She's On The Money - Renovating on a Budget

Episode Date: July 16, 2024

Today we give you tips and tricks on setting a budget, ways to save on materials and what sort of surprise costs can spring up to hurt your hip pocket. Plus how project managing your renovation in stages can really save costs, and so much more! Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kurni, Wolperi and Awadjuri woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded, Omnawandjuri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money.

She's on the money. Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. My name is Bec Syed and I'm joined today by Victoria Devine. Hello, little Miss Beck. I was just saying that you were looking really extra cute today and I feel like it's coming across in your voice as well. That's so nice. Thank you.

You've got a vibe. Thank you. You've got a vibe. I love it. That makes me so happy. Thank you so much. Sophie, I know that you are really good at setting budgets. I am not.

So I feel like you're going to teach a lot of us. But that's okay. We're like the yin and the yang. That's why we work well together. That's so true. That's why we're here. But are you good at keeping them? Because today on the show, we're talking about renovating on a budget.

This is a spicy topic. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I have historically renovated and blown the budget completely, even though I had a really big, very sexy spreadsheet. But after the break, we are going to be talking about ways to save on materials and also the importance of project managing all of the stages. But budget, I think, is a really good place to start today, Bec, because I want you to be setting this before you do absolutely anything when it comes to renovating, Bec, because I feel like when we start renovating, it's always more expensive than you think it's going to be. So we need to make sure that not only do we have the funds,

but we're happy to spend the amount of funds that we are planning on allocating towards this renovation. But we also need to make sure that there's a good enough buffer there, because the only thing that saved us when we went over on our previous renovation was the fact that we had kind of buffered in a fair bit to make sure that everything was going to be hunky-dory and it was okay. And things happen. They get thrown off course. Mistakes are made. Materials are going to be more expensive than you thought. So, buffer is going to be incredibly important. I mean, I didn't realize how much it costs to have our gas moved. I just assumed it would be easy enough and you'd get a plumber and get it all done. But we got stung with a few things.

So, we're going to get into that. I think it's a bit of a spicy episode, but a really good one because we are renovating now again. And I feel like we're doing it so much smarter this time. Yeah. I am really interested. Were there any like surprise costs or like really costly mistakes that you made along the way? This gas thing sounds like it's a vessel that holds no contents. You just move the pipe, right? And I feel like people listening to this, if you work in the industry, you're going to be like, Victoria, you are so daft. Of course, that costs a lot of money. It's like financial advice, right? Like I know how much it costs. And then when I tell you, Bec, you're like horrified. You're like, oh my gosh,

how could it be thousands of dollars and then I start breaking it down I'm like okay well you know you've got the research you've got the development you've got you know all of the admin support you've got you know all of this other stuff that goes into it and the time and the energy and the effort like it's really expensive and then you go oh that makes sense but like you didn't know the background because you don't work in the industry so I guess this is just my plea please be kind because like I know I'm gonna sound really dumb on this for some of the decisions that I've made, but I'm sharing them with you and the community, Bec, so that hopefully you don't copy me. I think it's so lovely of you. But moving the gas was really expensive.

Yeah. What was that like? It wasn't because it was super complicated. We contacted a plumber and he said, yep, no worries. I can do that. But it was complicated for him to actually do that because he needed to extend the pipes and move where things were connecting. And we actually planned when we did our renovation, I went to somebody who, if you guys know, and we won't name names but it didn't work out so well they ended up being an absolute not good human being but what happened was we got these beautiful designs back and I was like oh my god I'm in love with them I can't wait and then we took them to our plumber and our electrician and said hey these are the plans like you know are you okay with them and they were like oh V are you sure

you want to move the plumbing and I was like well yeah because like it just makes a lot of sense to have the bathroom there. It connects really nicely. Like, you know, I don't want to walk into my bathroom and just see the toilet right there. So like the move makes sense. And they're like, so that will add about $25,000 to your budget. And I was like, I would love to see the toilet right there. Like I would actually love that. Actually, now that I look at it again. Yeah. I've actually just changed my mind. So it was interesting seeing how changes that I didn't think were big were actually really big and things that I didn't think were in my budget were actually really obtainable because of the process that we're in. So like something else

