Saving is at the top of many of the current generations’ plans in life. They all know that the pandemic has ravaged the economy and will take years to recover from here on. However, home renovations and remodeling are unavoidable and can quickly drain a family’s annual budget by upwards of 10%. Some people might spend even 20% to 30% of their budget on such home plans.
In the United States, experts estimate that the average cost of remodeling a home is around $47,000. Of course, this varies on the design of the house and its overall size. Still, people spend $20,000 on a singular home renovation at the least. Suppose you don’t want to spend that much money on a home renovation. In that case, you need to be aware of strategies in keeping your home as resilient as possible. One way to do this is to choose quality over quantity.
Quality Over Quantity
When building a home, many people decide to purchase the cheapest materials possible. They do the same thing for their home extensions as well, such as garages and gazebos. However, this is an awful strategy that will catch up with you in no time. Avoid this strategy if you don’t want to pay more than $40,000 on home renovations one day.
Quality over quantity will always be a great strategy when building your home or any extensions you have in mind. For example, oak framed garages are likely to last longer than any garage in the market. Furthermore, they look more luxurious and rustic. The fact that they can last for an entire lifetime with little to no maintenance means that they are cheaper than any garage kit you can purchase today.
You can save up by building a quality home the first time because you don’t need to renovate as much to keep your home standing.
Maintenance Over Replacement
Maintaining parts of your home is a lot cheaper than replacing them entirely. Take a look into the cost of replacing an HVAC system. Some providers estimate that ordinary people spend a staggering $7,000 on replacing their HVAC system. There’s a stark difference in savings when you compare it to the average HVAC maintenance cost of annual repair and maintenance (around $200).
Sure, there will come a time when you have to replace your HVAC system, but that’s usually in ten years. Make sure that you can get it maintained as much as you can before ever replacing it.
Always Budget for Maintenance
Talking about maintenance, it’s essential to go through the idea of budgeting for it. This means setting aside an amount of money for how your yearly maintenance. But how do you exactly do this?
If you’re new to this, you must keep track of the amount of money you spend on maintenance for one year. This means keeping all your receipts in a spreadsheet and labeling them. Once you’ve done that for a year, categorize them so you have a neat rundown of your maintenance expenses for a year. You can then total that amount of money and save that amount of money for next year’s maintenance.
If you don’t want to do this but prepare for maintenance fees no matter what, there’s also a strategy meant for you. What you can do is to save 1% of the overall cost of your home annually. So if your home costs $300,000, it’s good to have at least $3,000 saved for maintenance. Remember to do this every year and never to spend that money on anything else aside from care.
Once you’ve done this, you will always have money for maintenance, repair, and renovation at any time.
Recycle and Reuse
If you’re the kind of person who’s thrifty or if your planned home renovation is a bit over budget, then it might be wise to recycle and reuse old materials. Now, this is against our first tip of quality over quantity, but if you want to get a renovation done, this is one way to do it.
There are many ways you can recycle and reuse old home materials. For example, the wood of an old bookshelf or closet can serve as materials you need for your gazebo or greenhouse. You can also use excess bricks as a wall for your kitchen. Remember that aesthetically, recycled and reused materials give a rustic look to them. They might not be the sturdiest, but they’ll keep your home intact until you’ve saved enough money for a proper renovation.
Here are some ways to save money on your next home renovation. Remember that budgeting and creativity are the keys always two ways to solve one problem. Always keep that in mind when it comes to renovations.
