My new closet has me lusting after more home improvement projects. It all looks so fabulous that I feel like the closet’s awesomeness dwarfs that of the rest of the house.
Of course, that’s not true. My house is lovely. And seriously, self, it’s just a closet. I am probably the only person who finds it completely wonderful.
(I have always had a love of boxes and storage, though, so perhaps a perfectly organized closet is right up my alley.)
But the sense of satisfaction with having something completed that has been on my home improvement wishlist since I bought the house has me looking at what else I can complete on that list.
My Home Improvement Plans
Some of the things will have to wait a while. Things like new windows and new flooring for my basement just aren’t in the budget yet. This is motivation to set aside more money for those projects though. Even if it’s only $20 a month, it will slowly add up. I think that’s part of my problem in saving up for big projects. I feel like if I can’t budget a “big” amount ($50 or more, in my brain), it’s not worth setting that money aside. But I need to remember that little dollar amounts add together to make big dollar amounts.
It might also help me control my spending even more. Do I really want to buy this widget or do I want to put this $10 towards new flooring? New flooring sounds boring, but given how happy I am with my closet, I’m sure that new flooring in a frequently used area of the house will be ten times as exciting.
Not that all of my fun spending has to stop, of course. Everyone needs little splurges in their life. But I think that it’s time that I recommit to saving for the big home improvement projects I want to tackle over the next few years. It will add value to my house, but more importantly, it will only increase my enjoyment of my home.
Are you saving up for any big ticket items? Do you put away little amounts or find it easier to set aside large chunks of money?
Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
[…] you’re anything like me, you love to save money and do everything yourself. Being frugal has its perks and rewards that literally pay off. Or maybe you just enjoy DIY for the […]