that I thought was really bougie that we'd never have, right? Underfloor heating. Oh my God. That sounds expensive, right? Yeah. So in our bathrooms, we have underfloor heating. That's gorgeous. That sounds so luxe, right? Yeah. But because we were retiling anyway, I think it cost us like $500 to add it. Oh, incredible. Which is a lot of money. Please don't get me wrong, but renovating is expensive but $500 for the bathroom to have underfloor heating I was like hold on I thought this was going to be thousands and thousands and our electrician was like no V it's cheap because essentially you're putting it in before you put the flooring on if you wanted

to go and put it in post we'd have to rip up the floor put the underfloor heating in and then redo the floors and I was like oh so you're saying if I make this decision now you just like lay down the underfloor heating and then do the floorboards over the top and he was like yes and I was like this is genius so don't get me wrong that's a very bougie addition to our house and I love it like Bec I think you and I can both agree that Melbourne it's frigid at the moment it is so cold like I got up the other morning and I had to pour water over my windscreen so that it would defrost my car so I could drive to work like don't get me wrong not a complaint no but still cold oh yeah But I walked into my bathroom and the tiles were warm.

Oh, that is so nice. That's luxury to me. Yeah. I really thought it was way more, and as you say, like it makes so much sense that if you do it pre-tile, because you only ever see this in like rich people houses. I think it's a rich person house thing and that's what makes me feel rich. Yeah. And don't get me wrong, absolute privilege still.

But I think that that would shock you when you start to go, well, actually, what are things that we could do while renovating that we might not have thought about? And to be honest, I didn't even look into underfloor heating. And I mean, this is a very side note conversation, but I hope it's interesting. But I didn't even look into it because I just in my head, I was like $8,000. I don't know why, but I just thought that's going to be so expensive. I didn't even explore the option. And I think that when you're doing your budget, just explore the options and understand them.

Even if you're like, oh, I'm not really sure, like this is probably going to be completely out of budget. because like if that electrician hadn't said, oh, are you going to do this? And I go, absolutely not. It's too expensive. And he explained it to me. We wouldn't have it. And had we wanted to do it post, it wouldn't have been an option. So I think that these are little things that I had no idea about, but now I know I'm just grateful to have gone through, if that makes sense. So yes, there are things in the budget that had surprised me, both they were too expensive or they were much cheaper than I thought it was going to be. Cool. And what about like costly

mistakes? Was there anything that you did along the way that you were like, oh my God, I wish I could go back? Yeah, there were a couple and I absolutely wasted some money because I didn't do things properly or in the right order. So from maybe just not thinking about it and thinking it would be an easy change. So for example, I had agreed for everything in the house to be painted and I was like, yep, cool. No worries. Everything's just going to be painted like this crispy white. I really liked it but I hadn't really thought about the fact that I did want to paint our bedroom and I wanted our bedroom to be a grey and I just hadn't communicated that I didn't think it would be this big change later to go back and do it and ultimately I should have had that

conversation you would think that I would have I just don't know why I didn't I think because I wasn't up to the styling part I just thought it doesn't matter like just make everything white it'll be fine. And it basically would have been free had I communicated that from the beginning that the bedroom was meant to be grey. Because when they were purchasing paint, I mean, I still had to purchase it, right? They had allocated white paint for the bedroom. And then they went and purchased the white paint for the bedroom and painted my bedroom. And it was all within budget and scope. And then when my husband and I did a walkthrough, I was like, oh, hey, actually, I was thinking about making this room grey. And they're like, I mean, we can, but we're going to

have to purchase more paint and then you're going to have to pay for the trade to come in and paint just this room and I was like right did you end up doing it yeah I did okay I did and by did you actually end up doing it I mean I purchased the paint my dad helped me paint it because I was like I'll pay for the trades yeah like there are some things that you can do yourself like you don't need trades for absolutely everything I'm the queen of YouTube sometimes oh yeah if it's a flat pack we can do the flat packs so I think that yeah there are things that you can definitely do yourselves. And then there are also things that I would never compromise. Like, Beck, I'm not going to do the electrician stuff. I'm also not going to be doing any plumbing. I'm not going to be

messing around with things that I have no business messing around with. So like, yeah, you've got to find a happy medium. Also, don't bite off more than you can chew. So like, don't be like, oh, I can absolutely paint the entire house. Don't get me wrong. You totally could. But do you actually want to do you know how long that was how long did that take you so I didn't paint the entire house I just painted the bedroom how much like a whole day plus okay and then we had to let it dry and then we had to do another coat the next day yes I see so I was very grateful for the painters also my dad and I with our brushes and rollers yeah whole day and then I saw them come in to do the rest of the lounge room and they had spray guns and it took them like five minutes and

