Use these tips and ideas on how to save money during home renovations from people who are renovating a fixer upper by themselves. Lots of practical advice!
Over the past few years, we’ve fixed up two old houses. Our first house needed cosmetic work, and our current house needed a LOT more. We’ve done this work on small budgets (without having any prior carpentry/building experience). We have learned a LOT between these two houses – and I’m here to tell you about some tricks you may not know about how to save money during home renovations.
PS follow me on Instagram to see ALL of our renovations & so many other tips!
How to save money during home renovations:
The importance of a budget:
- Make a budget first. Plan out what you can realistically spend so you’re not putting yourself in too tight of a position financially. You want to make sure there’s some wiggle room for emergencies (because there will always be some form of “emergency” when renovating!)
Make sure you get multiple estimates:
- Get (free) estimates. Even if you plan on doing most of the work yourself – get someone to come out and give you an estimate for a certain job.
- We were surprised by some of our estimates we received. Sometimes, a job that would have taken us a few days would only take a contractor a few hours, and it was worth it to pay him to do the work because of all of the time saved. It doesn’t hurt to ask! And if your estimate is high, then you’ll feel better about all of the money you’re saving by doing it yourself.
- Get your estimates broken down. For example – we hired an electrician for our house. We asked him to give us a price for 3 can lights in the ceiling, 3 pendants, and plugs in the island. We also had him make a list of “add-ons”. He made separate notes of how much he would charge to move a current hardwired light over a few feet, or add an additional canned light, or add in a plug to a wall that didn’t have any electrical outlets. This way, we could sit down with our budget and figure out which add-ons were worth it and which ones would fit in our budget.
- As always – get multiple estimates. We had three contractors out before we found “our guy”. If we would have stopped at two, we would have paid almost 20% more!
Get the RIGHT contractor for your project:
- Get a contractor that will work with you.
- Once you find a good contractor or handy man, don’t let him go! Sit down and explain your vision and budget concerns. If you have a good fit, then you’ll be able to work together on a project.
- For example – we did the drywall on the biggest wall in our kitchen because it was going to be covered up with tile and shiplap. We’re not skilled at drywall installation, but it doesn’t matter when it’s covered up like that. We had our handy man install it in the visible areas in our kitchen, which was able to save us money.
- Another example – we installed our wood ceiling and crown molding in our hallway, but there were two cuts that were really tricky and we couldn’t figure them out. Our handy man was able to come over and just charge us for figuring out those two cuts, instead of installing all of the crown molding.
- Once you find a good contractor or handy man, don’t let him go! Sit down and explain your vision and budget concerns. If you have a good fit, then you’ll be able to work together on a project.
Utilize free online resources:
- Get familiar with YouTube (and DIY blogs)
- There is so much free information out there! You may feel intimidated by certain projects, but seeing bloggers and other “real people” tackle these same projects is really such a valuable tool.
- My husband is a teacher at a seminary and had zero construction experience before we worked on our houses. My dad has also helped a lot, and he’s a doctor with no prior construction experience. They learned a lot through researching every job before we attempted it, and trial and error. It takes a lot longer than it would if a professional was doing it, but the money saved is absolutely worth it.
Realize it might not get done right away:
- Prioritize your spending
- Make sure you’re not spending money on things that don’t truly need to be fixed. We have plaster all throughout our house, and some people couldn’t believe that we were keeping it up. It needed repairing, but we were able to do that on our own for a MUCH smaller price tag than if we would have ripped out all of the plaster and replaced with drywall.
- Be patient
- DIY projects take time – and I’m one of the most impatient people out there. But you’ll pay a heavy price tag to have someone come out and do the work quickly for you. If your end game is to save money, you’re going to have to be patient and enjoy the journey of learning how to do the work yourself. It doesn’t come without frustrations, but it does come with a huge amount of satisfaction and pride!
Stay organized to save money during home renovations:
- Organize your spending
- It’s easy to spend money without truly realizing where it all went. It’s a terrible feeling to find that your budget is depleting and you’re not truly sure where all of the money went!
If you’re looking to add character to your home – I have my BEST tips in this FREE ebook for you! Click here to access!
Please share these tips for how to save money during home renovations by pinning it here!
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Maxton says
Thank you for your helpful advice! Good luck!
Christina says
Thank you! I’m glad you found the advice helpful 🙂
Rabia @ The Liebers says
We’re getting ready to get into this, so this is good information to know. Plus, BB&T is actually my bank and I didn’t know they had those services!
Christina says
That’s so great – glad it was informative and glad you also found out about the services 🙂
Guy Marino says
I’m a handyman and I wouldn’t “come over and make two cuts” of crown molding or anything else. It is just not cost beneficial to do so unless I charge for my time, travel, set-up, and break-down. That could be up to 10 times the cost of making the actual cuts. If you truly want to save money utilizing a tradesman in this fashion, group your jobs so that you have enough work to keep the tradesman busy for at least a full day, if possible. Also, try to schedule your jobs in advance. For example you might say, “We will need you for two days and then for an additional day one week later.”
Christina says
Hey Guy – thank you for chiming in from the handyman point of view. You are absolutely correct – that would usually be taking advantage of someone’s time & services. Our handyman lives down the road and stops by our house after his day jobs if we have something small for him to take care of. OR we have a bigger job he helps us with, and then we save those little jobs for the days he’s here for a bigger job. Sorry if that wasn’t clear – again, thanks for your comment! 🙂
Mark says
Christina – Just wondered if this app is available at other banks such as Tangerine (in Canada)
Christina says
Sorry, Mark! I’m guessing it’s not…wish I could help!
sharon says
These are great tips. I think you appreciate and value the transformation much more when you have to figure it out and literally ‘do it yourself’. I just ‘found’ you and am enjoying stalking all of your old posts too! Your humble, sweet spirit comes though. 🙂
Christina says
oh Sharon thank you!! I truly believe home means more when you work at it too 🙂
Katie Taylor says
I just came across your blog and I love it! You have some awesome posts. I’m a new-ish blogger and one of my areas of focus is home decor and DIY’s. My blog is centered around thrifting and bargain shopping so I love these tips you gave! I also am getting some great inspiration from your blog so thank you!
Vivian Black says
My aunt recently mentioned to me her desire to renovate her kitchen, but has been struggling to find room in her budget to complete every part of the project that she wants to. It really helped when you mentioned how important utilizing free resources can be in saving money, seeing as there is so much free information on YouTube and other DIY blogs. Thank you for the tips regarding home rennovation!
Taylor Bishop says
Thanks for this advice for getting home renovations. I appreciate that you mentioned to get the estimates broken down to figure out what the add-ons are. This also seems important to really understand what exactly you will be paying for.
Kimmy says
I can identify completely with the need/want/make do compromises. My ex worked with our contractor full time to reduce our costs and we both did a lot of grunt work during the gutting/building phase.
I lived with shower curtains in my master bath for literally years because I couldn’t make a couple of decisions about other things. I always intended to have a glass wall – which I do now – and it was worth the wait, but those clear plastic shower curtains worked just fine and weren’t completely ugly in the meantime.
I’m now at the 20 years in point (how did that happen?) and am starting make some changes from my original choices (updating some stuff in the kitchen and the like) but I’m happy to say the things I wish I would have done differently is still surprisingly short.
Renae says
Hi,
I just noticed your pin because of the woodwork trim and I wonder if you have any specific tips on saving money doing that type of Craftsman trim. We’re building a new Craftsman house ourselves and are getting close to the part where we do the trim and since we’re not borrowing any money, we need to save as much as possible. Any tips you have would be much appreciated!