A Beginner’s Guide to Solar Power Installation

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

{This is a collaborative post}

If you are new to solar power and you’ve seen your neighbour enjoying the benefits, then you have probably wondered what steps your neighbours took to get solar power installed in their home. Most people believe solar power systems come with the house or belong to a utility company but the truth is that a solar power system is wholly owned by the homeowner.

The development of solar power in the past decade has surprised many people and this rapid development can largely be attributed to massive investments in solar power components by countries like China, Germany and the United States. The rapid uptake by the public was simply a matter of time, and in this article, we examine what are the reasons behind the market uptake of solar power and how to organise installation it in your home.

Why Solar Power is the Right Choice

Solar power is a renewable source of energy and therefore good for the planet. It will enable the shift from the destructive fossil fuel energy sources and usher in an era of greater energy dependence. For the individual homeowner, solar energy will lead to greater financial benefits in the long run and here’s how.

On average, American homes spend about $140 to $180 per month on energy bills. When this bill is added to other monthly bills, it can lead to financial difficulties, which can easily be alleviated with the installation of solar power.

How to Benefit Financially from Solar Power Installation

Though solar energy installation is expensive, this one-off payment can be beneficial in the long run. For starters, there are many financial incentives for homes choosing to go solar. Governments have subsidized the costs of solar equipment and even offered more tax incentives to homeowners to protect them from the financial constraints of shifting to solar energy. The sum of these incentives may even lead to a net zero cost to the homeowner in the long run.

One other overlooked benefit to transitioning to solar is that solar energy systems will greatly increase the value of your home. Most solar companies usually lead with this as an incentive to get new customers and though it sounds like a sales gimmick, it is actually true.

If you are residing in San Jose California and your goal is to fully benefit from these advantages, it is crucial to contract a reliable solar energy company in San Jose to offer you the best solar panels, and also to offer advice on which other best components to use for your solar installation. A good solar company will not only offer such consultation for free but also have well-trained installers to conduct a site visit and provide estimated costs for your installation.

In essence, getting solar power for your home should be viewed as just another renovation, but in actual sense, it offers better returns and you can finally enjoy complete energy freedom. This will not only protect you from energy uncertainties but also offer you more flexibility in powering your home.

Top 15 Tips for Building Your Family's Savings Quickly

Image Credit: Pexels

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Saving for your family's future can seem daunting, but with a little organization and some creative thinking, it's possible to bulk up your savings quickly. Don't be discouraged if you're starting from scratch - even small steps will add up over time. 

Young families sometimes run into money troubles by struggling to balance the family finances, often resulting in them exploring debt solutions and credit counselling. However, make sure to check out the below tips to ensure you can keep your finances on track and save for your family's future. 

Here are the 15 tips to help you get started. 

1. Make budgeting a family affair. 

There's no need to keep your budget a secret from your partner or kids. In fact, involving your family in budgeting can help everyone understand the importance of saving and be more mindful of spending. Get everyone on board by sitting down together to discuss your financial goals and how you can work together to reach them. 

2. Set savings goals. 

Saving money can seem daunting, but it's a lot easier when you have a specific goal in mind. Whether you're aiming to save for a down payment on a house, a family vacation or your child's education, setting a goal will help you stay focused and motivated. 

3. Automate your savings. 

One of the best ways to make sure you're saving money is to have it transferred automatically from your checking account to your savings account. This way, you'll never even see the money and will be less tempted to spend it. 

4. Cut back on unnecessary expenses. 

A great way to save money is to cut back on unnecessary expenses. Take a close look at your budget and see where you can trim the fat. For example, if you're spending $100 a month on cable TV, see if you can downgrade to a cheaper package or switch to streaming services like Netflix. 

Save Money on Your Mobile Phone Bill, with Airtime Rewards, for UK Networks

Image Credit: Airtime Rewards

About six months ago I received an email from EE introducing me to Airtime Rewards. It's an app you can download, add your credit and debit card details to and it sits in the background and logs your spend with the participating retailers. You then earn rewards for every eligible purchase and those rewards become money that you can use as money-off your mobile bill. I've received £30 off my mobile phone bill in the last few months and considering I only spend £10 a month, that has been three months of free service for me!

