How to save money for home improvements
When it comes to getting your hands on some extra cash for a home renovation, there’s a good chance you’re focusing on two points; saving a lot and also saving it quite quickly.
As the housing market begins to boom, you’re likely looking to get in on the action, and there’s no better way to do this than to get the ball rolling on a renovation that is both profit-focused and also going to get your home sold faster.
With that said, we have some tips below for you when it comes to saving money for home improvements and what you might want to consider to get on top of your savings goals faster this year.
Don’t Just Create a Budget, Understand it Too
As we all know already, starting off on your savings journey must begin with some sort of budget. There’s a good chance you already know how budgeting works and how to create one, and so we usher you on to the second most important part of budgeting, and that is carefully and calculatedly curating a budget to suit your lifestyle and understanding how to follow it.
You will always want to kick off saving plans with a budget you can follow, and so work to form something that allows you to live life, rather than stifle it. Of course, the more ‘stifling’ you do, the faster you’ll hit your savings goals, though the less fun you will have doing so, which can be demotivating and leave you cancelling your budgeting altogether.
With that out of the way, we suggest looking at how much you’d like to save, what you can cut out of your daily expenses and going from there – you can use an intuitive financial calculator to help out too.
Debt Must Go
Our second tip is getting on top of debt. This will likely be helped by your ability to carefully budget, and so make sure you have your budget down pat first.
You will already know that debt is one of the most expensive financial ‘problems’ out there when it comes to saving money, due to fees and interest, and so we ask that you work to shave off this debt as often as you can.
With this point in mind, it is also good to keep in mind that the cost of your debt will affect everything from the amount you save to the amount you’re losing, and so you should work to understand just how much of your budget should go into debt cancellation in order to prevent these fees, but not derail your savings goals. After all, you’re not going to be able to pay off a car in just a few weeks, and so we ask you to carefully curate a fee-free or interest-free debt minimisation plan.
Examine Your Bills
In line with our two tips above, it is always a good idea to get an insight into your bills each month and determine whether there is room for cancellations or cutting back on things such as electricity use.
One of the biggest points to keep in mind here is that a ‘set and forget’ mentality seems to occur for many of us when it comes to our main bills such as power, water, internet, television and other entertainment subscriptions – though don’t fall into the trap.
A lot of these types of bills and expenses can be majorly cut back by simply taking a look over them and reducing your use of these things, or cutting out their use entirely. This will allow you to save hundreds or even thousands over the course of a few months which can be redirected right back into your home improvement fund.
Bring in More Income
Without a doubt, one of the most effective ways to save money for home improvement is to make more money. Though, this is a lot easier said than done, so we have a few tips for you.
Consider monetising hobbies and other ‘fun’ activities you enjoy whether it be design, art, training or anything else and work to form an income from these things.
Added to this, if you can work from home or have a skill that can be fully realised from a laptop, then consider freelance work to build on top of your income and save for your home improvements a little quicker.
You could also consider selling and renting items that you don’t use, or don’t need all too often. As you’d agree, these could be put to good use rather than sitting in a drawer collecting dust.