Spending to save

[mamaofprincesses]

You ever find that you need to spend money to save it? Right now, we're looking at low-flow showerheads, a heat keeper, drying racks to hang dry laundry, and an assortment of other small products that will, in the long run, save us money. We just bought cloth diapers - secondhand, at a great price, but still an initial investment for long-term savings. None of them are necessary, and we could probably find creative solutions for some of them, but we want convenience too. And there's the added bonus of many of them having environmentally-friendly qualities, too.

What have you spent money on for long-term savings? How do you decide if it's worth it to you, personally?

[Norasmomma]

We are currently getting ready to do this exact thing. Our tax refund is a fair ly large sum of money, so we are paying ahead for things we know we'll need.

One thing is traction tires, non-studded winter tires with snow rims, so we can easily put them on and off ourselves if necessary, but also because to switch the tires back and forth from our nice rims costs $40(or more) each fall and spring, so to save money put the tires on snow rims.

We're building a small area in our laundry room to start plants, putting in an orchard and other various home things, that right now won't pay off, but in the future definitely.

What we are trying to do is use the money we're getting wisely, I know that it probably is better to fully pay my CC off, but then ALL of that money would be gone, for us paying our property taxes, buying tires, finishing our bathroom and other household projects are first on the list. By finishing the house stuff it will save money because of insulating value and property value.

Sometimes you have to spend to save.

[SleeplessMommy]

my favorite low flow showerhead is $10 at lowes/home depot. don't go for "high end" on these.

[dagny.galt]

We spent a bit over $120 on heavy lined drapes (on super-clearance, but still) for our livingroom and dining room with their huge windows. It was an "eventually it'll pay off" thing at the time, but when the unexpected bitter cold snap we just got over hit our area, we were able to keep more of our heat *in* than we have during previous winters. The drapes' cost was more than made up in personal comfort and decreased bills.

We've also replaced most of our bulbs with CFLs, planted a lot of fruit trees and edible ornamentals in our landscape, switched to cloth on many things (diapers, wipes, napkins, paper towels, tissues), etc.


We decide whether things are worth it by their upfront cost, how long it takes to recoup that cost, and to some extent personal comfort/preference. CFLs were a no-brainer. They're easy to install and take very little additional effort after (unless one breaks, which we're careful not to do). Fruit trees and shrubs are costly, plus require additional upkeep, water, and care, but the return is higher-quality fruit that we have tended from blossom to kitchen.
The switch to cloth has been slower, mostly because the initial cost to replace everything at once hasn't been worth it in terms of personal comfort. I started with towels because that was our biggest paper product expense next to toilet paper, and the most likely to return the initial investment quickly. Then we switched to cloth napkins, and so on. We haven't (and won't) do family cloth TP, just because the return is not worth the hassle for any of us.

[ALittleBitCrunchy]

I do this. Most recently, I decided to start making my own bulk mixes for often-prepared foods. I wanted the convenience of a store-bought mix without the cost and the processing but it meant that I needed large air-tight storage containers that would be easy to store in my kitchen. I ended up ordering 8 of these --> http://www.amazon.com/Lock-Storage-2...4258265&sr=1-1 for $58 on Amazon (it's part of the 4-for-3 promotion) to store the mixes. So far, I have 3 in use and I love them. It's so quick and easy to make pancakes or cookies or cake and I am saving time and money.

I really debate the value on things like this and if I determine that I can save money in the long term, I save up the money to buy whatever it is and then get it. Another example is our freezer. I wanted to be able to prepare meals ahead and be able to stock up on meat by buying it from a farmer once a year - the savings and the health benefits were worth it so we saved up and bought a freezer a few weeks ago.

[mnnice]

I think a couple of things that have saved us the most are the goldtone metal coffee filter DH bought 13 years ago . He spent $8 on it and it has been used daily ever since (some days multiple times). The coffee maker we have takes expensive cone filters and we would easily go through a 40 pack per month. We bought the same coffee maker twice (a Braun that's no longer available) so we could keep using it.

Another low expense high return item has been putting clothesline in our basement. We have an electric dryer and fairly high electrical rates and I figure the it has saved us $30 each cold weather month we've used it. It works for us because DH and I are both geeks that find hanging up laundry a pleasant activity.

I think other obvious ones are CFL bulbs.

Items that have not been good returns are all my Kitchenaid attachments (grinder, pasta maker, ice cream maker). They are fun (and all have been gifts too), but I'm going to have to either use them a whole lot more or live to be 120 to make them cost effective.

[zebra15]

I dont know how long it is going to take to 'pay for itself' but I bake much more (like I almost never buy pre made dessert now) that I have a kitchen aid mixer. I still get boxed mixes but they are $1-$2 vs $7 -$8 for bakery dessert, so I guess that $15-20/week on dessert alone. I love that thing.

[confustication]

We're doing this with our tax return- for us, it's windows. We have old single pane horrors that are really making it hard to keep it warm in winter or cool in the summer. So, while I would like to go for fun stuff, they have to go in- our heat bill last month was $700.

