As old man winter once again makes an appearance around much of the country, it is important to remember that a little bit of extra work will go a long way. Even the simply parts of your car’s maintenance, such as keeping up with the wiper blades on your windshield wipers can help save you money.

During the winter months, people will have less patience with car maintenance because after all that scraping and shoveling, they just want to get inside a warm car. But in order to make it easier on yourself during those cold mornings, do a little work behind the scenes to make sure you car windows do not frost up to begin with. It costs virtually no money to do this.

• Take a clean spray bottle and combine one part water to three parts white vinegar.

• Shake well and spray the outside of all the windows on your vehicle. When the temperature drops, frost will not be able to form on your windows, saving you time and effort on workday mornings.
• The windows will need a refresher spray of the solution every 2 weeks to maintain its protection so you may want to keep the bottle accessible in the car to remind yourself.

Many people will simply toss away windshield wipers that not longer seem to be working. Replacing wiper blades may not seem to be very expensive but the costs do add up and if there is a way to repair and maintain them without additional expense, it stands to reason you would want to give it a try. This method of rejuvenating your wiper blades also requires white vinegar and a clean cloth.

• Wet the cloth with the vinegar and run the cloth twice evenly down each of the wiper blades.
• Take a second cloth and dampen it with water. Clean off the vinegar from each blade.

This tactic will help bring your wipers back to working condition and allow you to clear the windows once again without the expense of replacing the wiper blades. It is the little things we do that can make a big impact in our financial situation.