Home DIY | Ways to Proactively Save Money Around Your House

Being a grown-up isn’t always fun but saving money is. Thank you to The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District for sponsoring this post. All opinions are mine!

Whoever said growing up is a trap, hit the nail right on the head. Being a grown-up at times can be completely overrated. Completely.

This weekend my neighbor took me to brunch for my birthday (remind me to tell y’all about turning 40), and over mimosas, she talked about how the county came to inspect her property after thinking she may have had a water leak when they noticed more water than usual being used at her home. Turns out, she forgot to turn the timer off on their sprinkler and it had been running every 4 hours or so, every day for the past two weeks. Sprinkler systems are fabulous, and can even help reduce overwatering, but they need to be monitored!

We hollered laughing at how high her water bill is going to be and how mishaps like this seem to be the foolishness that adulthood and homeownership are made of. Between tears of laughter, cause in these cases you have to laugh to keep from crying, I shared how high our bill was when we attempted to use the irrigation system and later decided the old school method of moving that sprinkler we ran through as kids manually around the yard and watching as areas got well watered was good enough.

I think everyone is trying to save a few coins instead of giving them away and one way to do that is to be proactive about home maintenance. Whether you rent or own, you can take steps to make sure you are doing your part to protect the environment, your property, and your coins.

One of the easiest ways of doing this is by paying attention to your water usage. You know the usual, don’t run the water when brushing your teeth, or washing dishes. Shorten your shower by 2 minutes. Wash your clothes in cold water, or the least amount of water needed. There are so many minor tips we can use to conserve water, but one we may overlook is simply checking our faucets and under our sinks for water leaks.

March 1th – March 24th is the EPA’s Fix a Leak Week. This initiative is aimed at making the public aware that there are more than 1 trillion gallons of water lost every year from simple home leaks. 1 TRILLION.

TRILLION.

That’s a lot of water… and money lost.

If you follow my Instagram stories, you know Adrian is all about keeping this house together. Whether you are an avid DIYer or a call in the pros type of person, spring is the perfect time of year for home maintenance. You can start by simply looking under your sink for leaks.

Things you’ll want to look for include: water drops along the pipe, a damp cabinet, or any sign or sound of dripping water.

According to the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District this is how much water we can easily waste:

A faucet that leaks one drop of water per second is equivalent to 8 gallons per day

A running toilet can waste up to 200 gallons of water a day

Household leaks are the most expensive form of property damage (that can be prevented

Yes, all of these from a simple drip, drip, drip, out of the faucet. The Metro Water District is passionate about educating the public on how to conserve water and money. Their efforts have helped the region decrease  water usage by more than 10 percent despite having a million person increase in population!

Interested in learning about more ways you can conserve water and save money? Be sure to visit The Metro Water District online, as well as on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.