Vacation money-savings tips abound, but what is often forgotten are the expenses left behind. Yes, your house is costing you money even when you\u2019re not there using it. While you can\u2019t exactly suspend your mortgage payment, there are ways to save on utilities and extras you won\u2019t miss while away on vacation, leaving you more money to spend on your trip or at least your bank account a little less light after your vacation spending. Here are a few ways to give your house a vacation, too.<\/p>\n
Suspend certain services such as phone, Internet, cable, etc.<\/strong> If you\u2019re taking your cell phone with you, you might want to save yourself roaming charges and temporarily switch to a nationwide plan. These are more expensive than state-wide or area plans, but way cheaper than roaming charges. Determining to simply not answer your cell phone can also work as long as you don\u2019t cave in, but you may need to in case of an emergency.<\/p>\n Another useful tip is to turn off \u2018data roaming\u2019 on your smart phone if you\u2019re out of the country to avoid hefty overage charges. Utilize your Wi-Fi settings and locate free Internet locations such as cyber cafes if you need to check your email.<\/p>\n Unplug major appliances and re-set heating and cooling temperatures.<\/strong> Pull blinds and close curtains to keep out the sun and maintain the temperature in your home naturally; also close doors to rooms without vents that don\u2019t need to stay cool (or warm).<\/p>\n If you are using a security light system to turn your lights on automatically at various intervals, change these lights to CFLs to save even more electricity since they\u2019ll be getting used more heavily.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll be surprised how much you can save by following these tips \u2013 as much as 10% of your electric bill, 25% of your home cooling and heating bill, and potentially several hundred dollars on suspended amenities. \u00a0So the next time you go on vacation, make sure you\u2019re letting your house take a little break, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Vacation money-savings tips abound, but what is often forgotten are the expenses left behind. Yes, your house is costing you money even when you\u2019re not there using it. While you can\u2019t exactly suspend your mortgage payment, there are ways to save on utilities and extras you won\u2019t miss while away on vacation, leaving you more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[515],"tags":[108,53,74,58],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3735"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIf you\u2019re planning to be away more than a week or two, you might consider suspending amenities you won\u2019t be using while away, but will still be racking up a bill. Many phone companies allow you to put your land line on vacation mode, which suspends your normal service with the exception of emergency calls to 911. \u00a0Surprisingly, you can even suspend your cable, Netflix, or Hulu account for periods of time without damaging your service contract. If you don\u2019t already know if your cable or Internet service providers have vacation options, find out. If they don\u2019t, you may still be able to bump your plan down to a minimum while you\u2019re away. You might even discover once you get back that you didn’t miss them at all and decide to save money more permanently. <\/a><\/p>\n
\nYou won\u2019t be needing hot water at 6am while you\u2019re gone, so reset the thermostat and timer on your hot water heater as well as your home\u2019s heating and\/or cooling system and your refrigerator. Major appliance such as the computer, television, stove, washer, and others pull electricity even when they\u2019re not being used. Unplug anything that doesn\u2019t need to be working while you\u2019re away.<\/p>\n