Helping Your Wallet in the Winter – 5 Ways To Save

My friends, I am living in crazy weather-ville! Snow one week, almost 70°F degrees outside the next. What the whaaa? It’s such a far cry from the weather we had in San Diego. I nearly had a stroke when we received an almost $800 heating bill our first winter here! It was time to learn how to save money in the winter. Not an easy feat for someone who thinks 72°F on the thermostat is cold! Now that winter has rolled back around short of me dressing like an Eskimo I learned some ways to save money during the highs and lows of the season. A big thanks to Vaseline for partnering with me on this post so I can share my tips to help you and your family cut costs, too.

Save Money in the Winter – 5 Ways to Get Started

Get an Automated Thermostat

I was a skeptic when it came to automated thermostats, but I put my reservations to the side and the hubs and I gave it a whirl. I tell you I love it. We receive an energy report each month and we have the thermostat programmed to maximize energy use in the house. When we leave the room it knows and we can control it via our phones or online. We’ve saved hundreds of dollars and it paid for itself in a couple months’ time. It’s user-friendly, the instructions are really simple and it just looks sleek on the wall. I set it and forget it! Bonus: it helps you save all year ’round!

Get your water heater a blanket

Confession: I had never heard of a water heater blanket, or jacket before we moved to Arkansas. Low and behold I was talking moaning to someone from the electricity company and he recommended we get water heater jackets for our two units. These insulate the exterior of the water heater allowing the hot water contained inside to remain heated for longer periods so it doesn’t have to run as much to maintain a high temperature. This will save you up to 16% a year whether you’re on gas or electric!

Caulk!

Bust out that caulk and use it to seal leaks and gaps around your windows and doors. Check them thoroughly. You’d be surprised at what a difference those small drafts can make! It doesn’t take long to do and it helps your home retain heat. Typically you caulk the outside of your house. You can do the inside, too for an added barrier. We had a crack in this door and I could actually feel the draft coming in! Hubs applied some caulk, smoothed it out and voilà. No more draft. It would get down to the low 40’s easily in our basement. Now the thermostat hangs out at 60°F (with no heater running). HUGE difference.

Use that fireplace or get a space heater

Talk about keeping the place warm! Make sure your chimney is clear of soot build up and debris then use that bad boy. We use ours almost everyday in the winter. I’ve had a lot of people tell me they don’t bother to use theirs, but when the heater doesn’t even kick on because we have a fire burning, that’s a wonderful thing. Plus it’s a bit romantic, too. If you don’t have a fireplace try a space heater. We have multiple HVACs and the one that controls our basement is pretty much turned off all year. It’s normally cool down there, but in the winter it gets really cold and it was the major culprit of the great $800 electricity bill of 2015. Space heater for the win. We use one that beeps if you get too close to it or put it too close to the wall. They use a fraction of the energy and work just as well.

Use Vaseline® Intensive Care™ Essential Healing Lotion

I’ve done it myself – spent quite a lot of money to try to keep my skin moisturized during the winter. I particularly have a challenge since being diagnosed with eczema. Sometimes less (money) means more (results) and lucky for me Vaseline® Intensive Care™ Essential Healing Lotion leaves skin deeply moisturized and looking noticeably healthier. AND for just a few dollars! Since it’s available at Walmart, drug stores, the grocery store and ohhhh just about all mass retailers I don’t have to go hunting for it or make a special trip (double savings: no extra gas being used). Even better – it’s approved by my doctor. It’s light, doesn’t have a strong odor and when the fam is going from inside a heated house to outside with wind and cold, or the funky dry weather we don’t have to worry about our skin. We wash our hands a lot more in the winter to ward off germs and we also tend to bake more which means more dishes, but no worries. Vaseline® Essential Healing has us covered and we get to enjoy making messes in the kitchen. My favorite part, though? They conduct business in accordance with my personal motto “the gift is in the giving!” If you are in the U.S. and make a Vaseline® lotion (or jelly) purchase it will help support Direct Relief through the buy one to help heal one promotion. I have loved the The Vaseline® Healing Project for awhile now. Check it out here to see what a big difference they’re making. (Triple bonus: You are giving back with a purchase you’d already make.)

So there you go ladies and gents. Five ways we’ve made some changes to save money in the winter – that actually work! If you have ways to save money in the winter, please share them in the comments below!

 Thanks again to Vaseline® Intensive Care™ Essential Healing Lotion for sponsoring this post.