You know that I am all about saving money and making money. We like to make sure that we are always smart about every single purchase especially larger items like home improvements.
We were able to fix up a lot of things in our last house and still be frugal and doing it ourselves. We hired out as needed as well, but we know that it isn’t ideal for most and were very frugal about that still. Here are a few tips for any home improvements no matter how big or small the project is:
- Set a budget: This is kind of a duh moment. Make sure that you add extra money because you will need to add in some extra fees that you might not know you needed. When we did our kitchen floor we had to buy some extra tools, and boards, etc. So it was a little over $70 budget. Ideally set it to be 20% over what you estimated so that there isn’t any disappointment.
- Sketch: Know what you want before you go ahead and get started on it. When we built our playground set outside my husband had it laid out to a tee. He knew the exact dimensions for all things that he wanted. Even when we did the kitchen floor we measured things out so that we knew how much materials were needed. Things like this takes time in order to be on budget.
- Research: You aren’t the first one doing this project so go ahead and look around on the internet and get inspiration and ideas. Read other’s stories about how they did it and what they needed. This will help you get a better feel to make sure you are on the right track.
- Implement: Keep everything neat and organized. Remember the budget, the measurements, and sketches. Implement all of it. Know that you might screw up as well and might need to get new materials just because you ruined it. All of this is okay and normal, just keep chugging along and implement it.
Here are some of our favorite home improvement shops:
There are sometimes when it is best to hire someone out. Here are some tips on when to hire out:
- You don’t have time: We were getting ready to sell our one house and we were literally on a time crunch. My husband couldn’t do the projects so we hired out. When we hired out we were very frugal and made sure to find the best.
- It is a larger project: For something that is larger and might require knowledge and assistance hire out. For example, re doing a bathroom completely (sink, flooring, knock out of walls, etc) this requires a lot more knowledge than the traditional person outside of the area might know.
- You have the money: Sometimes around tax season, etc you might have some extra money left over. This is a good time to spend some of it on a professional and get a project done.
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Seasonal: Sometimes in slower seasons you can get better deals!
