Top 3 money-saving products for your home

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The best money-saving products are cheap, easy to use, and pay for themselves by cutting a cost you'd otherwise keep paying. These three do exactly that, for the right household. Each pick says who it suits and who should skip it, so you don't buy something that won't earn its keep.

1. A water filter pitcher

If you buy cases of bottled water, this is likely the biggest saving on the list. A filter pitcher's main ongoing cost is replacement filters. Brita's longer-life Elite filters are rated for about 120 gallons each, according to the manufacturer. If a filter costs around $20, that's under 17 cents a gallon. Bottled water commonly runs around a dollar or more per gallon.

Example year: at 4 gallons a week, bottled water at $1.30 a gallon costs about $270. Filtered water costs about $35 in filters, plus the pitcher once. That's roughly $200 back in year one. Change the numbers to match your household.

Skip it if you already drink tap water and like it. There's nothing to save.

See pitchers on Amazon   Read the full pitcher math

2. An energy-monitoring smart plug

A smart plug sits between the wall and a device, so you can switch it off on a schedule or from your phone. Models with energy monitoring also show how much power the device draws, so you can see whether it's worth switching off. Kasa and Wyze plugs come up repeatedly in published roundups as budget picks with monitoring.

Example: a device idling at 10 watts all year costs about $15 at 17 cents per kWh. Cutting it off for 16 hours a day saves around $10 a year per plug. A bigger load, like a 40-watt desk setup, saves about four times that.

Skip it if your devices barely draw anything on standby. The plug itself uses about a watt, so measure first.

See smart plugs on Amazon   Read the full smart plug roundup

3. A Kill A Watt power meter

The Kill A Watt P4400 plugs into the wall, and you plug an appliance into it. It shows watts and cumulative kilowatt-hours, the same unit your utility bills, so you can measure what an old fridge, a space heater, or a gaming PC really costs. No app or account is needed.

How to use it: cost per year = watts ÷ 1,000 × hours per year × your rate per kWh. Measure your suspicious devices, switch off or replace the worst ones, and the meter has done its job.

Skip it if you'd rather have tracking and scheduling in one device. Pick 2 does both.

Check price on Amazon   Read the full Kill A Watt roundup

Spend less before you buy anything

None of these beat free changes: lowering your water heater to 120°F, washing in cold water, and using your thermostat schedule. See 9 ways to cut your electric bill, then use these products to go further.

Prices change constantly, so we don't list them. Check the current price on Amazon. Example savings use stated assumptions, so swap in your own numbers.

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