Keeping your house cool [1] can be tough business in Summer (especially if you live in Florida like I do). The temperatures are soaring, the humidity is unbearable, and the sun seems to be shining directly into every corner of your house. And what does this all mean? You probably have to spend a tiny fortune blasting your air conditioning just to get a little relief. But I recently started doing an easy DIY [2] trick that both saved my house from the Florida heat and saved my family a significant amount on our bills [3] each month.

So what exactly is this great, money-saving trick? Tint all the major windows in your house! In total, there are eight windows tinted in my home now, including two skylights and a sliding glass door in my living room, four windows in my kitchen, and one window in my office. My family was setting our air conditioning at 73 degrees consistently to keep it cool in the house, and now with the tinting, we keep it at 75 (since we're in Florida, we can't turn the air totally off, but you might be able to depending on where you live). This saves us about $50 per month on our electric bill, so it definitely makes a huge difference.

The tint is easily available from Amazon [4], and with a little bit of time and patience, anyone can do this to their house, too. The tint comes in giant rolls, so you have to measure and cut it to fit your windows. Applying the tint requires two people, some tape, a sharp blade, a spray bottle with soapy water, and something flat to get air bubbles out. The number one tip here is to measure twice and cut once. The tinting isn't dirt cheap, so you don't want to waste too much of it.

A cooler home and a smaller bill — what more could a mom want?