And I was like, I'll just see myself out. You could go and get yourself a spray gun. Yeah, but that's another cost. Yeah, that's true. That's so true. Anyway, so I think it's important to not just budget, but think about every tiny little thing that you think is maybe little, because it might not be that little in the grand scheme of things.

And even if it is, it really does add up. But Vee, as you know, I've never owned. I've kind of only been in rentals. So it's always been about making cosmetic changes to personal space. is it worth thinking about just making like cosmetic change to a house or do you feel like if you have the money to renovate you should I guess if you're like me and you've only ever rented is it a waste of space to be hanging artwork like chucking some nails if you're allowed yeah I definitely believe in making a space your own so even if you don't own there are lots of

things that you can do that don't damage the property to make the space your own like please don't get me wrong. You don't want to be going, oh, I really don't like this kitchen. I'm going to install a brand new kitchen in this rental property because like that doesn't make a lot of sense. Yes. But you've got to remember that this is your home. Like you've got to feel comfortable coming into it. And if there's something about your home that you're not comfortable with, I would be looking at ways to change it or ways to make yourself comfortable with it. Right. So like whether that is hanging art on the walls, maybe you're not allowed to, nail things into the walls, but could you call the real estate agent and go, hey,

can I use those command strips and put some artwork up? Can I maybe get one of those pressure rods and I can put up some beautiful curtains if that's something that adds to the vibe of your space? So I think there's lots you can do that are not necessarily permanent changes if you're renting to make your space your own. And don't get me wrong, they're things that you're going to spend money on but like to me that's spending money in order to benefit your mental health like you spend so much that's so true do you want to feel like super comfy in your own bedroom even if you're in a big share house like adding a few little things or maybe you've got dank carpets like i remember my first share house beck like they'd redone the carpets and there were those

ones you could see the edges of the squares they'd like done those tiles oh i just remember thinking it was so dank because they were like so thin, like the carpet was awful. And I went to Ikea and I think I just bought like a $50 rug. It honestly changed the way I felt about my bedroom because before it just felt ick to be on the carpet and also, well, I can't afford anything else. Like it's not going to happen, but this rug changed my space. So what can you do to make yourself feel comfortable in it? And I mean, we are definitely talking about knockdown, rebuild, actual renovation today but I think it's also worth acknowledging that to me that was an investment into my mental health into me having a safe and cozy space that I just felt at home in

yeah and I think it's also relevant for people who have moved into a house can't afford to renovate exactly as you say there are so many cheap tips and tricks and stuff that you can do to make the space cozy even if you're not loving it yet and you feel like you have intention of changing it just put your coziness your mental health first 100% it's like the time that I went and bought a pantry because like the house that I moved into the one I'm talking about with the carpet squares had the worst kitchen storage like dank kitchen cabinets were falling off like they were also really water damaged like you know those ones where the melamine is like real puffed out so the kitchen was horrendous Beck and I just went and bought on Facebook marketplace a used pantry

and put it in the corner changed the way we used our kitchen yeah absolutely like so there are The things that you can do that you think, oh, I didn't even know you could buy a pantry, V. I'm like, yes, you can buy a pantry. Like, you can put it all together. Like, you could go down to Bunnings and buy one of those flat pack pantries or you could buy one of the shelving cabinets so everyone has a space for all their cereals and stuff because otherwise the cupboards get packed. There are lots of things you can do in a rental that don't damage the property, that add value to your life, I think. Yes, I totally agree. And you don't even realize, but when things are cluttered, it really makes your brain feel cluttered.

