Posts made in May 2017

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A grotty old bathroom can be very unpleasant to use and if you have guests to stay, it might make them think twice about coming back. Of course, you’d love to have a whole new bathroom fitted but your financial position says otherwise. Remodelling an entire bathroom is expensive business and most people simply cannot afford to do it can they? Well, that isn’t strictly true. You probably can afford to remodel your bathroom, it’ll just take a bit of creative thinking in certain areas to make sure that you cut costs.

Tiling

Most people prefer tiles in their bathroom but they come at a price. Buying the tiles and then hiring somebody to fit them all for you is going to be expensive. It’s much better to buy fewer tiles and focus on a few key areas. Try just tiling the floor and the shower, or tiling one strip around the wall and painting the rest. The savings will be huge. If you want to make even bigger savings, you could do the tiling yourself instead of paying for somebody to do it for you.

Paint

If you can part with tiles completely, it will help a lot. Painting the entire room will be far cheaper than tiling it. It’s also much easier for you to do yourself. When you are choosing paints, look into mold resistant brands. That way the paint will be more robust and it will last a lot longer before you need to paint it again.

Update Fixtures

Chances are, you won’t be able to afford to replace the bath, shower or toilet with brand new ones but changing some of the smaller details can still give the bathroom a new look. There is a huge range of bath taps to suit any bath available online; replacing your taps with a brand new set will go a long way to freshening up the look of your bathroom. You could also replace radiators and towel rails with something a bit more stylish and up to date. It won’t cost you as much but it will improve your dated bathroom. When you are choosing new fixtures, consider whether they are energy efficient or not, by spending a little more now, you could make long- term savings on the household budget.

Relining

Buying a brand new bath or shower is going to set you back a lot and most of the time you don’t need to do it in the first place. The reason that they start to look tatty is not the fixtures themselves, it is because the sealant around the edges is starting to come away. Having somebody professionally reline them will be quite cheap, especially compared to buying and fitting a whole new bathroom suite.

Buy Used

If you are dead set on replacing your bath or shower, don’t go for brand new ones. You can easily get second-hand ones that will be in just as good condition for a fraction of the price. Look on sites like Ebay or Craigslist to see what you can find. You should also try Etsy for upcycled bathroom fixtures. People are very inventive with what they do on there and you could find a unique bath without having to pay a lot for it.

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It’s a rule that’s been used by people who want to take a stand and get control of their finances for generations now. Every time you’re about to buy something you don’t need or make a big financial decision such as getting a loan, you should spend a night thinking about it and sleep on it. It might seem simple, but it really can save your finances. How? Let’s take a look.

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It starts with a budget

This is one of the reasons sleeping on it works best. Because it only really works when you understand how much expendable income you have each week/month/paycheck. Living on a budget isn’t about denying yourself, but rather about finding out how much money you really have and getting a better idea of how much you can spend. Into that budget, you should put a pre-determined list of things you know you’re going to need to buy, so you know when something isn’t on that list, it needs a night to process.

It kills impulse shopping

Flat out denying your impulse by saying “I don’t need this” in the moment isn’t always simple. But it is much easier to simply tell yourself you’re going to give yourself a day to consider it. During that night, it’s much easier to look back and see how such expenses aren’t really worth the money in the first place. 

It leads to better decision making

It’s not all about what you spend your money on, either. It’s about the big financial decisions you make. For instance, you should never take the first loan or credit card you get a letter for. As part of the delay you give yourself, you can look at many personal loan providers and see what the market tends to offer on average. You might be able to get a loan that’s a lot more manageable for you or a credit card that even offers better rewards than the first one you saw.

It helps you remember you have sacrifices you might need to make

During that time spent thinking about a purchase, you get a chance to do a couple of things. First, you look at your bank balance to see how much cash you have and then you look at what your planned expenses are on the budget. For much of the month, you’re going to see that you might have to make a sacrifice if you’re going to spend the money anyway. It’s better to be aware of it beforehand rather than coming up short later.

It helps you be mindful

As part of considering those expenses or financial decisions, it’s a good idea to spend the evening talking about them. Regular, meaningful money talks with actionable outcomes do more than help you reach a consensus. They help you explore your own thinking around money and expenses, meaning you become more aware of impulses and habits that you can later lose entirely.

It’s a simple rule, but it changes how you think about finance and it curbs so many of those bad habits that can get you in a bad financial place in the first place. Start sleeping on it and you’ll begin seeing huge changes in your financial health.