I love getting things for free and I'm sure you do too, and Airtime Rewards comes without any hassle or risks so I knew I had to spread the word and let others know about it too. So here is my lowdown -

Which Networks are Eligible?

The easy answer is all the big ones.  Three, EE, O2, Vodafone, giffgaff, Virgin Mobile, Tesco Mobile, ASDA Mobile, Lebara mobile, Lycamobile and Now PAYG. You can also use the reward for money off your pay monthly or pay-as-you-go contract.

How do I use Airtime Rewards?

1.  Download the app for Android or iOS. Complete the registration with your details including your mobile number, network and card details (you can register multiple cards and it takes around 24 hours to activate the card to start earning). Use my referral code Y7A844HB and we both make some money from it (see further down for more information). 

2.  Spend as normal and allow Airtime Rewards to do the work in the background. You can keep track of your spending if you want to and if anything is missed you can fill in the form within the app to log a missing transaction if it hasn't logged after 14 days. I don't bother, I literally sit back and wait for the cash to roll in!

3.   Keep an eye on what rewards you are earning. Then when you hit the minimum threshold for your network so can redeem the reward, or store them up for another day.

It really is super simple and feels like money for nothing. 

Eat Out to Help Out - Find out who is Offering 50% Discount in August 2020

Orangery Tea Room, Battle, East Sussex

Do you feel ready to join in with the Government's August scheme to help boost spending within the hospitality sector? From the friends I have spoken to, this scheme feels like a mixed blessing. On the one hand, they are keen to get out and have a meal, enjoying a sense of normality in this strange time, but on the other, they can be fearful that too much of a sense of normality is what will lead to a rise again in cases of coronavirus.

I've been out for a couple of meals since restaurants were allowed to re-open again at the beginning of July and personally I have found them to be fine. We booked for a time we knew would be less busy and found there is excellent distancing between the tables and considerate servers. So, for us, we will be joining in with this scheme and enjoy taking advantage of 50% off food and non-alcoholic drinks at participating businesses.

I felt it was apt to be organised, as all restaurants have less capacity than normal and booking is encouraged for most good restaurants, so I have booked for one night a week to try out a few new places and have some (hopefully) really enjoyable meals. My husband said to me to book for the ones that are normally more expensive and we might avoid, as this gives us an affordable way to try them out.

How to Save Money on your Family Travel

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Family travel! It can be one of the most fun and rewarding experiences. Unfortunately, it can also cost a lot of money, making it tough for many families to travel as much as they would like. The good news, however, is that there are some strategies you can use to travel without busting your budget. Keep reading to find out what they are -

1.  Compare prices

The great thing about booking holidays these days is that it can all be done online. The advantage of booking online is that you can compare you break with similar ones to check that you are getting the lowest price possible. However, doing so isn't quite as easy as when you are purchasing a physical product. The reason being that what vacations include and how they are displayed can often be quite different from provider to provider. 

You may have also noticed that the low price you discover when first visiting the site fluctuates and even goes up daily. Although searching again via a VPN, using an incognito page or after clearing your computer's cookies should take care of that particular problem, and you won't end up with overinflated prices.

2.  Use exclusive offers run by tour operators

Utilising the special offers that tour operators run can be very beneficial, many operators offer particular deals for families with younger children, such as free or half-price child places. These kinds of deals that can save you a significant amount of money, especially if you have a brood that is on the larger side. But remember to book early, to bag them, as there is normally a limit number of spaces available. 

Ways to use your Smartphone to create a better Financial Future for Yourself

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Most of us spend hours on our smartphones. We have become very reliant on them. So much so that smartphone separation anxiety has become an actual condition. We love these little devices and would find it hard to live without them.

Yet, most of us are only scratching the surface when it comes to what our phones can do for us. As you will see below, with the help of the right apps you can start to build a more financially secure future for yourself and your family. Sounds good, right?