We're also considering moving to an on-demand water heater.

[umarider]

We are putting in an efficient fireplace insert to heat the house. Our house isn't old, but was oddly insulated. After addressing what insulation we could, it is still cold. It's heated w/ heat pumps, but I find that type of heat drafty and everytime the pump kicks on I just see $$$ flying out the window.

A neighbor is able to get us firewood cheaply, but I want to burn it as efficiently as possible both to conserve $ and for the environment. So I looked for one of the new very efficient fireplace inserts. We're limited in our choices, so it ends up being a pretty pricey model that will fit in our fireplace and be able to heat the house well. I divided the cost of the insert by the number of winter months we'll probably get to use it during the 8 years we plan to stay in this house. Then I compared that amount to the amount electric bill increases during the months we're using heat. Right now it looks like we'll about break even, but then I reminded myself of how nice it will be to have the house warm, and not have drafty rooms and need to pile on sweaters, etc.! DH says that just having me not fuss about my cold feet, etc, will be worth the hassle of putting in the insert! Besides, chances are good that the cost of electric will most likely go up during the 8 years we're here.

[gothnurse3]

We built our own house. People thought we were NUTS for some of the things we did. We spent a ton on closed cell insulation that was blown in...but now...our utility bill is never over $150.00. We did on demand hot water heaters, e-gas windows, did a commercial kitchen from a deli that closed. All stainless cabinets. LOVE IT.

I have taught myself how to cook. I am making my own mixes too. I am trying to trim costs and control what we are eating.

I batch cook. I make *huge* amounts of a meal ( in my commercial kitchen) and divide it up and freeze it. So, no matter what we have a meal a heat up away. We very rarely eat out.

My van...we live in the south. We spent 2k more to go with a higher package that had a dual A/C. I remember dying in the back of my mom's stationwagon.

[HollyBearsMom]

Lots of time we do spend to save. We try to look at the long term investment/cost and then weigh our options.

Couple of examples:

Bread: When I decided to bake our own bread/make our pizza dough it was more expensive than buying premade. yeast, vital wheat gluten, bulk flour etc is a lot of money when you don't keep them stocked so my intial investment was pricey. However it has paid for iteself. I just recently invested in a good clay pott to take my bread nbaking to next level and am glad I did/

Hot water heater: Our was really realy old (over 30 years, we think) and even insulated my costs were very high. After doing a ton of research it was worth investing in a new one. I saved money on the monthly bills, received a tax credit and made cash by selling the old one for scrap.

Washer Machine: basically see above. Ours was really old (25+ years), was huge and used gallons and gallons of water. We only have cold water hook up but still the beast was $$$$. We bought a small front loader with a built in water heater. The amount of water we used has been cut in 1/2 so the water bills went down dramatically, as did our electric and we use less detergent. We rarely use the internal heater but its nice to have for the really bad loads.

[lucyem]

A new furnace. Ours is not that old but my DH said it is too big for the house, thus it does not run efficiently and uses a lot more oil then it should. Bigger is not better in this case.

The garden will cost a little this year to get up and going with fencing and raised beds. But once it is set it will be minimal after that.

[leavemealone]

There are a lot of small things that can be done to save money that don't cost a lot of money upfront. Low flow showerheads, CFLs, caulk around windows, draftdodgers under doors, etc don't cost a whole lot, but can really add up. Obviously, things like new appliances, new windows, etc cost a bit of money and for us, that's when we have to figure out if it's worth it for us to replace those things at this time or wait. Right now, we are waiting b/c nothing is broken so nothing needs to be replaced and we are going to be moving soon. We'll decide when we move if we will take the appliances with us or get new ones after the move.

[Deir]

Originally Posted by umarider

We are putting in an efficient fireplace insert to heat the house. Our house isn't old, but was oddly insulated. After addressing what insulation we could, it is still cold. It's heated w/ heat pumps, but I find that type of heat drafty and everytime the pump kicks on I just see $$$ flying out the window.

A neighbor is able to get us firewood cheaply, but I want to burn it as efficiently as possible both to conserve $ and for the environment. So I looked for one of the new very efficient fireplace inserts. We're limited in our choices, so it ends up being a pretty pricey model that will fit in our fireplace and be able to heat the house well. I divided the cost of the insert by the number of winter months we'll probably get to use it during the 8 years we plan to stay in this house. Then I compared that amount to the amount electric bill increases during the months we're using heat. Right now it looks like we'll about break even, but then I reminded myself of how nice it will be to have the house warm, and not have drafty rooms and need to pile on sweaters, etc.! DH says that just having me not fuss about my cold feet, etc, will be worth the hassle of putting in the insert! Besides, chances are good that the cost of electric will most likely go up during the 8 years we're here.

We did this too. Don't forget to figure in the value of just being cheerful on a cold snowy day!! I love our woodstove.