How do I stop the spending - Renovating new house

[Moscow Mule]

And by ruthless you mean living in an unfinished place for 2 years+ because you're still sticking to that budget?

I wouldn't say unfinished - everything is painted magnolia rather than wallpapered with Cole & Sons!

[Troll]

Finished mine last year and well under budget.
G2 listed built 1750-ish. .

Oh that was brave! - did you have the paint inspectors calling - how onerous was doing stuff and getting approval?

[Paddy]

Oh that was brave! - did you have the paint inspectors calling - how onerous was doing stuff and getting approval?

They inspected once and they went on and on about how I should remove the plaster (done about 60 years ago ) in order to expose the original timbers. Since then I decided to ignore them

[The Spartan]

Im not sure it would ever be sensible for people who earn as much as we do to do stuff ourselves. I think the time is better spent billing the client, than doing manual low paid work ourselves.

Manual low paid? 1.5k to fit a kitchen when it took me less than 2 days to do myself

[d000hg]

3. DIY
4. DIY
5. DIY

Im not sure it would ever be sensible for people who earn as much as we do to do stuff ourselves. I think the time is better spent billing the client, than doing manual low paid work ourselves.

I'm with eUK on this, IF you can spend the DIY time earning. A typical gig working when the client is open leaves you several hours each night, whereas a freelancer like myself can choose to do 2-3hrs work after dinner for extra dosh.

[Scrag Meister]

Has anybody every got themselves into a spiral of insanity after starting to renovate a new house?

I have spent 3 x what I initially budgeted for and it just never seems to end. Everything is so bloody expensive as well!

I have not been on CUK much these days cause I am spending every free minute doing painting, sanding etc. to reduce costs.

It starts off with knocking down a wall and ends up re-plastering the whole house, new doors, new handles, new everything. Buying a house is so much more costly than what I had bargained for!!!

Is this you?

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Finished mine last year and well under budget.
G2 listed built 1750-ish. Much of the timbers and brick were donated with kind permission of builders’ skips . Bolts and fixing were bought cheap at Screwfix. Insulation was from wool carpet underlay donated from a closed down department store. I did the wall plastering myself but paid an expert to do the ceilings. Rewiring and plumbing all DIY to a very high spec. Wood burners with hot water supply. Endless supply of timber from own treas.

You da man

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Is this you?

indeed.

[Kelstar]

1. Budget realistically

What is the reason for the overspend?

My suggestion would be to set a realistic budget - prioritise the budget - must haves - nice to haves - being a bit silly but hey ho. Build in a 20% contingency for FFS moments when things go wrong. Work with contractors on a fixed fee basis and have a retainer for work post completion to make sure they actually fix their errors.

Work you was through in that logical order.

Once the money is gone, its gone!

Its so easy to get carried away, go in to buy x and walk out with spanking top of the range x.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

What is the reason for the overspend?

My suggestion would be to set a realistic budget - prioritise the budget - must haves - nice to haves - being a bit silly but hey ho. Build in a 20% contingency for FFS moments when things go wrong. Work with contractors on a fixed fee basis and have a retainer for work post completion to make sure they actually fix their errors.

Work you was through in that logical order.

Once the money is gone, its gone!

Its so easy to get carried away, go in to buy x and walk out with spanking top of the range x.

That's me all over..... I tend to avoid buying things, but when I do buy I go for the best. My logic is that if I get less than the best, I'll have to replace sooner, won't be as good, more headache etc. It's like when I bought a washing machine. Budgeted for 300 but walked out with a £500 AEG cos it came with 5 year warranty and 50 million RPM spin speed.

Reason for overspend, I admit, is naivity. I never expected costs to rack up so much and once we knocked down a wall, one thing led to another and now I have blown a great deal of my warchest.... Normally I wouldn't be so arsed but wife is a pharmacist and cleaners have now overtaken them in terms of pay....

Slightly going off topic, but is anybody else related to a pharmacist? I am very close to telling her to completely quit that profession now the pay has dropped by like 50%......