Invest on the fly

Using this investment app, you can keep track of the investments you already have. But, perhaps more importantly, it also enables you to invest on the fly. So, for example, if you get a bonus from work, you can immediately identify a way to invest that cash. This will stop you from frittering that bonus away over the weekend.

Track what you are spending

Managing your day to day spending is critical if you want to stay out of debt. Knowing how much the essentials of life cost and budgeting accordingly can easily be done using a money management app. One of the best ones on the market is Mint.

As well as letting you set and stick to a budget, the Money Dashboard app has several additional features built-in. For example, alerts that tell you when your bills are due.

How to Save Money on your Groceries

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{Collaborative Post}

Christmas is over now, but you may still be feeling the financial effects of the season and you’ve been to the Creditfix website to find ways of spending less this year. One of your main expenditures will be groceries and it’s perfectly possible to reduce your food bills and still eat well, if not better, than usual.

Here’s six ways to spend less on groceries and maintain a full fridge (and stomach)!

1.  Have more plant-based meals

Those pesky experts all tell us to eat less meat nowadays, not just for our health, but also because a vegan or vegetarian diet has less of an impact on the environment. Getting more protein from plant sources also means you can reduce your spending too, so explore the vegetarian versions of your favourite stews. At the very least, replace half of your usual minced beef with some lentils or pulses.

2.  Go shopping in the evening

You don’t have to get all your shopping from the reduced aisle, especially if you’re looking for meat products, but some items are perfectly safe to pick up from there. Pasteurised cheeses and dry goods are good bets, as well as ready meals that you’re planning to eat when you get home. You might also find bargains like bottles of bubble bath with small cracks in the screw caps. Always be ready to swoop in and grab a bargain.

Why would people do this to their bank cards?

A new web phenomenon is becoming more and more widespread throughout the UK. People are redecorating their bank cards and doing so for their friends and family. Here’s why:

1. It’s super fun 
Bank cards always look so plain and boring, so we were quite happy to see more and more people redefining what a bank card should look like. This is happening all across the web: on Facebook, Twitter and even on personal blogs.

Making Savings with my 1066 Card in East Sussex

Going to Hastings? Think 1066 Card.

A post shared by Town City Cards (@1066card) on May 27, 2018 at 8:21am PDT

Previously the TownCityCard was known for the towns it served, so it was the Hastings Card, Battle Card, Hailsham Card etc but now all the cards for all the different areas are coming under the unified name of the 1066 Card. This is a really good thing as it will alleviate any confusion and mean that you, as the customer will be able to tap in to discounts at over 360 places across East Sussex and in to Kent. 

I've had my card for a couple of years now and the hardest thing for me is remembering to use it. I often purchase my items and then afterwards realise I should have got my 1066 card out of my purse! So don't be like me, make sure you present your card with everything you purchase in local shops, restaurants, cafes, takeaways and days out venues. Even if that venue doesn't take the card at that point, ask them if they want to, as I know Chris, whose business it is, is always keen to meet new interested local businesses and to bring them on board.

I love the idea of shopping local and not just putting money in the pockets of the big chain stores and this is what the 1066 card is all about. You can purchase your own card from loads of local shops, council offices and the tourist office in Hastings but probably the easiest way to get it right now is to buy it direct from the website and it will arrive promptly in the post. Mine came within a couple of days. The cost is just £9.99 and it lasts until the end of the year.

How to Get the Best Deal when Renewing your Mobile Phone Contract

Teenagers Texting Image by Akhenaton Images from Shutterstock

I've recently just renewed my mobile phone contract and I wanted an upgraded phone but not to have to pay any more per month. I thought this was going to be a very tall order and I'd have to pay quite a lot up-front for a new phone or accept that my monthly bill would be increasing. But no, with some shopping around I was able to secure a new phone that met my specification, the same monthly tariff and only a £50 upfront phone cost. Then considering I was upgrading 40 days before the end of my contract term I even managed to avoid paying off the buy-out charge as I stayed with the same provider and thus the £50 was around the same money. I was suitably impressed!

