Author: Lesley Shirley

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Bad Financial Habits To Eliminate From Your Daily Life

We practice them without even realizing it. If you are having trouble saving money each month, or not as much as you would like, you probably have a few habits to change.

If you’d like to finally be able to save and build up some savings to give yourself what you really want, stick with us.

We will help you spot these bad financial habits so that you can get rid of them.

Buy without comparing

This is perhaps the most common bad financial habit in everyday life. Even when we are aware that it is better to compare before buying, we tend to forget.

Or we have assumed that it will take us too long.

However, it is not a question of comparing for hours, but only of doing it. Most of the time, it’s just a few extra minutes spent in the supermarket comparing new brands or a new format.

Unfortunately, we too often forget to compare and for convenience, we often leave with the products we are used to buying.

However, if we compare prices and test new brands or formats, we could achieve significant savings : from a few dozen euros per week to a few hundred euros per month.

For higher value purchases such as appliances, furniture, or electronic equipment, shopping around can save you often significant amounts of money.

It’s not just a matter of looking in the aisle of the same store, but of doing a little market research on the internet .

You can compare prices very quickly on sites like Amazon.

You will have a much more complete list of products available on the market.

Nothing prevents you, after finding the best price, to go to the store to see the product that interests you.

Always buy new

Many of us only buy new, when opportunities in certain areas can save you a lot of money .

Buying second-hand products doesn’t always mean old or less reliable.
You just need to choose your sources and the areas where you can buy second-hand to pay less.

Here are some acquisitions that are worth looking for first in the opportunity before embarking on the purchase of new:

• Car
• Home appliance
• Computer science
• Books
• Leather goods
• Furniture
• Two wheels
• Video games
• And even clothes.

Thinking that buying more is proof of quality

We often hear around us ” if you want quality, you have to pay a price “. It is a habit that many inherit without even thinking about its truthfulness. More expensive products are not necessarily of better quality.

Sometimes you pay more just to get a certain mark.

While the quality or functionality is the same as a much cheaper similar product.

It is a bad financial habit to think that the high price of a product is a guarantee of its quality.

This is the case for many products, even for cars.

As for luxury products, they do not enter this discussion because their category is not taken into consideration.

And this even if some people buy these products believing that their quality cannot be matched by an ordinary product.

Believe that discounts or sales don’t save much

Another bad habit is that of thinking that it’s not worth comparing anyway.
Look for discounts or take advantage of sales because the savings they generate are not significant and the waste of time is not justified.

These savings allow you to save , which is:

• A very good habit
• Allows you to think much less about difficult ends of the month, unfulfilled dreams, trips that you cannot afford, etc.

Saving allows you to achieve what you want without tightening your belt.

End to bad financial habits

There are many other bad habits that we “inherit” from others:

• From our family
• From our friends
• From our entourage
• From our office colleagues

Take the time to analyze your behavior and you will certainly spot new bad financial habits that weigh or imbalance your budget.

If you clean up these habits by transforming them into healthier reflexes, you will see that your financial health will improve.

In addition, these changes will allow you to finance projects that are important to you.

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Low Or Double-Height Houses: Advantages And Disadvantages

A new construction project requires a lot of time, many plans, many layouts … until we find what we are really looking for. One of the first questions to ask yourself is whether you want a low-rise or double-height home. Sometimes if the land is not very large, you will be forced to make a double height house to have more square meters, but on other occasions, when the land area is large enough, you can choose between one option or the other.

We are going to do a study on the advantages and disadvantages of building a low, double-height house.

Advantages of a low house

  • The main advantage that will come to mind is probably the absence of stairs . If you are young, probably when building the house, do not think about this future problem. But over the years, your agility will be seriously affected and the stairs will have become an inconvenience for your day to day.
  • When it comes to building a low-rise home, you will see how the costs are less high than if you decide to raise it to a second floor. The investment in materials will be much less than if you decide to make a house popularly known as “folded.”
  • Although you can build a double-height house with a patio, normally the dimensions of this area are not usually as large as in houses with a ground floor. Remember that a garden is a very useful space especially for the summer and for those homes where there are children.
  • You will have more luminosity. Opting for a home with these characteristics will make all of it illuminated in the same way. You can also create open spaces by visually multiplying the dimensions in the event that you do not have many square meters or do not want a house that is too large.

Disadvantages of a low house

  • The security of low houses can decrease when being at street level. Despite putting bars on the windows, armored doors or security alarms, access to these homes is much easier for friends of others. You will have to invest more resources so that it does not become an unsafe home.
  • You may also see privacy reduced for the same reason we mentioned earlier: being very close to the street and pedestrians.
  • Remember that noise can also be an inconvenience. You will hear the cars or buses go by as well as the people who are walking near your house.
  • In the event of flooding, you may suffer more damage because it is easier for water to enter the house.
  • There is a greater chance of dirt coming in from the street as you are closer to cars. Normally more dust is generated and you will notice how the walls of the house are darkening as a result of the smoke from the vehicles.

Now we are going to comment, as we have done with one-story houses, what are the advantages and disadvantages of a two-story house. In this case, the houses with two floors can be divided in two ways: that the ground floor is dedicated exclusively to the construction of a garage or that on the other hand the house is divided into two having the living room, kitchen and bathroom downstairs and the bedrooms upstairs.

Advantages of a double house

  • It gives much more play when it comes to distributing the spaces, creating them continuously . You can design more open-plan rooms to give your home an original and modern style.
  • If you make a good distribution on the plans, you will achieve that the lighting that is projected on the top floor, also reaches the one below without the need to abuse artificial light in the lower part.
  • You will achieve more independence and silence in the bedrooms if you distribute them upstairs.

