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Refurnishing Your Home When Money is Tight
2006 August 17
© 2006, Libertiny Financial LLC
Whether you’re just out of school and need to furnish a new apartment, newly married and have your first home to furnish or are just tired of looking at your same furniture, kitchen or bathroom, we’ve all come to the point where we breakdown and look at the cost of these endeavourers. And then we get massive sticker shock.
Each year, my wife and I undertake a home remodeling project to keep our home up to date and well maintained--this has been going on for 16 years! Whether it’s paint for the outside of the house or a new kitchen, we always budget and save before we move forward with the project.
A few suggestions for success and to keep as much fun in the project as possible:
1) Before going window shopping, put together a budget of what you can actually afford. This is the same suggestion that we support when going to purchase a new car. This way, you’ll be less tempted to purchase all of those expensive upgrades.
2) Also, pay your monthly bills before you shop. I call this “reverse sticker shock.” When you have just spent a large percentage of your take home pay, it’s much easier from a psychological perspective, to stay within your budget
SAVING MONEY
With the construction and remodeling business in a downturn throughout much of the country, there are some significant deals to be made whether shopping for furniture or contracting for a larger project. We also suggestion doing as much of the planning and work by yourself (and with the help of friends) as you can.
SAVE ON FURNITURE
With IKEA stores beginning to spread throughout the U.S., they’re a good place to find some great deals. I’m not really fond of the layout of the stores, but you can always shop online through their website and have it delivered.
Home Depot and Lowes also has some good pricing on carpet, kitchens, and bathrooms.
Habitat for Humanity: Restore
If you’re fortunate enough to live by a Habitat for Humanity ReStore, then you can triple dip on savings:
1) For a nominal price, Habitat will send out a team to carefully remove anything that you need (including entire kitchens and bathrooms).
2) You can then qualify for a tax break on the items that you donated to this not-for-profit (check with you accountant to see if you qualify)
3) Their stores look like a somewhat smaller Lowes and sell mostly used items that are in very good to new condition. Usually the items are priced at 50% of what you would pay for new. I’ve personally walked into the Habitat ReStore in metro Detroit and have observed entire kitchens with solid wood cabinets and countertops made of solid granite for ridiculously low prices.
The store in metro Detroit is located:
Habitat Detroit ReStore
12630 Greenfield
Detroit, MI 48227
www.habitatdetroit.org/Restore/
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