Coffeemakers —Save on pricey coffeehouse blends by brewing your morning cup at home. Resisting a three dollar cup of coffee will save you nearly $1,000 per year!

Freezers —Stock up on frozen foods when they are on sale. In 2008, shipments of home freezers were up five percent as consumers started to realize the savings in stocking up on frozen sale items. Also, remember to shop for an ENERGY STAR freezer to save even more on energy costs.

Water filters —Use a water filtration system in your refrigerator instead of buying bottled water. This practice will save you money, and will help the environment by reducing the number of plastic bottles that clog landfills.

Portable electric heaters —Turn down the heat and use portable heaters in rooms that are used frequently. Keeping the thermostat down will save money while portable heaters provide direct and quick warmth.

Electric Oven—An electric oven turned on for 1 hour on 350ºF only uses 2kWh of electricity, costing just 24 cents. The cost of dining out can add up quickly. Try cooking at home for a low-cost meal.

With a little effort and forethought, you can save quite a bit of change.

Boy have times, and appliances changed. Today, you might get nine years out of your dishwasher and microwave, ten from your washer, and if you’re lucky thirteen out of your dryer and refrigerator. We’ve detailed the average lifespan in this article if you’d like find out about a specific appliance.

Not only are appliances not made to last anymore, but the manufacturers, being fully aware of this, have geared their warranties accordingly.

Hometownlife.com reports that a reader called to report that her 12-year-old dishwasher ran all night. Her husband turned it on when they went to bed around 10 p.m., and when she walked into the kitchen at 7 a.m., it was still running. She opened the door and the blast of heat was like opening an oven door. She called the manufacturer who sent out a service technician who couldn’t tell her why the dishwasher didn’t shut off. The manufacturer then told her they couldn’t do a thing for her because it was well out of warranty and besides that, they told her the average life span of the dishwasher was six years. They offered her $50 towards the purchase of a new dishwasher provided it was their brand.

Although the dishwasher was not new, one should expect that it would at the least run safely and that the response from the manufacturer would be more helpful.

You can read the whole article here.

If you are planning a kitchen remodel, take your time making design decisions, the kitchen is a complex room with many different elements to consider.

Here are a few things to consider in your planning:

•Pick your appliances first — everything gets built around them.

• Pick your countertop before you select your cabinets. The cabinet company won’t know what height to build the lower cabinets without knowing the thickness of the countertop — they’re all different.

• Pick your backsplash before you hire the electrician. The placement of the electrical boxes will depend on the thickness of the counter’s backsplash. Will it be tile or a solid material? What thickness will the material be and will it be affixed directly to the wall or will mortar be placed between the wall and the splash? There is nothing worse than paying the electrician extra to go back and add spacers to the electric boxes because they aren’t flush with the finished surface — fire hazard!

• With certain sink/disposal combinations you may have to adjust the height of your existing drain outlet. Kohler currently offers a stainless kitchen sink 28 centimetres (11 inches) deep and ISE has a gigantic new one HP disposer. Together they fit a bit lower into the under-cabinet area than other models.

• Selecting appliances in advance will also be important to the plumber and the electrician. The plumber may need to run an icemaker line if the refrigerator has one and the electrician will have to know what size circuits will have to be run for the range, oven, exhaust fan and other appliances.

• Some sales people will offer you the least efficient alternative just to keep the price in your budget. For example: It is less expensive to use doors rather than drawers when designing a set of kitchen cabinets. However, for many users drawers provide far more efficient storage space. Also, the rails that drawers glide on vary greatly in cost and strength. There are some drawer glides that bend when the drawer is full. Better types can hold an adult doing push-ups.

You can read more here.