Ok, We hear it from First-Time Buyers all the time "I would love to buy that home in Oakland's wonderful neighborhood of Rockridge but I need to save more money for my down payment.
Saving for a down payment can be a bit more complicated but here are some tips to help along with the process.
Money
Saving money might be as easy as saying “CFL” the next time you purchase light bulbs.

“CFL” stands for “compact fluorescent lamp,” but it’s actually a light bulb that operates differently from a regular, or incandescent light bulb. Regular bulbs create light by heating a filament inside the bulb; the heat makes the filament white-hot, producing the light you see. A CFL contains a gas that produces invisible ultraviolet (UV) light when the gas is “excited” by electricity. The UV light hits the white coating inside the
fluorescent bulb and the coating changes it into light you can see.

Now, don’t confuse a CFL with those overhead fluorescent tube lights in your office or dentist’s waiting room. CFLs are light bulbs made in different sizes and shapes to fit in standard household light sockets such as table lamps, ceiling fixtures and backyard lights. What isn’t standard is the performance of various CFLs; according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Web site, you should look for ENERGY STAR-qualified CFLs because they’ve been tested to meet stringent performance criteria established by the EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy.

So, how does an ENERGY STAR CFL save you money?

· It uses at least two-thirds less energy than a regular bulb to provide the same amount of light, and can save $30 or more in energy costs over the bulb’s lifetime.
· It lasts up to 10 times longer.
· It generates 70% less heat than a regular light bulb, which can cut energy costs associated with home cooling.

Need another reason to say “CFL”? If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR CFL, we’d save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars.

The Internet has a wealth of information about CFLs; a good place to start is by going to http://energystar.custhelp.com and doing a search for CFL. In Canada, visit http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/energystar and click the “Switch and Save” icon.