You don't really get work done as well as you might if your cereals were on their own shelf. Yeah, and if you're me, you need a container for your cereal and then you feel like your life is, like, made. That's the dream. People who have their dry goods in containers, I just think they've got their life together. It might not be true, but, like, if you've got a jar for flour,

oh, my gosh, are you saying that you don't crumple the top of the paper and just shove it in the back of the pantry? Get an old rubber band. Okay, fancy pants. I really, really admire people that do that. this is kind of like going back to what you're saying about DIY. So it's obviously a good way to save, but are there any like caveats? Yeah, I think you need to be really realistic about what is achievable for you. So obviously, can you paint your own house? As I was saying

before, yeah, you probably could, but is it a good use of your time and your patience and the relationship that you have with your dad? Thankfully, my dad and I are still on good terms, But like, that was such fiddly work that I didn't even think about. And I'm very, very privileged to have a dad that is basically the DIY king. So he was an accountant, as everybody knows, because I've mentioned it before on the pod, but he basically built our entire house. He should have been a builder, but he ended up an accountant. So he knows what he's doing when it comes to painting. And I don't like taking direction from other people. Beck, that's why I ended up being a business owner, not an employee because I think that to be 32, I probably would

have been fired a number of times along the way had this been, you know, my reality. But, you know, dad going, all right, so we have to cut in. And I'm like, what's cutting in? He's like, well, you've got to like paint around the edges so that they're like really crispy and nice. And then you paint the middle. And I was like, can't you just paint the whole thing? He's like, no, then it would really look like you did a DIY job. And I was like, okay, no worries. So like, you've got to do it properly and that takes time and energy and effort and I would have a think about is there another job in the list that you can or you want to do so for example we have put a new kitchen in our house which is really exciting and we got a quote to demo it and my husband and I were like

absolutely not so we spent a weekend we had a little bit of a working day with my family and Steve's dad came down and we demoed it ourselves to be honest it was so expensive to have it demoed And I was like, what's the worst that could go wrong? Like, please don't get me wrong. Like, we didn't want to mess around with the, like, gas or the electricity or whatever. And we cut the power off first. We did it properly. But, like, I can pull out the kitchen because what's the worst that can happen?

I break the kitchen that we're already getting rid of. So just a silly question, but demo is demolition. Yeah, demolishing it. So for me, pulling out the old kitchen made the most sense to us because I was like, I'm not paying somebody else thousands of dollars to do a job that, to be honest, was just a lot of hard work. To me it wasn't about skill. It was literally about getting it out and having to carry the kitchen downstairs. It'd be kind of fun.

Like for the first part. Yeah. Like it wasn't fun when I was doing all the fiddly bits and like, you know, unscrewing things. I was like, ugh, because we did try and save a lot of the kitchen. Sure. In fact, that's a side tip. We listed the kitchen on Facebook Marketplace.

Ah. Because I didn't want it to go to waste. Like at the end of the day, it was a very damaged, old, water-damaged kitchen that needed to go because it's been in the house since, what, the early 80s? Like she had had her time, but some guy came and picked it up. We listed it for free on Facebook Marketplace and he was like, I'm fitting out my workshop with this.

And I was like, what a good way to use it because it's not going to be wasted. You're going to fit out your workshop and your tools are going to live in it. Yeah, and he's probably going to like take it apart himself, I assume. So you don't have to like carry it. I mean, we pulled it all out because we had deadlines. But yes, you can also tell people that they have to take it out too if you really want. That's so good.

That's a money win, right? Did you see the kick anything? What's it called when you, like, run and then you put your legs up to kick something? Is that a scissor kick? I didn't scissor kick anything. It was like a whole kitchen. Yeah, that's it.

I mean, if it was like a plasterboard wall, maybe we would have had a crack. It would be nice. But, like, it was like melamine. I don't trust my skill. Also, I mentioned flat packs before because I've used them a lot historically, but so many of them are made so well now. In fact, we went with a flat pack kitchen from Caboodle.

