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A grott

y 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 Craigsl

ist 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.

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Your bedroom is a place that you spend around a third of your life in. You should be spending anywhere from 7-8 hours in your bedroom and most of that sho

uld be while you’re asleep. However, many people take this the wrong way and they decide not to put much effort at all into their bedroom renovations. They might add some electronics like a television, or they might change the curtains and eventually switch up the bedsheets. There are plenty of fantastic improvements that you can add to your bedroom, and here are just a couple of ideas to whet your appetite.

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Change the curtains

The decor makes a huge difference in how you perceive a room. Luckily, one of the biggest pieces of decor that we see is our curtains and they are very easy to replace. You can easily switch out your boring curtains for something that fits the season. For example, if it’s sunny and you want to let in a little more light, get some thin curtains. However, if your bedroom gets rather hot during the evenings, then you may want thick curtains to block out the sunlight and keep your room nice and cool. Check out this article at http://www.hgtv.com/ for some fantastic ideas on how to improve your bedroom windows.

Get a diffuser

A mini oil diffuser doesn’t cost much at all and it’s the perfect little accompaniment to a bedroom. With some relaxing oils to reduce your stress and comfort you, it’ll prepare your bedroom for relaxation every night. Simply turn on the diffuser as you’re changing into your pyjamas and preparing for bed and your bedroom will be filled with a wonderfully gentle and subtle scent that will make it easy for you to sleep.

Replace your mattress

One of the biggest improvements you can make to your bedroom is to replace the mattress. It’s the ultimate upgrade in terms of comfort and relaxation because it’s what you use for the majority of the time in your bedroom. You can sleep on it, lounge on it, sit on it, and the comfort it offers is going to be the centrepiece to your bedroom. Without a good mattress, you’ll go to bed uncomfortable, wake up aching and it’ll make sleeping difficult. You want to invest in a good ma

ttress even if it costs a little extra, so look at articles such as http://www.sleepjunkie.org/how-to-find-the-most-comfortable-mattress/ to get some ideas on what types of mattress there are. It’s always a good idea to spend more on a m

attress because they’re very durable and last for a long time.

Install a ceiling fan

With summer coming up, staying cool while sleeping is essential. This is why it’s important to invest in cooling solutions, but getting something like an air conditioning unit is expensive and costs a lot to operate. Instead, why not invest in a ceiling fan? They’re far cheaper to operate than an air than an air conditioning unit, they use up less power and they’re also incredibly good a

t circulating air to keep a room cool.