Guest post by Jessi from The Budget Mama. Trying to save money on your winter heating costs can be a challenge, especially when the temperatures drop significantly. Over the years, my hubs and I, have had to come up with a few different and sometimes creative ways to keep our winter heating costs low so they do not break the budget. If you are struggling to get a handle on your winter heating costs, these seven strategies are great ways to keep winter costs low by keeping more heat inside your home.
Winter Energy Saving Tips: Ways to Keep Winter Costs Low
Free Source of Heat
If you have carpeting in your home, it can be super easy to add a little extra heat to your home without turning up the thermostat. During the day, when it is sunny out, make sure your blinds are open to allow the sunshine to shine inside your home. The sun will warm up your carpet allowing extra heat in those rooms.
Decorative Pillows
In the winter months, we keep those nice decorative pillows that belong on our bed, in front of the doors in our bedroom that lead out to the back porch. This helps to keep the draft down and the warm air in our home. We even take our couch’s decorative pillows and place them in front of our front and back doors.
Related: 60 Day Power Bill Challenge
Make Sure You Aren’t Losing Heat
When we purchased our home, which was built in 1979 and is a drive under ranch, our garage that is massive, had no insulation in it. I thought that was totally fine, until we realized that we were wasting a ton of heat because the air in our garage was causing our home to be colder. There was no barrier between the floor of our bedrooms (which are all directly above the garage) and the coldness of the garage. Once my hubs and my dad added insulation to the ceiling of our garage and to the walls that were not cinderblock, our heating efficiency was much better and our power and heat bills went down drastically.
Make sure all areas of your home are properly insulated and if you do have a garage, make sure you keep the garage doors shut even when you are home to keep the cold out.
Burn Wood
If you have a wood burning fireplace or stove in your home, use it. This is the number one way that my family saves on our winter heating costs – we keep a fire burning all day and night long on extremely cold days.
If you are worried about the cost of purchasing wood for your fireplace or stove, ask your friends, family, or neighbors if they would be willing to go in on a bundle with you. Typically, firewood is cheaper when purchased from someone who sells it, not when purchased from the store. Another option if you have a splitter, know someone who does, or you have a hubs that likes to split wood by hand, you can purchase unsplit wood typically for cheaper.
Invest in Fabric
I tend to be a super cheap chick when it comes to purchasing items for my home, but one thing that I will spend “extra” money on is quality blankets. It does not matter how they look so long as they are heavy and warm. Everyone in our home has their own extra blanket that is pulled out of the closets on extremely cold nights.
Don’t Be Afraid to Turn Up the Heat
This goes against most money saving philosophies, but when it is super cold outside, turn up the heat and keep it up. If you normally keep your thermostat at 68 in the winter, but the temperatures outside have dropped significantly and your furnace is practically running nonstop just to keep your home at 68 degrees, turn up the thermostat by two degrees to 70. This will allow your system to not have to work so hard to keep your home warm and you will not be as tempted to keep adjusting the thermostat just to “get the chill out of the air.”
Fixed Rate
Last, but certainly not least, one of the easiest ways to save energy heating your home is to have a fixed term rate with your gas company. Simply call them and ask what fixed rates they offer and how long of a contract you have to sign (usually ranges from six months to eighteen months). This will make budgeting for your winter heating costs easier and help to keep your bill low during the winter months.
Using these seven strategies will help you keep your winter heating costs manageable and will make budgeting easier during the long winter months. Sometimes all it takes is for you to get a little creative to save money.
What are your strategies for saving money on your winter heating costs? What are your best tips on ways to keep winter costs low?
Jessi Fearon is a wife, mom of two little boys, and writer behind The Budget Mama, a personal finance site where she shares her family’s real life on a budget. She is devoted to helping her readers thrive on a budget while becoming better money managers.
