Frugal home improvements is one of the most sought after ways to save money. Sure, we can save money at the grocery store, consignment shop, and other easy places. What is not easy is saving money on home improvement. To my knowledge I have not found a consignment shop on home remodeling.
Frugal home improvements are possible if the person who NEEDS to save money really WANTS to save money. How is that done? I have listed several steps below to help those in need of home improvements.
Our home was a fixer upper when purchased. Even though my husband is a contractor, we still had to buy the materials. Even though most of our projects areDIY, remodeling is still a large dent in the budget.
Become a student
A student is someone who is learning all the time. To save a lot of money on remodeling, is to become a student to the construction world. I know of several famous families that built three own homes. Even the children were helping.
Men and women can sign up for classes at home depot. My friend recently learned how to do her own kitchen backsplash. Now it may take her longer than someone who does this for a living, but she will save money. Frugal home improvement classes are reasonable and cheap. Cheaper ideas’ would be to visit the library and check out books on “DIY” and “Frugal home improvements”. If you don’t want to read about it, then youtube has everything you can wish for on video.
Developing new skills to save money and do frugal home improvements takes initiative and drive. The drive to save more than 50% in labor costs.
Home remodeling projectsResearch and Make A Plan
Adding on to a room or remodeling a kitchen takes planning and budgeting. Budgeting is important is project planning.
Frugal means to save money. After creating the plan, brainstorm ways that high cost areas can be cut back. Layout the costs, projects, time to be invested, and materials. Know in advance plan A and plan B. If some parts of the frugal home improvement cannot be done by you, call a professional. If the professional can help on a portion, ask if they will take a percentage off for cash.
Before I go any further…..cash is the objective for frugal home improvements, at least for our home. Our bathroom is in need of a major update. I have money going into savings for this project so that we can pay cash for it. My goal is to not owe on my new bathtub, because I have other projects to be done.
Look For Sales or Deals
Check out businesses that hold sales. When we were remodeling, I watched the paper for weeks to see when kitchen products came up for sale. In my planning process I listed out what I would need to purchase before we started.
Visit many stores to get prices. Start a price book for the remodeling project. We recently bought a new ceiling fan for our living room. The store had a big rebate on this fan so that is when we shopped for our fan.
Use Material That Will Wear Well
The most imperative part of the project is to buy a good material or product! I really cannot say enough about this topic. Check the quality and consumer reports if possible. The library holds old copies of consumer reports.
Why is this so important? A remodeling project is not something you want to revisit in the next 10-15 years. Before my husband and I were married we decided to remodel the bathroom of the home we would be living in. It was a mess and needed a new style. So we gutted the bathroom and my husband started the work. Here is the important part…..he failed to save the receipt for the bathtub. My future husband thought ” It’s a bathtub”. This brand new bathtub that we purchased for almost $1000.00 was a dud.
The third time we used it a crack formed and grew to the length of the entire tub. We asked another bathtub professional to come look at it. This man informed us that we would have to buy a new bathtub. Even if we had the receipt it is not very likely that we would have taken a huge bathtub out.
It was a hard lesson to learn, but we are very careful about the longevity of products we buy.
If this post was helpful please share it!
Cheers,
Michelle
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