If there’s one thing we can all agree on about being a homeowner, it’s that it’s expensive! Owning your house and being responsible for everything about it is going to cost you more per year than anything else you have to fork out for in life.
You’ve probably got a mortgage to shift, as well as day to day costs like groceries, and monthly bills to stay on top of as well. Trying to fit a bit of maintenance into the budget really isn’t easy!
It’s why so many people turn to the internet for advice on affording home repairs. And if you’re looking for some tips for building a budget for things like fixing the wiring and replacing the odd floorboard, you’ve come to the right place.
If you need to build a budget for home repairs in particular, here are the kind of plans and prep steps you’ll have to get out of the way.
Assess Your Own DIY Skills
Understanding your own DIY skills allows you to make informed decisions about what a repair might cost you. After all, if you can’t fix something yourself, you’re going to have to hire a professional, or ask a friend if they’d do the job for $20 or so.
Go through the most common DIY repairs the average homeowner has to do. This will include things like unblocking a drain (both indoors and out), or putting new caulk around a tile. Both of these things are quite approachable and easy to do, so you’re likely to tick them off as possible DIY repairs.
But what about more complicated tasks, like putting a new wall light in or replacing the switches in a room? Does this kind of DIY repair and/or addition sound like something you could try?
Simply put, if something broke, would you be able to fix it? Make two columns for yes and no, put tasks either side, and then focus on the no column for your budget.
Understand Average Prices in Your Area
Repair costs will vary depending on where you live. You need to get an idea of the cost levels in your area to properly budget for any future home repairs. Otherwise you’re just trying to save without having any idea of the need, and that’s not the most effective way to go about it!
You can do this by looking up local repair services, such as Piper’s Plumbing for any plumbing issues in rooms like your bathroom and kitchen. Get an idea of what a company like this charges, for both emergency and non-emergency callouts, and note it down in your budget plan.
You can also do some research into the overall cost of living in your area too. Do this by looking online as well as at your own receipts from the past couple of months. What does it cost to bring home a week’s worth of groceries? What does it cost to buy some new clothes? These kinds of questions can help you understand the pricing level you’re looking at as well.
Plan Out Improvements Well in Advance
If you want to improve your home in some way, don’t plan it out for next weekend. Don’t even plan it out for the month ahead either. Plan it out well in advance and give yourself plenty of time to both save up, and work out where you can potentially cut costs.
Of course, this isn’t something you can do for emergency repairs, but it is something that’ll take the heat off of trying to afford said emergency repairs! If you’ve got more money for the emergencies, and less money is needed for the planned improvements that aren’t exactly timepressing, you’ll have a lot less to worry about.
We recommend working with a timeframe of at least 6 months for this. So if you want to tear out your old kitchen and design a new layout that allows you to have an island counter, take half a year to work out the fine details and then some!
Keep Building Your Fund Bit by Bit
Now you’ve got a good idea of what your home repairs are going to cost you, you can compare that against your normal monthly budget. If something went wrong in the next week and needed to be fixed ASAP, could you cope with the cost without having to consider using credit or falling into debt?
Whatever the answer, you’ve now got the chance to start building up your repair fund. Make a concentrated effort to do this, no matter how small your weekly and/or monthly contributions to the fund will be.
If you can only afford to spare $10 per week, do so. Put it in your repair fund and let the savings grow steadily over time until you need them. Start this today and in a month’s time, you’ll have at least $40 to tide you over.
It doesn’t sound like much, but that can certainly make a difference on whether or not you’ll have to break the bank to get things repaired. And be sure to keep adding this weekly $10 no matter what. Don’t hit a point and think you don’t need to save anymore; keep it regular.
Budgeting and Saving for Home Repairs: What to Remember
Budgeting – and saving – for home repairs is quite a monumental task. You’re already budgeting and saving for so many other things; how are you supposed to fit repair costs in as well?
It’s not an easy thing to do, by any means, but it is something you can approach month by month. As long as you get a bit of money put into savings, you’ll have a bit of leeway with any repair costs you have to do around the house.
Make sure you know the likely cost of potential repairs, be aware of your own DIY skills and how far they stretch, and don’t let big home improvement projects take you by surprise.