About a month before the end of your existing contract is a perfect time to look for new deals and to speak to the retention team about leaving your existing network supplier

Let me share with you the stages I went through to get my great value new phone deal -

1.  Choose which Phone you want next
I've been an iPhone user since 2012 and generally I love my phone. I find iOS very easy to use and intuitive and importantly all my music is stored in iTunes and this has kept me tied in over the last 6 years. Personally I've never had the newest iPhone on the market as I can't bear to part with so much money and I've found that by the two year mark each of my iPhones are pretty much done-in and are ready for the scrap heap. At two years my iPhone 4 totally refused to start-up, my 5C camera stopped working and now my SE also has a poor and slow camera!

With this in mind I decided I ought to bite the bullet and give an Android phone a go and I assumed I'd move to Samsung as it is a name I know and trust and my girls had Samsung tablets that worked well but when I started to speak to people everyone kept telling me to try Huawei. The same kind of specs as iPhone and Samsung flagship models but at much lower prices.

Scottish Friendly's No Spend Weekend Challenge

Money just seems to disappear when you have kids, right? That is one reason I said yes to getting involved with Scottish Friendly's no spend weekend challenge and I think I did well. Come and read all the ways we had fun as a family without spending money.

My lovely friend Cass at Frugal Family often talks about no spend days and to be honest I had never heard of the concept before. So simple but yet completely alien to me and I kept meaning to give it a go but it never happened. So this weekend challenge was a good chance to put it into action and see if a spender like me could go cold turkey! I wasn't expecting miracles if I'm honest.

Friday After School - Pressing Fresh Juice!
Once a month all the families who live together in our community come together for an event to engage the children and we eat together.

This month we were focusing on harvest and how good God is in all He provides in our life. We all went down to the walled garden in the grounds of our home and gathered some fruit and veg and then set about cleaning, preparing and pressing the fruit to make fresh juice to have with our dinner. We ended up with apple, apple and rhubarb and apple and beetroot juice.

We had a great staff dinner of pasta or jacket potato with bolognaise, cheese and salad and of course the fresh juice and we finished off with melon chunks from melons grown in our green houses.  JJ and my husband headed off to church for his youth club and the girls and I had a game of monopoly before bed.

Could They be the Coolest Grandparents Ever?

I often think about how lucky my kids are. They have wonderful Grandparents and enjoy spending time with them. On the one hand I wish I'd had my children when I was younger and then my parents would have been younger too and that would have given them a lot more time before health complications got in the way of some of the things they want to do.

However what will be, will be and here we are. Yes, both of my parents have health ailments that now limit some of the activities they can be involved in but does that stop them having fun? Not at all.

For the last four years the children and I have headed off to Poole in Dorset with them for a fun week away whilst my husband is busy at work and when I ask the kids what their favourite type of holiday is, so we know what to book next year, they always say the one with my parents. Why? Well lets look at some of the qualities of my parents and get an idea of why my kids love them so much -

Scottish Friendly's Money Saving Diary Challenge

It was with good timing that Scottish friendly got in touch with me and asked me to join in with their Money Saving Diary Challenge. Whilst I am so much better at being thrifty nowadays I know that there is still some money being wasted and I could do a better job.

So with this in mind, I kept a record of my spending habits for a week, so see where I could cut back or where I was already saving some money.  Here is how I got on -

Monday 
We have just returned from our holiday and Hubby is still on a days leave so we decide to have lunch out amongst the washing and catching up on work.  The plan is to eat at the local college restaurant where you can get a really lovely 3 course meal for £9.99 and then use your Taste card too to get 2 for 1! It normally means we end up spending around £16 for us both for 3 courses and a soft drink.

However when I called the College restaurant they were closed and we headed off to a local fabulous burger joint and ended up spending £25.48 for our meal and thus I totally failed on this first opportunity to save money. I have a Taste card and local TownCity Card so I really should have used one of those and for a 2 for 1 meal - oh well, next time! Overspent by £9.48

On the way home we do go into Lidl though as I want to get the kids some yogurts and again I am reminded just how good their pricing is. I spend £19.79 and this is comparison to buying the same goods at Sainsburys is a saving of around £7, so I really must shop there more often. Saved £7