like i'll upload some videos to instagram and show you but the quality of the caboodle kitchen the quality is honestly on par if not better than and that's not me even being dramatic because they're sponsoring this episode this is just me being like this was actually sick beck is better than the kitchen that we had installed in our primary residence like i was actually a little bit frustrated yeah I was like is this a joke like this is so good like why didn't we just put this in our house like we would have saved literally thousands of dollars anyway I will upload videos because even like the drawer runners like you know those fancy like soft clothes ones we don't have that in our actual house because it was too expensive and I was like oh like that upgrade's

not worth it like no worries it's just an automatic feature in my caboodle kitchen and it was so much cheaper. You know, when you're just like, I'm not even trying to brag about them because we're working with them. I'm just really upset. Yeah. Kicking yourself a little bit. I know. So obviously I feel like flat packs have come a really long way because these are beautiful. They're also designed to be user-friendly. Like, I mean, my relationship with my dad's still intact and we put some together. So that's a pretty good deal. That is huge. And they obviously have a really big range of options for whole heaps of different price points. so the question of v did you go with the cheapest option no we didn't we went with like i would say

the very middle definitely a budget kitchen in comparison to like you know everything else we could have done but we definitely did a few upgrades so like instead of just having the plain cupboard doors we went with the ones with the cute like you know outlines on the edges yeah and made things a little bit cuter which obviously adds a little bit of price to it but it was definitely worth it. It's definitely something that I'm like, I'm really glad with the decisions that we made. And I mean, to my other very important point that I made earlier, one thing that we did do that wasn't DIY is paying professionals to do things that we can't do. So obviously I paid for an electrician and I paid for a plumber because that's not something that

you should ever play with, but it's also something that you don't want to mess up. Because imagine being like, you know what, I can do my own plumbing. You're going to ruin your whole kitchen if it went wrong yeah that's your own electricity you're probably going to kill yourself like that's not a good idea dangerous exactly and I just feel like that's where you should be spending money but if you're going to spend money on trades like that do what I did shop around we got a few different quotes before settling on the electricians and you know the trades that we wanted to work with because I really just wanted to make sure that we were working with people who weren't taking advantage yes and I don't think anyone that we got quotes

from was but I feel like I've heard so many stories recently of trades being absolutely overwhelmed with work that they're over quoting and just being like well I'm not doing it unless you pay me triple and stuff like that and then you think that that's the norm and that's not it so I feel like yeah trades were really good if you've got friends who have renovated like ask them for recommendations if you don't have recommendations local Facebook groups are really good for being like hey can anyone recommend like a Sparky in my area and they usually go, oh yeah, my husband does it. And then you can like look them up and see what their reviews are like, which is really helpful. Yes. So true. Even like just tell everyone you've

ever run into in your entire life about what you're doing, because there'll be someone who says, I've got a friend who does this. I've got a friend who does that. Yeah, exactly. And post on Instagram. Don't get me wrong. Even if you have like 300 followers, someone's going to see and be like, oh, actually I did this or I've got a mate who does this. Like ask for recommendations. Like I feel like that's the best way to get anything. Totally. You need someone who's a real person who actually has experience with this same thing to tell you what their experience is like. I think it's the best way to do it. Just word of mouth. So from my perspective, get some rough quotes before you even purchase the kitchen or before

you actually do anything. Because I think in our heads, we go, all right, we want to do this renovation and I've done some Googling and it's going to cost A, B, C, and D. Call the electrician, call the Sparky, explain what you're doing and go, hey, can you give me a rough estimate, just budgeting it all together, like really want to use you? Because one of the things that we got told and in my head, this made sense, right? So we've demoed the kitchen back. Our floors need re-sanding and re-polishing because they were dank. I'll upload a photo and I'll show you a photo after this of the floors. They're a completely different color now because of how old they were. Like the house that we're renovating is from the late sixties and they're

the same floorboards. Quite clearly, they'd never been resealed. The sealant had worn off and then they were completely water damaged. Dirt, like disgusting. They've gone from basically being a dark, dark brown, which I thought, okay, we'll just reseal them. That brown's not too bad, to like a light beech wood. And I was shook. But in my head, what happens is you remove the kitchen, then you do the floors and then you put the brand new kitchen on top, right? Yeah. No. What do you mean?

