Ways to Save Money on Your Summer Energy Costs

It’s not quite summer yet, but that gives you the great opportunity to get ready and make sure that summer energy costs don’t bust your wallet. With oil and gas zooming to record cost levels, you can bet the home use of electricity and energy will be more expensive this summer than ever before. It’s time to get back to basics here at Super Saving Tips and talk about how you can save your money on your summer energy usage!

Electric fan blowing air representing saving on summer energy costs

Where Do You Begin? Fans?

Summer means warmer temperatures and although it’s welcomed, it also means that you’ll be turning on fans and air conditioners to try to keep cool. That should prompt you to take a good look at those items and make sure they are all working properly and performing at their max. In the case of fans, are they sized right for the rooms they are in?

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Believe Me, You Should Never Have a Mortgage When You Retire

You know how I often say you can learn from life and sometimes you learn from the mistakes you make? Guilty here! One of my biggest bungles was and is the fact that in my 70s, I still have a mortgage on my home. Now in my defense (and of course I will defend myself), there are a few good reasons why this has happened. But my advice is to try as damned hard as you can to never let it happen to you the way it happened to me. No mortgage when you retire!

Condos representing not having a mortgage when you retire

Let’s Start at the End First?

I am going to assume you grew up and lived either in a house that your parents owned or wishing and hoping you had one. After all, it’s the American Dream to be a homeowner and has been since the days of the covered wagon and the westward expansion. In other words, people wanted to own something, a little piece of land that was all theirs. That tradition became the American Dream and despite all of the complications and costly price tags it still does exist today.

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Renters: Is It All Doom and Gloom in Your Future?

Are you a renter? Millions of people are these days and the numbers have been climbing now for several years as those who had returned home to live with mom and dad have now decided to get out and live on their own. They are finding new living quarters, but there’s a real problem here and its roots go back to the housing crisis of 2008-2009. Because of it, renters may face doom and gloom in their financial future!

Renter in his apartment looking sad representing renters concerned about increasing rent

What Are Rents Right Now?

The average monthly asking price for rent in the U.S. increased over 15% year over year to a record high of $1,900/month, according to a new report from Redfin. To make matters worse, the national median monthly mortgage payment also climbed 31% to $1,716, also the biggest increase on record.

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Why Inflation Rates Are Scaring the Hell Out of Me (and How You Can Beat Them)

I don’t really have to spell it out for you: you know it every time you shop. Inflation rates are soaring over the past year and it is now at its highest rate in four decades. It is hammering consumers, wiping out pay raises, and reinforcing the Federal Reserve’s decision to begin raising borrowing interest rates across the economy. I think, however, that they really missed seeing this coming. Frankly, although I am not an economist, I did see it and it makes me angry and scared when I think of what this inflation cycle is going to do to all of us.

Chart of rising numbers representing inflation rates

All of this it comes along with two years of a worldwide pandemic, so where is there any good news? The Labor Department said yesterday that “consumer prices jumped 7.5% last month compared with 12 months earlier, the steepest year-over-year increase since February 1982. Shortages of supplies and workers, heavy doses of federal aid, ultra-low interest rates and robust consumer spending combined to send inflation accelerating”. How’s that to go with your morning coffee and bagel?

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5 Ways to Stop Wasting Your Money & Strategies to Save

Inflation is doing a number on your budget. Things get pricier every day, and you’re always looking for ways to cut back: coupons, sales, brown-bagging your lunch, bringing your own coffee to work. In fact you have heard all of these before to stop wasting your money, haven’t you?

Man in business suit at stop sign telling him to stop wasting your money

Those are all smart tactics, since small savings do add up. But sometimes the really big savings options are right under our noses. Some money-saving tactics are things we never heard of before, but others are things we know we should do and are just too overwhelmed to start. It’s time to look at some ways to stop wasting your money and put them into action!

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Is It Worth Buying a Home Warranty?

For today’s guest post on buying a home warranty, please welcome Dividend Power.

The last two houses that we bought were older ones. The first house we bought was built in the 1980s and the second one in the 1990s. Both were good houses and well built. Older houses are also in more mature neighborhoods making them more attractive. However, there are often concerns about aging appliances, roofs, plumbing, electrical, and other systems when buying an older house. In addition, the cost of repairs or replacement can run into hundreds or thousands of dollars. As a buyer, you can often get the seller to include a home warranty for the first year as part of the deal. However, what about the second year, or suppose you have been in a house for a decade? Is it worth buying a home warranty in that case?

A house you might want to protect with a home warranty

What is a Home Warranty?

A home warranty is typically bought at the time of a home purchase. It provides a warranty on major appliances along with plumbing, heating, and electrical systems, and roofing. Major appliances include furnace, air conditioner, water heater, dishwasher, oven, stove, garbage disposal, and garage door opener. Other appliances can be included on an optional basis. A home warranty is valuable if the home purchased is old and has old appliances or systems. In general, a home warranty will cover the service and repair of major appliances and systems. A home warranty may also cover replacements of major appliances.

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How to Save Money on Laundry: Washing and Drying Your Clothes

I often say about things I write about that “I learned it from my mother”. Well, truer words were never spoken when it comes to the subject of washing my clothes. It may sound like a nothing burger, but really, washing your clothes is so basic and important that if you don’t do it with care and thought, it will wind up causing you real money pain and even embarrassment. (I’ll get to my most embarrassing washing moment in just a bit!) But it’s actually pretty easy to save money on laundry.

Family washing clothes to save money on laundry

Laundry is something that we have to do at the very least on a weekly basis. Since it’s one of those chores that needs to be done week in and week out, making just a few changes in your habits now on how you wash clothes can end up saving you a ton of money over the course of the year.

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Is This the Best Time to Buy a New Home?

Buying a new home can be a necessity, a dream come true, a financial investment, or a combination of any or all of those reasons. Despite the groups of people out there that don’t want to own any home for any reason, home ownership is still a big part of the American dream, as it has been since the days of the pioneers.

Exterior of a beautiful house, what you might look for to buy a new home

Think about it for a second. Have you ever seen any of those old movies where the wagon trains rumbled across the country and hundreds of folks loaded up a covered wagon, risked their life and limb, and tried to start a new life out west somewhere? Part of that new start always involved building a future with a new home at its core. I still believe that rings true today, minus the wagon train part of course. So now that the pandemic is winding down and life is beginning to resemble what it was way back in the beginning of 2020, is this the right time to buy a new home that you have been waiting for?

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