Home Improvements on a budget
Home improvements are part and parcel of living in a home, and a meaningful way to improve living spaces for yourself and your family. But more people are likely to be carrying out home improvement works in the coming months, as rising prices in the housing market price many out of moving up the property ladder until things settle down. Improving a home is cheaper than moving to a new one, but still relatively expensive – so how might you carry one out on a budget?
Set a realistic budget
Before you set out on your home improvement journey, planning out your expenditures can help you keep your project focused – and crucially, help you bring it in without breaking the bank. Figure out what you can realistically afford via savings and income before you plan anything, rather than finding dream items and budgeting for them. Setting a budget for your decoration can bring about some difficult truths when it comes to what you can afford, or what your budget money will get you as opposed to what you may have had in mind. However, compromise is half the fun; the other half is finding neat ways to bring what you actually want under budget.
Seeking out discounts and sales is a great way to do just that. Furniture sales are abundant both in large chains and independent retailers, and if you work in healthcare, you may be able to take advantage of NHS discounts to create even more savings. Discounts aside, second-hand is best – and past that, careful shopping around for inexpensive alternatives. Budgeting, and finding materials to suit your vision and your budget, can be time-consuming, but will be worth it in the long run.
DIY and inspiration
Labour costs are one of the more significant expenses when looking at home improvement work, so going DIY can be one of the most impactful ways to decorate on a budget. As such, you’ll be doing pretty much everything yourself, which lends a unique opportunity to look for inspiration as well as direction. There are many home improvement blogs online, run by families who carry out their own DIY. These blogs are chock-full of inexpensive ideas for decoration, as well as how to execute them.
Of course, social media remains one of the better ways to find inspiration for your home’s finished look. Searching relevant hashtags in Instagram can direct you to scores of images of designs in situ, so you can see exactly how a paint colour or DIY storage idea would look when finished.
Upcycling
With decorating tasks and minor renovation work in hand, you can now turn your attention to how you’ll furnish your new spaces. New furniture can quickly eat into what is left of your budget, but a solution can easily be found in second-hand marketplaces and charity shops. Upcycling has been something of a trend for some time, as notions of sustainability work their way into aesthetic trends. Buying up old furniture to recondition in a style of your choosing is a great way to imbue your home with a sense of uniqueness, and a cheap way to boot.