Is It Time To Pull the Plug on Your Water Heater?

Is it time to pull the plug on your water heater?

Did you know, second to heating your home, your water heater is the largest energy user in your house? The older your water heater is, the less efficient it gets. It will require more energy, which costs you more money. According to the Propane Education & Research Council, water heaters last about an average of 12 years. If you are a midwesterner like me, your water heater works even harder during those chilly Midwest winters.

Credit: Propane Education Research Council

If your water heater is closing in on a decade of age, it might be time to spring for a shiny new model. Don't wait until your water heater is on its last leg before your replace it. Simply replacing your water heater with an energy-efficient propane model can save you 13-16% in annual energy costs, which can add up to hundreds of dollars each year.

Did you know that propane is also a better source of energy than electric water heaters? Gas-powered water heaters deliver lower ownership costs overall. Tankless models are smaller in size than tank options, but they are more efficient – saving you money. If you factor in the annual cost to run an old, large electric water heater versus a tankless propane water heater with high efficiency, you will make up for the cost of the new heater and installation in no time!

Is it time to replace your water heater and switch to a different energy source?
Take this quick and handy 5 question quiz to find out if it's time to pull the plug on your water heater at KnowYourWaterHeater.com

This post was written by me and sponsored by the Propane Education & Research Council. I was compensated for my time, all opinions are my own.

Financial Peace with Capital One {{Sponsored}}

We've talked about money in the past here at Let's Just Build a House. We told you how we paid off all of our debt. All of it. Okay, well, all of it except the house. But, we still say we are debt free.

Today we are teaming up with Capital One to give more financial advice. This time we are talking about what you can do to set yourself up for financial success in 2015. Isn't that a great New Year's resolution to have? Especially after spending a few bucks this weekend on Black Friday. I know you did...I sure did!

Make a plan, make a Budget: The best way to set yourself up, is to plan ahead. It's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and lose sight of the goals we've set to help us achieve financial peace of mind. So make a plan!

Set aside "fun money": Even if you are trying to save money, and spend less in 2015, you still have to have some fun! Set aside fun money for yourself or you and your family. Whether it's a new pair of boots, or a trip to the movies, setting aside enough to splurge once in awhile helps so much when budgeting! We went on a "splurge trip" to Gulf Shores, AL this year. We REALLY wanted to go to an all-inclusive somewhere, but we had our goals set, so we splurged a little on a trip, and still stayed on budget.

Do you need it?: I know this is the opposite of what I just said. Have fun money, but also reevaluate everything you buy. I love my Birchbox every month. But is that a splurge or a need? At only $10 a month it may seem like nothing with all the fun makeup and goodies you get, but then again, it's $120 a year. If you have a credit card bill, or a debt that could go towards...maybe cancel that subscription for now!

You will feel so much better with a plan in place for 2015. I know we have a whole new kind of budgeting to do for 2015 with Baby N on the way! Kids, are not cheap, we already have figured that much out about parenting. But, don't you worry, we already have a plan in place. Now we have to stick to it!!

Be sure to check out Capital One's Black Friday sale (extended through this weekend!) to help you make your way to 2015 Financial Peace.

Once the Thanksgiving celebrations are done, be sure to add Capital One 360's Black Friday Sale to your shopping list. Visit http://clvr.li/cap1bfs to give yourself the lasting gift of financial peace of mind by taking advantage of Capital One 360's deals on banking, brokerage and mortgage products.


What tips do you have for saving moolah and getting yourself some #FinancialPeace in 2015? 


I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Life Change: This is now a blog about being a Princess. Sorry.

{{SPOILER ALERT: Oh goodness, I did not mean to throw out any baby vibes in my last post about what is to come from Let's Just Build a House. Oopsies. The post I promised and teased "Big Thing Checked off our Personal To-Do-List of 2014" is not a baby announcement. Thanks for all the babysitting offers. We'll take you up on those one day.}}

C-YA SmellsFargo.
One of the many student loans we paid off this year.

We are debt free. 

Yep.
Ok, kinda..debt free.

I say kinda because we do have a mortgage. But that’s it. Nothing else. 

No credit cards.
No student loans.
No car payments.
No piled up medical bills.
No furniture payments with that zero interest until 2030 business.
None of it!

Everything but our house has been paid for in CASH. Cold hard earned CASH. (and to be honest, a large chunk of the house was paid for in cash too!)

This is Lassie.

Even my (new to me) Jeep, we purchased in the Fall was paid for in cash and a trade for Blanche, my beloved Malibu.

Goodbye Blanche

Here is the thing. We don’t like owing people money. Some people don’t care. Some people are okay with having bills to pay every month. That’s okay. But that isn’t us. Trina and Adam don't like having debts.

And don't get me wrong, ...we do still have bills. Power, water, cable and internet, cell phone…homeowner’s & car insurance. Geesh, that’s still a lot of bills! But I guess we need water and power, even the internet. And we still have our house payment each month of course. We didn't knock that one out....yet.

How did we do it?

Well we have a rich long lost cousin that left us his fortune. 

Oh and also, we found out that I am the heiress to the throne in Genovia. This blog will now be only about Princess stuff…Hope you like it!

LOLJK WE WISH!!

Nope. Not really a princess. No long lost cousins leaving us their billions (that we know of yet...still have our fingers crossed).

We did it the hard way.
We saved our pennies. We don’t make big bucks. We have pretty average income for our age and the area we live in.

We didn’t read a book, or listen to a radio show, or any of that business. Although, we know some of those things work for others. But for us, it was simple: budgeting and saving.

Inexpensive Vacation on a budget. Still a BLAST & beautiful

Some of the other things we did that helped speed up the OPERATION: PAYOFF ALL THE DANG DEBT:

• Adam worked extra hours on Storm Team when it was offered. Sometimes he had to go to different states for a week at a time...but the extra money on the next paycheck was worth it!
• We skipped a few vacations. We really wanted to go to Mexico, or a cruise on vacation. But we planned a less expensive trip with our friends. We rented a beach house in gulf shores, Al for a 1/3 of the cost.
• We moved money every single month to savings. No matter what.
• For " fun & shopping" spending money I took old clothes and household items to consignment.
• Our stuff is not brand spankin' new. One example: Our 4-wheeler was a used purchase off craigslist, which Adam used his extra storm and savings of "fun money". 

We are big planners.
Now here is the thing. I get it. Not everyone is in the same boat. We don’t have kids yet. We don’t have the cost of diapers or daycare (which I hear is comparable to tuition at a University! YIPES.) But everyone has different debts. We had over 20k in student loans to pay off. That's a big debt for us.
We chose to build a big house, and tried to throw as much cash at that during the build to give us a break on our mortgage payment each month.  We started with paying cash for the land.

Why was it so high on our list of 2014 To-Do List?

• We are more comfortable when we have a plan for the future.
• We are trying to get ahead of the game before we have kids and have to spend buku bucks on daycare and diapers. 
• Adam and I are working on getting our retirement plans situated now --so we will not be working until we are 95 years old.
• We like to save for things like future cars and future appliances, way way way before we need them.
• We hate owing people money.

We probably could have done it sooner if we hadn’t built this house. Or maybe if we just built a smaller house. Maybe if I didn’t make as many trips to Target. Maybe if we didn’t choose the custom cabinets, or if Adam would've just skipped a few of his “MEN ONLY: BBQ, Blues & Beer” weekend trips to Memphis. But we did do it. That’s all that matters!

Do you have a plan to payoff debt? 

Have you paid off a big debt recently? How did you feel?