How to budget for your home improvements

But before you get started, you should make a budget and organise your finances.

There are a few things to consider so here are some questions you can ask yourself before you get started (it should help to make the whole process a lot easier!):

• What can you do yourself? For example, painting may be time consuming – but is that something you can do? Create a detailed list on what you would like to have done – and then next to each item, write what you can and can’t do yourself or using the resources you have access to (for example, family that could help)
• What could you learn to do? A lot of good things come from DIY projects and it’s rewarding when you stand back and think you taught yourself how to do it.
• What help can you get cheaply? For example, do you have friends who work in trades and could they give you a discount for doing some work for you, or offer you free or cheap equipment and supplies?

Once you have the answers to all those questions, it’s time to stand back and review the scope of the project – you don’t want to set yourself up for failure, so make sure everything in the scope of your renovation project is realistic. If it exceeds your means (particularly after answering all the above questions), you will need to scale back. The best way to do this is decide what is essential (for example a plumbing issue) and what is a nice to have (chandelier lights). Create two lists and put them in order of priority, because you may like to come back to anything that you can’t do straight away.

Ok now you’re able to narrow it right down, you may like to get an estimate of your costs using a budget calculator or cost guide. Again, just be sure that this is within a budget that you can afford. Where you do need to use tradies (that aren’t friends), make sure you get at least three quotes for each job, to be sure you are getting the best price.

Even as your project is in the works, keep reviewing your budget to ensure you’re on track, and always leave a bit of a buffer in case something comes up!

You can search the HomeImprovement2Day directory for finance to get more support for budgeting for your Home Improvements.