Well, that's what I thought. And when I called the electrician and was like, yeah, I need you to like change the power here and here. And we've got those sanders coming on this day. He's like, why are you doing the floors? I said, well, we've got the kitchen to then install on top. He's like, no, absolutely not. Do not polish your brand new floors and then have a whole heap of like trade going in and out. Your floors are going to get dinted. They're going to get damaged. You know, do a light sand, install your kitchen and then get them to do the floors around the kitchen. And I was like, well, that makes sense, doesn't it? But I didn't know that. So having these conversations before you actually do anything, I think is really helpful. In my mind,

I was like, what is it, floating? No, no, no. We just didn't put the kickboards in at the bottom, which was really easy to do because we can install them later. But they're going to come in, they're going to do the floors because we're paying a professional to do that. I do not trust myself to do the floors. We can do the kitchen. We can't do the floors. And then we will install the kickboards after the floors have been properly sealed. But he was like, you're not going to drag like flat pack boxes up and down those stairs and then across your floorboards. On that gorgeous floor. Yeah, exactly. He's like, you're going to get gouges, you're going to get scratches. He's like,

you're going to get glue and stuff like from all the tiling on the floor, like just don't do it. And I was like, I wish I had you earlier. Yeah. Like, I mean, I did this time, but when you're getting your budget together, it's kind of like a budget slash project plan. So you're not only making a plan for like what you have to pay for, but like you're making a plan for when that process goes in. Because it's one thing to to go, I can afford it. Okay. But when are the trades available? Is the trade that you want not available for another month? What does that look like? Because for us, we got a couple of

quotes and the quotes were not only like, you know, here are the different price points, but they were also like, oh, we booked out for three months so we could do it here. And I was like, oh, you are cheaper, but it's not worth waiting because I need to get this done sooner rather than later. Does that make sense? Yeah, totally. Okay. I think I need to go Google kickboards and maybe just like practice my scissor kick yeah okay but kickboards are not what you're expecting okay given you have just said scissor kick I'll explain a kickboard to you in the break and then when we get back we're gonna have a deeper chat about budgets and materials and all of that fun renovating stuff fun see you soon

welcome back everyone we're talking about renovation on a budget with someone who has just been through this. Victoria Devine. Hello, that's me. I want to talk materials now. How can we save here? All right. So I feel like I've done a really good job this time of keeping everything within budget. Obviously, I'm going to tell you to always shop around for discounts and codes or price matching. Often brands won't advertise that they do price matching. So I will Google the brand and then price matching and see what comes up on their website because often you'll find their terms and conditions and they'll say, we do price match. And then some brands even do like price beat, like Bunnings. They obviously say, we'll beat it by 5%. That's a money win. Hold them to

that. Ask them. I think it's really important to have a little bit of conviction around keeping to your budget and it can really save you. The one thing I would do is look around at recycled or leftover materials. So I know that that sounds a bit lame, but we have in our kitchen that we're renovating a very small patch for where we want tiles. And I was like, oh my gosh, what am I going to do? I got some quotes for some tiles and it was really expensive. I didn't realize how expensive they were. And I was like, I don't know, this is meant to be a budget renovation. Like I don't want to go buy bougie tiles, but then obviously Beck, have you met me? Like you show me a cheap option and a bougie option. And somehow I will always go, I want the bougie option. Even if you

haven't told me the price points. Like I'll just immediately look at it and be like, well, that's the one I like, isn't it? It's the most expensive habit I have. Anyway, I found some tiles on Facebook Marketplace that were left over from a renovation. I had to do some calculations to work out because they had said how many tiles they had. And I found the tiles that I wanted from TileCloud on Facebook Marketplace. Oh, that's so perfect. Yeah, and it cost me 50 bucks. And it was enough. And it was enough. Yeah, it covers the whole space. And I mean, I'm going to have to go buy the grout and stuff, but that's something that I'm going to do myself because it's such a small spot in our kitchen that I think will work really well. So have a look on

Facebook marketplace because so often people buy more of what they needed because they're like, I don't know, obviously rolling in money and they're like, oh, I'll just get extra tiles that I don't need. But they pop them on Facebook marketplace. It's like how I put our kitchen on Facebook marketplace and got rid of it. Yes. And I mean, obviously massive shout out to like Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree in general, because you can save a whole heap of money. The other thing I did, Bec, was I needed new appliances. So the appliances that were in our kitchen were not savable. So we're still using the same fridge that we had, but I needed to purchase a new gas cooktop because ours was cooked, mind the pun, and an oven. And a gas cooktop,

