2015 Renovation Cost Round-Up!

I actually intended on doing a cost round-up of each room as we finish it, however we’re yet to fully complete a room (although the bathroom is ridiculously close!) so I thought it might be a good idea to do a yearly cost-round up as well and what better time than the very end of 2015?

You can read about everything we’ve achieved over the last year in our home renovations in my last post here. But this one’s all about costs! I know most people would prefer to keep costs (and earnings!) private, but I think it’s the most important part of a renovation. It’s easy to see a room transformation or stunning designs on Pinterest and think “we could/should do that!” but with little/no knowledge about how much an entire project would cost, it’s difficult to turn that into a reality. One of the biggest things that put people of renovation/DIY is the unknown costs. How much does it cost to renovate a bathroom? To fit a new consumer unit? These things aren’t easy to answer and short of getting a bazillion quotes, it can still be difficult to see the bigger picture. So, I’m not trying to ‘show off’ about our spending in any way, just share our experiences on how much a DIY-renovation project can cost you. Note the term: DIY-renovation.

We’ve certainly spent a fair amount over the past twelve months – we’ve renovated the bathroom which needless to say wasn’t the cheapest of renovations and we definitely weren’t too stringent on  cheaper fixtures and fittings. However, throughout this renovation year we have done around 99% of the work ourselves which has saved us a TON. Literally. Hence the ‘DIY-renovation’ terminology I’m using!

So, what have we spent over the last year? I’m actually going to include the last few months of 2014 in this cost round-up as well since I didn’t do one for the first few months of renovation which we started at the end of 2014. So, here we go…..

Total Renovation Costs 2015: £2916

Not too bad right?! That’s around £250 a month which is what we budget monthly for our renovations  straight from the pay packet. It’s slightly crazy to see how much we spent on three tradesmen (two which took less than an hour!) in comparison to materials. Really goes to show just how much more hiring someone to do the job costs!! Wowzer.

Total Spend on new Furniture & Furnishings £787

I’ve listed these separately as they’re all items that we get to keep should we ever sell up and move. However they are still very related to our renovation as without new tools we wouldn’t have got very far. And likewise without new furniture/furnishings our rooms would be pretty empty! OK.. so most of them are still very empty, but you get my point right?! 😉

I’m quite surprised by the low cost of DIY tools. I feel like we’ve bought LOADS, but I guess most of them cost less £10 each so we’ve done pretty well here!

Most expensive purchases of 2015?

To add up everything above, we’ve spent a hefty £4076 over the last fifteen or so months on all things home/renovation related. I have no doubt we will be spending just as much over the next 12 months too. Argh, there’s just never enough money!!

Do you track your spending during your renovations?