General Savings Tips for Homeowners: 2024 Guide

There are several ways to save money on the various costs associated with homeownership, such as upgrading your appliances to more efficient models, staying on top of maintenance to prevent needless damage, writing off eligible expenses on your taxes, looking for more favorable insurance rates and more.

Read the rest of our guide to learn more about how to save money as a homeowner, from lowering your existing costs to avoiding new, unwanted expenses.

How To Save Money as a Homeowner

Below, you’ll find nine homeowners savings tips that will help you understand some of the best ways to reduce household expenses and keep extra cash in your savings account.

1. Upgrade to Energy-Efficient Appliances

The less power your appliances need to work properly, the more money you will save on energy bills, which is why it may be beneficial to switch to more energy-efficient appliances, especially if your current ones are older. For example, one analysis estimated that the average American household could save $107 per year on utility bills due to updated minimum required efficiency standards for about 20 appliances passed under the Biden administration.^[1]

In particular, it’s important to make sure your heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are working as efficiently as possible since heating and cooling account for close to half of your home’s total energy usage.^[2]

When shopping for new appliances and home systems, you should check for the ENERGY Star label, which indicates that a product has been certified as meeting energy efficiency standards set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy.

2. Practice Regular Home Maintenance

Keeping up with home maintenance can help you save money in the long run, since you may be able to catch potential problems in advance and prevent unnecessary damage. Examples of some basic ways you can take care of your home in order to cut costs include:

• Cleaning out gutters and downspouts so they don’t get clogged and cause water damage when it rains
• Checking your roof for holes that need to be patched, especially if a storm is on the horizon
• Sweeping your chimney to clear out creosote and lower your exposure to a house fire
• Hiring a professional to inspect your HVAC, plumbing and other systems for signs of wear and tear or other damage that needs to be addressed

3. Refinance Your Mortgage

Depending on your circumstances, you may be able to save money by refinancing your mortgage, which involves taking out a new mortgage to pay off your existing one and then paying off the new mortgage loan with a lower interest rate than the original. While this can lower your monthly payments and/or the amount of money you have to spend across the entire life of the loan, you should note that mortgage lenders may have some restrictions.^[3]

For example, you may not be eligible for a mortgage with a lower interest rate unless your credit score has improved since you took out the initial loan. In addition, you should pay attention to whether refinancing would require a burdensome amount of upfront fees and other closing costs, extend your loan repayment period or lower your home equity, since these situations could counteract the savings you might otherwise secure with a lower interest rate.^[3]

Fortunately, you generally don’t have to make a down payment when you refinance your mortgage like you do during the initial home-buying process, so you can let the lack of a new down payment fund some of the other expenses related to refinancing.

4. DIY (Within Your Means)

It is often cheaper to perform certain home improvement projects yourself or with a group of friends or family members than to hire a professional to do them for you. Examples of do-it-yourself (DIY) projects that could save you money include:

• Painting
• Deep cleaning
• Building or repairing shelves
• Making your own plant fertilizer
• Changing your oil and performing other basic car maintenance tasks
• Applying caulk around your shower or bathtub

Of course, you should keep in mind that the cost-effectiveness of any DIY project will depend on your skill set and other factors. If you lack the abilities, experience, tools or materials needed to do a job properly, then you may cause unnecessary damage, which could end up costing you more in the long run than if you had hired a professional in the first place.

5. Take Advantage of Tax Deductions

Several common expenses related to homeownership are tax deductible, meaning you don’t have to pay federal income taxes on the money you spend on them. Examples of tax-deductible expenses for homeowners include mortgage interest, property taxes, medically necessary home improvements and, in some cases, home equity loan interest and discount points.^{[4][5][6][7][8]}

Additionally, you may be able to deduct homeowners insurance premiums from your taxes in situations where you use the home for commercial purposes, such as if you have a home office that you regularly and exclusively use for work or if you rent out a house for a profit.^[9][10]

Keep in mind that you should only itemize deductions on your taxes if your tax-deductible expenses for the year collectively exceed the standard deduction, which is a set amount of income that most taxpayers can freely write off on their taxes. In the following table, you’ll see the standard deduction amounts for people of various tax filing statuses for the 2024 tax year.^[11]

6. Install Proper Insulation

Adding insulation to the attic, floors, crawl spaces and other parts of your home can lower your heating and cooling costs by 20% and your overall energy costs by 10% on average. When determining what insulation materials to use, you should pay attention to each material’s R-value, which measures how effective it is at reducing the amount of heat that moves from outside of your home to inside of your home and vice versa.^[12]

7. Utilize Smart Home Technology

You are also likely to lower your power bill if you switch to smart home devices and appliances, which can regulate your energy use by automatically turning themselves on and off when appropriate or giving you the option to remotely turn them on and off using your smartphone. See the below table for examples of how much you could lower your energy expenses for different types of technology by switching to smart home variants.^[13]

8. Maximize Your Current Living Space

If your family is growing, you should look for opportunities to be more efficient with how you use the space in your current home before purchasing a bigger house that will require you to withdraw more money from your savings account to cover a larger monthly mortgage payment. Some ways you could maximize your living space include:

• Investing in multipurpose furniture such as a pull-out couch or a coffee table with drawers for storage
• Purchasing a stacked washer and dryer unit
• Organizing your closets, garages, sheds and other storage rooms
• Regularly cleaning out your home and getting rid of items you no longer need
• Storing items under beds or on wall shelves

9. Shop Around for Better Home Insurance Rates

Homeowners insurance companies have different methods for determining rates, meaning one carrier may offer you a better deal than another carrier on the exact same kind of policy, so you should shop around and compare quotes from multiple insurers at least once a year.

With SmartFinancial, comparison shopping is easy. Simply answer a few questions about your coverage needs and personal characteristics and we’ll get you in touch with agents who can help you find the best insurance policy for your circumstances at no charge. Compare home insurance rates today with SmartFinancial.