for these savings during the energy-sucking winter, when you rely on your furnace to keep your house warm and toasty.

Check out these fall-time chores that protect your home and deliver impressive energy savings.

Fall-Time Maintenance is Growing in Importance

The fall has always been a time when homeowners to focus on their household to-do list. As summer’s sizzling temperatures transition into the deep freeze of winter, the fall creates the perfect conditions for work in and outside of the home. Not too hot, not too cold, and usually not a lot of rain.

Recently, the fall has been an especially important time for homeowners as a chance to save money. Inflation is just one of many factors causing your utility bills to climb. You’re also paying more because of extreme weather events, refinery shutdowns, and even geopolitical issues.

When a sudden, unexpected spike in your utilities strike, you may reach out to a lender like Fora. Fora Credit may be available in emergencies outside your control, like an overflowing toilet that causes your water bill to double one month. You can rely on a line of credit to cover this spike while you pay for repairs with your savings — or vice versa.

But what about ongoing hikes to your utility bills? A line of credit can be helpful in an emergency, but Fora doesn’t recommend using it for monthly bills. While it can cover provide relief in the moment, it only defers the issue until the next month when you’re faced with another expected bill.

Here’s How to Reduce Your Energy Bills

Higher bills may seem unavoidable these days, but subtle changes to your habits can promise serious savings.

Try out these chores before the winter hits:

1. Use appliances at off-peak times when possible.Waiting until off-peak times to run your dishwasher, laundry machines, and oven can cut your bills by a third.
2. Replace your furnace filter.A dirty filter makes it harder for your furnace to circulate air throughout the house. By replacing this filter regularly, you can save up to 15% on your energy bills. Your furnace won’t have to use as much energy to work with a clean filter — and it won’t break down as often.
3. Locate and Eliminate Drafts.A drafty home will let out all the warm air your furnace worked so hard to create, causing it to run constantly to replace this heat loss. In an ideal world, you have the budget to upgrade to energy-efficient windows and doors. However, you still stand to reduce your energy costs by as much as 20% by replacing cracked or damaged weatherstripping and outfitting your windows with insulating plastic.

These fall-time chores aren’t labour intensive, nor do they take a lot of money to complete. With $50 or less, you can purchase a set of furnace filters and weatherstripping. This one-time investment can help you save a lot more on your utilities all season long. Paired with some new habits, like waiting to cook and clean during off-peak hours, you can control how much energy you use with these fall-time chores.