I think we ended up spending about $1,200 on it, which was a lot more than I thought that they were, but like that's how renovation goes you end up realizing that things are so much more expensive than you'd anticipated I was like wanting this really nice looking oven to go under it and it was like three thousand dollars back like don't get me wrong you can get cheaper ovens but I found one online from a company that does refurbished ovens and it cost me 650 bucks oh my god that's so good yeah and we just picked it up it was in Frankston which was close I mean Frankston is that a red flag buying secondhand things there i don't know i did it's coming up to me the price was worth it i had sent it to my sparky first and said do you have any concerns and he'd

actually said navi like they're actually really good they just refurbish things that have been pulled out of display homes and i was like okay so you're telling me that this hasn't been used at all like great so it ended up costing me 650 for our oven instead of like close to 3000 that is so like shop around and like I think that people often assume I'm buying a secondhand oven well you might think that that means it's like one that someone's used a million times and it's not that good so you don't even explore the option this oven does not even look like it's been used right like brand new basically and I mean disclaimer I don't get the warranty that would have gone with it sure but given I'm saving so much money and it cost me $650 I was really

happy to, you know, take that risk. Absolutely. And it's being installed professionally. So we're getting all of these things. He's installing it. Like I'm not doing that on my own, but I did source something that was much cheaper. The other thing I wanted to say was look at revamping the materials that you already have in your home. So like flooring is a really good example. Do you hate the carpet? Rip it up. See what's underneath there. Like, don't get me wrong. Don't rip it up if you can't afford to replace the carpet. But are there floorboards under there that could be polished up. If you looked at my floors, Bec, before we had re-sanded them, you would have been like, well, V, are you getting new floorboards put down? Because those are awful. And we genuinely

had to consider that as an option because I wasn't sure how they would come up. But we got a good flooring guy in. Again, we got a couple of quotes before settling on one flooring guy. And he came in and said, yeah, you're right, V, there is a fair bit of damage here, but I can just replace those boards and then we can sand everything and it'll look great what a great idea but i think it's really important to not just jump to the oh that's absolutely cooked we're gonna have to replace it and now once we've sanded it we're actually able to get a color that i like even more than what i thought we were working within yeah so that's a money win i think because to replace the floorboards in our house i did get a quote for that too because i wanted to be able to

share it it was going to be about eleven and a half thousand dollars oh my goodness it was going to be so much yeah so to get the upstairs of our house re-floorboarded the quote was 11 grand that was including installation just to be really clear sure but to have them sanded back and repolished it's going to cost us two thousand dollars and that includes the floorboards that he's fixing and he's charging me two hundred dollars per floorboard oh which is obviously a lot for a piece of wood but it's like him sourcing wood that matches and then like installing it so I think that that's a pretty good deal but like two grand versus eleven and a half like be for real that's a really good saving be for real be for real yeah I think it's also important as

well because my husband and I were so certain that we were going to have to put different floorboards over the top but we said you know what we should just get the flooring guy that does the sanding and stuff out to look at them first and do a bit of a test before we pull the trigger on that and we're really glad that we did that's so good did you have any lino in there there was lino it had been pulled out before we moved in but the adhesive from the lino was still on our floors so like when i say it was bad beck like that's how bad it was like the adhesive lines and all the glue marks were still there like no one had cleaned it up they'd just like ripped out the lino and been like oh it's good now it was not good it was not good and i think the other thing that

really annoyed me about it is the floors just consistently felt dirty. Yes. Because like you're just looking at glue and adhesive and like all of the little bits of stuff that had stuck to the adhesive over the years made it look black. It was horrendous. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Lino is no good for anyone. No. Rip out your lino. There's probably floorboards under there because that's what the boomers did. They put the lino down. Why do they do that? I don't know why they did that. You ask them, not me. But anyway, I think that having a think about every option and actually exploring it a bit, even if you don't think it's the one for you could end up saving you a whole heap of money. So you're not spending money to get opinions. You're spending money when you really

have an outcome that makes sense for you. Because do you know how upset I would have been if we had installed the floorboards? Because like, Bec, you and I both know if I had gone and gotten a quote from a dude who installs floorboards and he came to my house and he's like, yep, cool. Like I'll give you this quote, which he did. He didn't mention that we could repolish them or that they come up nicely. Sure. But he's not going to mention that and be like, oh, Bec, did you know you could save heaps of money if you'd actually just not employed me or paid me? Yeah. Like don't pay me, go play this other guy. So do the research yourself. And I know that