But as we have been saying before, you will also find some disadvantages if you choose a home like this.

  • It is more complicated to heat a home with this distribution because the heat will tend to rise to the top, leaving the rooms below a little colder. Therefore, the cost of heating will be higher to get the whole house to heat better.
  • Having the house divided into two floors will make you have to go up and down the stairs many times every day . If you look at it on the good side, you will exercise, but surely in the end you will end up getting tired.

Knowing the characteristics of both options, if in your case you can decide what type of distribution to make of the home, take into account all these factors and decide on the one that convinces you the most. It is a very important decision so give it the time it takes to finally make the right one.

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8 Tips To Prepare The House Before A Comprehensive Reform

Doing a comprehensive reform in your home is not easy. You must know a lot of things before you start with it. But it probably steals more time than you thought. Therefore, once you have everything planned, the time comes when professionals come to your house and get down to work. How do you have to prepare the house for the weeks that are inside? We will tell you. Not without first reminding you that if you have a comprehensive reform in mind , do the approximate calculation from our calculator.

Here are some of the things that you should take into account a few days before the workers enter your house to begin the reform.

  1. Rubble container . There are professionals who already have agreements with container companies, but if in this case you take care of hiring it, you must request it in advance so that you can have it on the correct date at the door of your house. Remember that you must also ask the town hall for permission because for a few days it will occupy part of the street.
  2. Permits and notices to the community. Beyond the licenses that you have to request from the council, remember that you must also notify the community of neighbors (in the case of a flat). Above all, ask permission if you are going to make modifications to the facade.
  3. Also related to the building, it also prepares the common spaces to avoid dirtying them. Remember to line the elevator walls with some material to avoid staining it. And the same with those spaces that workers walk with materials and tools that can make them dirty (the wheelbarrows make the floor dirty and damage enough).
  4. Noises Both a comprehensive reform and a simple reform will involve noise. That is why you should notify the neighbors in advance so that they are not caught by surprise. A very important point is that the established schedules for jobs of these characteristics are respected . You may be in a hurry to make a reform but work times have to be adjusted to the established without causing problems for the neighbors. If it wasn’t done right, they could report you.
  5. Cover furniture and doors. If the works that you are going to carry out allow you to leave the furniture at home, we recommend that you cover it with cloth or plastic to prevent it from getting dirty or may receive an involuntary blow that causes damage. The best thing is that you place them in the center of the room so that the professionals can move well around the four walls of the room. With the doors, frames and windows you can use tape that protects them especially from paint or liquids that can damage the varnish and the color of the same.
  6. Valuable items. Although you cannot take the furniture with you, there are objects that you can move to another place: paintings, appliances, books … Although nothing has to happen, professionals will work more freely if you remove them. Where to leave them? A good option, if you have one nearby, are the storage rooms . Renting one for a few weeks (or even days) does not have a too high cost and will guarantee the care of your belongings, at the same time that the workers will not have to be aware of them.
  7. Plug ducts. If you have heating and air conditioning through ducts, cover them before beginning any renovation. You will prevent dust from entering them during work.
  8. Prepare the materials. In the event that you have been in charge of buying certain materials that will be used in the renovation, you should speak with the professionals of the estimated dates so that you have them prepared. If, for example, you have bought tiles and tiles, ask them to inform you about the approximate date on which they will begin with these works to notify the dealer and that he will take it to you on time.

Anticipating and being prepared will speed up the reform but above all you will help the professionals to do their job as well as possible. Are you going to do a home renovation soon? Do not hesitate, ask professionals in your area for a quote without any commitment.

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5 Quick Changes That Can Tune Your Home In Two Days

Doing renovations at home is something necessary from time to time for various reasons , but it is also true that this task brings to mind the lack of control involved in the works ; dust, noise and all that little chaos that precedes a new home ready for us to enjoy right? Well no, today we have come to erase that rejection from your mind, presenting you 5 reforms that can transform your home in less than two days since they hardly involve any works or inconvenience.

Change the doors of the house

Changing your doors is a very simple thing to do: basically it involves removing the old ones and fitting the new ones , but sometimes it is not even necessary to remove the frame because it can be reused for new doors. Either way, it is a reform that you will hardly notice , while its effect can make a difference in the aesthetics of your home. Another option, in this case more affordable, is to repaint or lacquer your old doors, so that you will save money on new ones while adding a touch of a new color.

Install air conditioning

Installing an air conditioning system by splits is one of the easiest reforms you can make. The whole process comes down to installing an indoor unit , another outdoor unit and connecting them together . The work is reduced to making some holes in the wall and conveniently fixing the two units, so the inconvenience caused is practically nonexistent. The time it will take to start enjoying a heated home will not exceed one afternoon , if all goes well.

Swap your bathtub for a shower

This reform is so common that it hardly needs explanation: Over time we all reach a stage in our lives in which we are no longer so agile and in which we should replace our bathtub with a shower . In this way, our hygiene will be easier, more accessible and less dangerous. A reform that ends up giving yes or yes in all the homes and that you do not have to fear because in no case the works will last more than two days.

Paint your house

Painting is another of the most common reforms and a cheap and simple way to cause a great change in the appearance of your home. Surely you will have to do it several times in the course of the useful life of your house, but you should not worry, a couple of days is enough to give two coats of paint to a house of about 100 square meters and the same happens with the facade. Of course, depending on who you hire or if your house has a lot more surface, it may end up taking a little longer …

Change the countertop and kitchen faucet

When it comes to introducing this type of change in your kitchen, you can count on it taking much longer to decide on a specific model than to install it in your home . There are a multitude of countertop models and many more taps, but none of them will take more than an afternoon to install. A change that you can make in record time and that can mean a completely new style in the kitchen.

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