Sticking to your budget: 5 tips you should know

When renovating or building a new home, your design plans have a way of escalating. Dreams become bigger, ideas get loftier, and you suddenly fall in love with something that previous wasn’t on the radar. Here are five ways to keep an eye on your bottomline.

Call in the experts

It’s important to know how much you can afford from the beginning before deciding on the scope of work. Contact a mortgage broker or bank to crunch the numbers, consider your borrowing capacity and the cost of repayments. You could also use online mortgage calculators to figure out your financing needs. Know your limit and set a definitive budget.

Plan to overspend

When drawing up your total budget, don’t allocate every dollar you have upfront. Be sure to set aside at least 15 to 20 percent up your sleeve for important splurges or last-minute upgrades. We can assure you it will happen.

Get a feel of the cost per square

When it comes to cost per square metre there is no perfect formula as each design and site is different. However a healthy gauge for a cost per square is around the $15,000 mark (or $1300 per m2) and you would expect this to include site costs and upgrades. This rate usually increases for smaller homes due the scales of economy. For example, regardless of the size of the home you still require the same amount of wet rooms and potentially a staircase. These are fixed costs and have no reflection on reducing the house size. On the other side, homes on sloping blocks, or with larger scale ceilings, windows, doors and details could scale up to and over $25,000 per square (or $2700m2).

Prioritise your wish list

Not every idea will fit into a realistic budget. Put them into two categories – “Nice to haves” and “Non-negotiables”. If the budget starts to get away from you, it’s easier to chip away the luxuries or substitute with more modest options.

Consider the final outcome

After all the hard work of planning, researching and building a house, you deserve a home that feels comfortable and finished. Remember to factor in the cost of landscaping and window furnishings. Focus a limited budget on fittings and anything that is fixed in place. If possible, save some of that budget for a few key furniture pieces, accessories and artworks. You want your hope to reflect who you are and your unique personal style.