Here’s a really amazing one that I am very excited about; you can earn money towards fixing up your home! There are so many rebate programs available, from your gas company (insulation, weatherstripping, gas appliance replacement), to your electric company (energy saving appliances, getting rid of your energy sucking appliances, or my favorite, Cash Back On Your Electric Bill For Reducing Your Usage), and even your water company has funds to help you out! We took advantage of some serious savings with our water bill this year, and I had to share. Most water companies have some form of the following rebates available, so it is absolutely worth checking with your company to see what they have available.
At the water office, you can pick up your low flow shower head and faucet aerators, as well as new hose nozzles. These both help to reduce the amount of water that you are using, meaning that your bill will be lower too ($50 value)! We also have doubled the size of our backyard by enclosing some of the front yard, and then added irrigation. The “aerial sprinklers” use significantly more water than hand watering or bubblers, so our water company actually provides a rebate to replace these with high efficiency sprinkler heads. The maximum rebate was $150, so I was able to purchase 25 sprinkler heads (enough to cover all of our backyard and have a full set of replacements for $151, for a final cost of $1 (I used a cash back credit card, as well as a cash back website to actually turn this into a $3 money maker!).
In addition to the sprinklers, the city also has sprinkler timers available when you complete an online course. The one that we chose was $200, and includes a moisture sensor that modifies the amount if water that our sprinklers use to help conserve when the watering is not needed (as an option). This one was completely free, and we just had to pick it up from a local retailer with a voucher that we were emailed from the city.
In addition to these nice freebies, we decided to redo the front yard. There are actually a couple of stacking rebates that we were able to take advantage of with the landscaping. The first was in replacing the aerial sprinklers with non-aerial watering, the city covered the cost of the irrigation itself. That meant that the cost of the piping was completely reimbursed, and we had all new pipes and bubblers with this rebate. The total amount that we were allotted (based on the square footage of replacement) was double what we actually used, so we could only claim the amount for which we had receipts.
The final, and most incredible part of this process, was the Lawn Removal Rebate Program. The lawn removal program is available in TONS of counties, especially where there are droughts. In our area, their year ends in June, so new applications can be accepted towards August/September. You need to apply online (very simple; our blueprints were drawn with crayon), and can get approved in a very short amount of time. We had 120 days to complete our project, and you can’t start killing your lawn until they have done a pre-inspection (dead lawns DO count; they just can’t be dirt). I would recommend starting to kill the lawn that day, as over 2/3 of the time was spent in just spraying grass killer a couple of times a week. The lawn rebates are usually $2-$4 per square foot, so this really adds up quickly. We also had to mulch the entire yard, and we were able to get the free mulch from the city (from the green trash trucks), which really saved a ton. It ended up being about 8 pickup trucks worth of mulch. We also had to do a ton of leveling since our whole property slopes to the left, and to the back, so there was so much dirt to move, and we added a parking strip to give extra parking space since we don’t have a sidewalk.
We killed the grass, tilled the front yard, and added irrigation. The plants that we chose are creeping ground cover plants that will stay green year round (Lippia), as well as some bush-type ground cover (Lantana) that has beautiful flowers that attract hummingbirds and butterflies. These are low water, and will cover the entire front yard with minimal effort. All of the irrigation in the front yard is now bubblers, so we are using significantly less water than we were originally, while we were fighting to maintain some semblance of a lawn. We also installed a cemented-in flagstone walkway, which is one of my favorite features of the entire project (and also the most costly as well)! The solar lights (from Home Depot HERE) along the path really make the walkway shine, and it is SO much nicer than the dirt pathway that we (kinda) had before. When all was said and done, the final cost of the landscaping (which was really the plants and the walkway, as labor was TONS of free help from family) was around $600. The check that we received for the replacement exceeded $2600, so we ended up EARNING over $2,000 to fix up our home! In addition to the immediate income, we also cut our monthly budget (as our water usage has dropped), and our landscaping time (as this is dropping weekly as it grows in), and to be honest, everything looks SO much nicer now!
Everything is still growing in, as this was just completed in May, so it has only been about 90 days. Everything will continue to spread and eventually cover everything. In the middle of 100+ weather, it is incredible that everything is completely green and happy! I would HIGHLY recommend looking into available programs in your area. This was SO much work, and with a fixer upper house (which had a termite infestation, a entire house re-pipe, and a baby under 1 year old), it was very difficult to make the time frame, but it was SO worth it. This will also add to the value of the property, so if you are looking at reselling your home, this is a great way to spruce it up and repair/replace with a very tight budget!!!
