As a parent, you’re likely always on the lookout for a way to save money in your home. After all, raising kids is expensive enough on its own without having to deal with expensive maintenance and repair fees, too.
However, as carrying out home maintenance tasks plays a crucial role in keeping your property in good working order, it’s not something you can ignore either.
Photo by Mitchell Luo on Unsplash
With that in mind, here are some simple ways to keep the costs of home maintenance down without letting your property fall into chaos or putting your family’s health and safety at risk.
See if you can ‘Do It Yourself.’
Sometimes, the most cost-effective way to deal with home maintenance issues is to do it yourself. While many moms may be quick to count themselves out when it comes to being able to deal with complex home maintenance issues, in a recent study, “more than a third (37%) of women said they are better at DIY than male siblings, family members, partners, and friends.” To put it simply, there’s nothing stopping you from being a fantastic mom and a home maintenance expert at the same time. After all, there’s nothing that moms can’t do!
As a result, each time you encounter a home maintenance issue, see if you’re able to handle the issue yourself. For example, there may be pre-existing guides or youtube tutorials that you can watch ahead of time to get yourself up to speed, which means that you can forgo the costs of hiring someone to do it for you.
Repair broken appliances instead of replacing them.
There are some home appliances we simply cannot get through our week without relying on. For example, if your washing machine were to break down, you could feel like you are drowning in laundry in just a few short days – especially if you’re looking after multiple (messy) children.
As a result, whenever these items break, it’s easy to think that the best thing to do is to pay to replace them entirely. However, this is easier said than done when considering that they can cost several thousand dollars.
Instead, you should consider more cost-effective solutions. For example, if your machine breaks down because a certain part is faulty rather than the entire machine, you can simply replace this component for a fraction of the price you’d pay on a new machine. Even better, you can find the parts to fix your washing machine online!
For other appliances, like your air conditioner, consider getting AC unit warranty coverage to protect yourself from unexpected repairs or replacements. This way, you can enjoy a more budget-friendly approach to home appliance maintenance while ensuring your essential systems remain reliable.
Inspect your property regularly.
Carrying out regular property inspections on both the interior and exterior areas of your home can help you to keep the costs of home maintenance as low as possible. This is because it means you’ll notice any issues sooner rather than later – and the earlier you find them, the cheaper they’ll be to fix.
Fortunately, a home inspection does not need to take up too much of your time; you simply need to ensure you pay attention to areas of your home you may not see during your day-to-day life, such as your attic, basement, and roof – as many home maintenance issues originate in these areas.
Know when to bring in extra help.
While hiring a maintenance specialist may not always seem like a cost-effective solution, it is sometimes necessary, especially when it comes to carrying out any electrical or plumbing work. After all, in addition to the fact that you simply aren’t qualified for this kind of task, which means you’d be putting your safety at risk when trying to complete them, you could easily make the situation worse in your attempt to carry out repairs. This could lead to more extensive damage, which requires much more complex repairs moving forward, costing you more money in the long run.
As a result, you should be able to admit when specific home maintenance tasks need to be carried out by an expert so that you can bring in reinforcements when necessary.
Set up a ‘rainy day’ fund.
While there are many ways in which you can work to keep the costs of the repairs down, it’s crucial that you also have some money set aside for when things go wrong. This way, you won’t be scrambling to get together some cash in the event of an emergency.
Fortunately, there are many ways in which you can go about setting up a rainy day fund or saving money. For example, you’d be surprised about how much money you can save by setting aside as little as ten dollars each week.
