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" In the time it takes to file your fingernails or watch an episode of Desperate Housewives, you can easily pare down household costs. Start this weekend, and by this time next year, you could earn back as much as $2,056 or more (our figures are estimated based on a family of four living in a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house, with average expenses). Bonus: Most money-saving strategies are also energy-efficient, so you&amp;#039;ll have a greener, healthier home. You just need to make some simple shifts in your habits. Here&amp;#039;s how:  Empty the Attic Chances are, you&amp;#039;re sitting on (well, under) hundreds of dollars in unwanted household goods. These three sites will help you get cash for your castoffs  Sell.com: Instead of working your local paper&amp;#039;s classifieds, try this Web alternative. It&amp;#039;s free to join, and it costs between $1 and $6 per item to post an ad that runs for up to 30 days. Once you accept an offer, you can receive payment directly or through a service like PayPal, and negotiate shipping costs and methods with the buyer. Furnituretrader.com: Consignment shops aren&amp;#039;t just for clothes. This virtual store helps your old dining room set or Grandma&amp;#039;s dresser become money in your wallet. Prices to list items vary with the value of each item and length of time listed (from $1.95 to $19.95 for one month up to $4.95 to $49.95 for four months). Amazon.com: You&amp;#039;ve been on the receiving end of this online giant&amp;#039;s packages for years, but now you can peddle your own books, toys, DVDs, housewares, and tools with the site&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Sell Your Stuff&amp;quot; feature. Amazon gets a 6- to 15-percent commission, plus a $1 transaction fee per item. No matter how much time you have to spare, you can save money in your home with a few simple steps. Just choose your time frame and start saving!  Got 1 minute?  Drink tap water instead of bottled. Give up those plastic containers, and save about $1,250 a year. That&amp;#039;s how much a four-person family spends if buying sixteen $1.50 20-ounce bottles of water a week (whether for the kids&amp;#039; lunches, your commute, workouts, running errands, etc.). You can all drink your full 64 ounces of water a day \u2014 an astounding $2,190 if bottled \u2014 from the faucet for a total of $2 a year, and it only takes seconds to fill up a glass or a reusable plastic water bottle. (Even if you bulk buy $5 cases of 32 bottles from a discount club, you&amp;#039;ll still save roughly $130.) Worried about contaminants? Invest in a faucet-mounted filter for a low $30.  Turn it down a notch. Your thermostat, that is. During colder months, lowering your heater&amp;#039;s temperature by two degrees can lower your bill by about $40 a year. If you&amp;#039;re still having air conditioner weather, also know that power companies suggest keeping your AC at 78 degrees. Go five degrees below that, to 73, and your cooling bill can rise nearly 40 percent. For long-term savings, consider installing a programmable thermostat, like the GHRI-recommended Honeywell RTH8500 ($120), which you can preset to cool the air or pump up the heat (say, right before you get home from work) to pocket as much as $150 in savings every year.  Got 5 minutes?  Make your toilet low-flow. You&amp;#039;ve heard that new models use a maximum of 1.6 gallons per flush (GPF), compared with older models that use anywhere from 3.5 to 7 GPF, and can save you about $180 a year in water costs for a two-bathroom home. But you don&amp;#039;t have to replace your toilets to save on your bill. Fill a plastic drink bottle with water, cap it, and put it in a corner of the tank, where it will decrease the water needed per flush. Switch to compact fluorescent bulbs. Replace just five incandescent bulbs with newer, greener CFLs, and you&amp;#039;ll save almost $35 a year, keeping the lights on at least four hours a day. Energy Star-qualified bulbs use about 75 percent less electricity and last up to 10 times longer than incandescents. The overall winner in recent GHRI tests: Satco&amp;#039;s Energy Saving Mini Spiral Bulb 13W ($3.49).  Next: Save money in 15 minutes, one hour, or an afternoon Got 15 minutes?  Screw on a new showerhead. Swap out your old, inefficient sprayer for a new low-flow, 2.0-GPM (gallons per minute) model from any home-improvement store, and save 7,300 gallons of water per year, not to mention the energy saved to heat it. That equals about $120 more in your bank account this year, if each family member takes one 10-minute shower every day. In tests of low-flow showerheads earlier in the year, GHRI&amp;#039;s favorite was the 2.0-GPM Waterpik EcoFlow ($25). Turn off electronics \u2014 really. An eye-popping 75 percent of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are off, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. &amp;quot;These &amp;#039;phantom electrical loads&amp;#039; are what allow your TV to respond when you turn it on with the remote control or your DVR to record shows when you&amp;#039;re not home,&amp;quot; explains GHRI technical and engineering director Stacy Genovese, &amp;quot;but since people now have more and more electronics, the cost to &amp;#039;power&amp;#039; them when not in use adds up.&amp;quot; Over the course of a year, a single plugged-in-but-turned-off item can drain anywhere from $8 worth of electricity (for a printer) to $11 (for a DVD player) to $19 (for a computer). Head to the local discount store for UL-certified or equivalent power strips with on/off switches, which stop the power from flowing through the cords. Then group plugs by function (think computer, printer, paper shredder on one strip; TV, DVD player, stereo on another). Get in the routine of switching them off when turning off your machines, and net about $46 a year.  Don&amp;#039;t hand-wash dishes. Here&amp;#039;s some priceless news for busy moms: It actually costs about $36 less each year to run full loads in the dishwasher than to scrub dishes yourself. The savings go up to $42 if you already own an Energy Star model.  Got an hour?  Line-dry your clothes. After the fridge, the dryer ranks as the second most energy-hogging appliance. Plus, line-drying lessens wear and tear on your clothes, and the breeze gives them a fresh smell. Run your dryer half as many times each week, and save an average of $32 a year (visit linedryit.com for more tips and contemporary clotheslines). Don&amp;#039;t want the neighbors to see your skivvies? String up a line indoors.  Weather-strip your doors. If the foam and rubber strips that seal your doors to the outside are old and cracked, it&amp;#039;s time to replace them (strips start at $2 at home-improvement stores). It&amp;#039;ll save about $30 a year in heating and cooling expenses.  Got an afternoon?  Turn down the lights. Installing dimmer switches helps create an inviting atmosphere, and it makes financial sense: A regular bulb dimmed by 50 percent uses less energy, and extends its life \u2014 for a savings of almost $5 per 60-watt bulb per year. Figuring on three bulbs in the family room, two in the dining room, and one each in three bedrooms (lit four hours a day), that&amp;#039;s about $37 a year. Go green. Leafy trees provide protection from the sun&amp;#039;s heat in summer, yet let in light during winter. Plant several trees, especially on the south and west sides of your home, being sure to shade your AC unit, and save as much as $250 a year in energy costs.  Visit the pros. Want more advice specific to your region or type of home? Check out the Energy Star Home Advisor at energystar.gov.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/money/advice/a16966/money-saving-home-strategies/>