And It's Only Going To Get Worse!
For now, our economy is terrible and it's not going to change any time soon. So what does this mean to us as homeowners?
1. We probably aren't going to be moving any time soon, so we need to take really, REALLY good care of our houses. Bad economy or not, houses need maintenance.
2. We need to find ways to cut back, to save money, to live on less.
So here are a couple of ideas to help with both of these needs.
Here's one really powerful money maker AND money saver ...
Don't pay for your electricity any longer...
Instead, the power company will pay YOU!
Most of us aren't going to go this far - but we at least ought to consider this. At least learn how you reduce your power bill by 80% or even eliminate it completely . Not only that, if you create more energy than you use, your power company will actually pay you! The Earth4Energy kit will tell you everything you need to know about creating electricity in your very own backyard.
You can build a great looking solar power system for as little as
$200 simply by using parts found at your local hardware store.
You can use this system to power up basically any appliance you have in your home: fridge, washing machine, computer, TVs, lights. In addition, you can even take this with yourself when you go camping, because it's highly portable.
Most of us are staying home more now, and even - dare I say it? - cooking! Eating meals as a family. Well, if that's you, here's a fun idea ...
Pressure Cooking!
When I was a little girl my Mom had a pressure cooker that was rather dangerous. If you didn't know what you were doing it was possible for the thing to explode. My brother and I saw that happen once and the mess was horrible! Meat dripped from our ceiling for days! BUT - we loved it because of the food my Mom cooked. She took tough old roundsteak, popped it in the handy-dandy pressure cooker, and it was so tender we could cut it with a fork.
The thing is that I was scared of that pressure cooker after witnessing an explosion. And for darned good reason. But fortunately, today's pressure cookers aren't anything like that. They're safe and they have a ton of advantages:
1. Less energy is required than with any other method except a microwave [and those darned things change the molecular structure of the food and damage the cells of the body! sorry, but it's true] because the food cooks much faster.
2. Foods cooked in a pressure cooker need less water, especially as compared to boiling, steaming or oven cooking.
3. Since food is cooked above the boiling point, any possible bacteria are destroyed.
4. Pressure cookers are great sterilizers for canned goods or baby bottles.
5. Since food isn't drowned in water, green vegetables maintain their beautiful colors.
6. There are tons of pressure cooker recipes from appetizers to desserts (I can't really decide if chocolate cheese cake or southern style rice pudding is my favorite - I guess it's whichever one I'm eating at the moment. :-)