that sounds overwhelming because it can feel like a lot, but it's saving us thousands of dollars. Okay. That's really cheeky. It is cheeky. But also like if you do a job and then you've asked me for a quote, I'm not going to try and talk you out of it. Vy, at the start of this episode, you talked about the importance of project managing. Let's finish with that. Yeah, I love project management. It's one of my, I guess, strong points, you could say, because I like to do a budget,

but I also like to have like the stages at which that budget is going to be spent and on what and where and how. And I think it's important that while you can do things bit by bit, and I definitely would recommend that if you're renovating, like, you know, do it room by room or level by level starting with the floors and doing the whole house for example had I just decided to do the kitchen right it would have cost me more money to do the kitchen now and then you know wait and then do the lounge room and then do the floors in the lounge room so we're doing the floors for the entire house at the same time right after the kitchen has been installed but we're not doing

the bathrooms yet but we're going to get to the bathrooms at some stage and we're going to get to the lounge room and you know change up stuff in there but we're definitely not doing it at the same time as the kitchen but because the floors are such a big task we're just like one and done I don't want to pay someone to come out and just do the kitchen and then come out again and have more service fees and more charges just like quote me for the whole thing and get it done so I think that project management is really important because it's going to tell you like when you can do things and what your budget for things looks like. So we are budgeting at the moment to do our bathrooms, but we're not doing our bathrooms yet. Cause I'm kind of like, I don't

want to do the kitchens and the bathrooms all at once. That's going to be really expensive. So we're doing the kitchen now. And as you guys know, I've posted a lot about it on social media. We've been doing planning for that for the last, what, eight months or so. Like I've been in and out of Bunnings a million times because I couldn't decide which white cabinets I wanted. And like, they have the samples there. So I kept going in, like back when Gabby worked for us, I was like dragging her in and being like, but is this white too cream? And she's like, no, that's really nice. And I'd be like, okay. And then I'd settle on it. And then I'd go home and be like, I just need to see it in person one more time with the sample of the benchtops.

So it was really nice to have a long lead up period so that now the kitchen's in and it is in, I'm really excited about it. And I go, yeah, no, I know these were the right color selections for me but I think that being able to do things and having a plan has helped a lot and like even if you're not a spreadsheet wizard like there are so many templates out there that you could use that really help you and I mean we'll drop something that I have used so that you guys can use it as well I mean it's not the best thing in the entire world because I'm not a super professional but I think it does you know the job and really helps you think about things and get on the right page because we have made sure that we've like dotted all our I's and crossed our T's because

Bec, I did it the wrong way the first time and the second time we are not doing that again. It's not my first rodeo, you know, like we're just not going to fall off the bull again. We hope not. Exactly. I don't know about you, but I feel like it's a pretty good place to leave it. I think it's a good place to leave it. But also I think it's important if you're going to renovate, budget, budget, budget.

And the best way to budget is to be really clear about what it's going to cost. we're not guesstimating. Like if it means that you pop on down to Reese Plumbing and spend an hour or two looking at taps and going, oh, I thought that the tap would cost me, you know, 50 bucks and going, oh, actually I've realized I like a more expensive option or I like something else. Like you're getting a good idea for what your taste is as well as what budget is. Cause like it's so easy to Google, like what's the average cost for renovating a kitchen? And that will come up, but like, you don't know what you're actually going to choose or what that's actually going to look like. Go down to Bunnings and have a look at the kitchens there. Like they have a

full caboodle installation in most Bunnings that you can go down to and see what the quality is like. You might go far out. This is actually great. I do want to put this in my house. But you can have a look at what the different cabinet options are going to be. And, you know, you might be renovating on a budget, but also on a really short timeframe. Like maybe you're like, oh my gosh, I've got to lease this property out, but the kitchen's got to change. Like have a chat to them there because they have off the shelf options so like what can you use or what's going to take a little bit longer to order in so like the cabinet doors I pitched we had to order they weren't off the shelf but the cabinet frames were off the shelf so I think it's really important to just

understand not only your budget but what that time frame looks like yeah let's leave it there because I feel like I've spoken about floors a lot and I'd like to talk about coffee with you is that okay I'd love that all right we don't have any more time today but I have loved chatting to you back. We'll see you next week, guys. Bye, guys. The advice shared on She's on the Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money

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