My husband and I learned an expensive lesson last week. We woke up one morning to something that smelled like car exhaust pumping through our house. Once we investigated the odor, we realized it was coming from the oil boiler, which my husband immediately turned off.
Turns out we’d forgotten to schedule our annual boiler cleaner in 2008 and now we were paying the price. Not only did we not have any heat on one of the coldest days of the year (we have baseboard heaters, with water the oil boiler heats), but we had to pay an emergency fee to get a technician out to our house to fix the problem so we wouldn’t freeze that night. Actually, we ended up paying twice.
First we called our home warranty plan (for which we pay $600 a year) with American Home Shield because HVAC systems are covered on our plan, and paid our standard $55 for the service call. But the guy they sent couldn’t fix our problem. So then I had to call our oil company who sent someone right out who cleaned the oil boiler, replaced the nozzle and only charged us $116.
All is well with our oil boiler now, but it reminded me that there are certain things in life where paying for regular checkups can really save you money in the long run. These things include health-related screenings as well as regular maintenance on items you use daily.
Here’s a partial list of what you should be checking up on regularly:
(Remember: I’m not a doctor and I don’t play one on TV so this is just my generic advice to get your own mind turning on what you need to do. You are responsible for your own health and well-being, and the care and feeding of your personal belongings. You should discuss any questions with professionals you trust and not just rely on advice from a blog as being your be-all-end-all source of information.)
AUTOMOBILE
* Change your car’s oil every 3,000 to 5,000 miles or about every three months. (Macarena Sansone, owner of Sansone’s Service in Henderson, Nevada, says that people who live and drive in extreme weather climates should lean towards oil changes on the 3,000-mile side.)
* Have the mechanic give your car a once-over every time it’s in for an oil change. For example, when I brought my Ford Freestyle in for its last oil change, the mechanic alerted me to the fact that my car was approaching 60,000 miles and so were my tires. Translation? Prepare to buy new tires sometime in the next three months.
COMPUTER
* Back up data nightly if possible
* Run virus software and check for software updates regularly (I have my computer set to do this weekly)
HEALTH
* Visit your dentist twice a year (more if you have dental problems). I still remember a sign in the dentist’s office I visited when I was a kid: “Ignore your teeth and they’ll go away.”
* Get a complete physical/well check for your child once a year
* Keep your tetanus shot up to date to keep your healthy; you need a tetanus shot every 10 years.
HOUSEHOLD
* Have your heating and cooling system cleaned and evaluated each year.
* The Frugal Yankee recommends vacuuming your heating/cooling registers regularly.
* The Frugal Yankee also says you should vacuum the coils on your refrigerator every six months. (Oops, I’m a bit overdue for this one.)
Do you have other regular maintenance that you perform on yourself or your stuff that you believe saves you money in the long run? If so, what do you do and how has it benefited you financially?
READ LEAH ON HOME GOES STRONG
On the fridge: if you have pets, you may want to vacuum the coils on the back quarterly – if not monthly – as well as cleaning up underneath really well. Pull out the stove too – you’d be amazed at the amount of pet hair that can get trapped under and behind appliances and lower their efficiency or worse yet, cause a fire. Blech.
I’m so glad they were able to get the boiler fixed. It’s too bad it was so costly but at least you weren’t sitting there for a week or something with no heat. Phew!
I do have a dog who sheds “tumbleweeds” all over the house in the winter. (In summer we keep him clipped so he stays cooler and we have less shedding.) I have reached under the fridge and the stove when cleaning to get the hair I could see, but I just bent down with a flash light and, ewww, gross, there is a ton of hair under there. Maybe I need to convince DH to pull out both the fridge and stove this weekend for a good cleaning. Thanks for that suggestion.
I should add that with regards to pets, I give my dog heartworm medicine and flea/tick application on the first of every month as part of my regular “checkups” for hime.
Re: Furnace Check-up: My guy comes every fall, but, since he’s always booked way ahead, I write a reminder on my August calendar…”schedule the furnace guy.”
Re: Health Check-up: To save money for those 2 yearly visits to a dentist, find a teaching college/university with a dental hygienist program. Dental clinics are always looking for new patients. Yes, the exam takes longer than a dentist’s office because the student’s work has to be checked by a supervisor, but you can’t beat the price. I pay $18.00 for my check-up/cleaning and $22.00 if x-rays are taken.
Re: Automobile Check-up: The manual that came with my 2003 Jeep Liberty included a coupon book. Pages list odomoter miles (like 25,000, 40,000, etc.) and, besides regular oil changes, it also recommends what else should be checked or serviced. It’s a great reminder for me. I always take it to the dealer as a reminder for them.
All good ideas, and, yes, that’s really my mom. Hi, Mom!
We lost our refrigerator this summer to dog and cat fur. I found I was only getting to a fraction of what needed to be cleaned out. There was at least an 1″ thick mat of fur that I cleaned out after the fact. (By the way I found out that my groomer can blow out my golden’s fur when she’s in a shedding mode which saves 2-3 weeks of huge clots of fur all over the house.)
We’re on a yearly plan for our furnace but still the furnace likes to play tricks on us. The last thing was that a recirculating pump “froze.” A little oil in what was supposed to be a “no oil required” pump saved an emergency call.
YOU are totally 100% on the $$ with this one! My mantra to my husband is “maintenance, maintenance, maintenance”. When I was a single Mom I was so on top of all of this and then when I got married for some reason I thought “oh, let him do that” WRONG decision!
Now I have anointed myself the maintenance maven of the house and other things and I no longer ask permission to have someone come out to check on things, I just call the guy and, poof! He or she is there checking out things.
Great advice, Leah!
One other point: If you have septic make sure you get that pumped/checked out regularly. Think about how many loads of wash you use and how often folks take showers.
Also, pest control: I called a pest control company to come out and eyeball the exterior of our property. Didn’t cost a dime! and they let me know if it appeared that critters or bugs were lurking. BONUS: they didn’t even try to sell me a plan or anything.
Good additional advice on septic systems and pest control. We’ve been considering having someone come out and give us an estimate to get rid of stink bugs. I hate them and they’re everywhere!
I’m hoping to get some advice on how thorough you need to be when vacuuming the fridge coils. Our fridge is really hard to pull out from the wall, so I’m wondering if I could do a reasonably good job just by sticking the vacuum hose behind there and attempting to be thorough. Or, do I really need to pull it out so I can see what I’m doing?
I’m not a Maytag repair guy and I don’t play one on TV, but my guess would be that you should vacuum as best you can so that there is no longer any obvious dust or hair on the coils or behind/under the fridge. And you might want to get someone to help you pull out the fridge so you can get behind it. Because you really can’t do a great job if you can’t reach all the way around. Good luck.
Leah
Some good tips here, but the part about oil change is outdated. Most modern cars don’t need oil changes until 7-20k miles now with better oil, better engines, and better engineering.
Good to know, though I would recommend reading your car’s manual to find out what mileage makes the most sense for your car. I’m sure the mechanic will tell you to come in sooner but at the same time I wouldn’t want to put off the oil change (beyond what the manual recommends) just to save money in the short term. Because in the long term, I believe you’ll pay for that miserly mistake. Thanks for stopping by and for posting a comment.