How the girl with the expensive taste was able to stay on budget.

As we are shelling out cash for our whole house remodel, I am trying to keep cost down.  We have a goal  of living completely debt free by the time we turn 40.  I have been told that I have expensive taste, so to stay on track I have to cut cost without sacrificing my vision for our forever house.  Some of the things I have learned along the way are:

It pays to shop around and compare cost.

• For example when we moved into our forever house, we were living out of a cooler.  The house didn't come with a refrigerator, and the refrigerator I  had selected would no longer fit once we realized that we had to include the height of the new flooring (ugggg).   At this point in the game I felt defeated.  So I told Brent I can not make anymore decisions right now, "please just get me a fridge that will fit."  So Brent stopped at every appliance store around Grand Rapids asking for information and our options.  Brent had found only one fridge that would fit our unique space without leaving a huge gap on the sides.  It was even the fridge I wanted!!!  So Brent was able to purchase the floor model and he saved $800 plus he received a $260 rebate/Lowes gift card.

  

  I love this fridge!!!

• After living in our forever house for a week I realized the dishwasher was leaking out the  bottom  (seriously, water all over my sub-floor).  This mama was washing dishes by hand for three weeks before we had time to shop for a new one.  I was looking through the Memorial Day ads and  had seen that Lowes had the Dishwasher I wanted on sale for $550.  So I said to Brent "I have a coupon for 10% off my entire purchase at Lowes, maybe we can go pick up a new dishwasher. " Thank goodness he said yes because washing dishes by hand is not my favorite thing.  When we got to Lowes they had a different ad from the one I was looking at that very same day.  I think they thought I was crazy.  So Brent started checking on his phone and found the dishwasher at home depot on Sale for $450.   Score!  Lowes matched the $450 and I used my 10% off coupon and save $150 on my new dishwasher.
  
• When it came time for picking out our carpet we shopped around and saved big!  I got a 9lb pad, which Brent was trying to talk me out of and the salesman gave it to me for $1.50 instead of $2 a     sq ft.  I really wanted that 9lb pad, so as soon as he told me that I said sold!   Even with the 9lb pad and good quality carpet we were able to save almost $1000. I had already put half down for the deposit when I found a coupon on their website for and additional 10 percent off.  That just sweetened a already great deal.

  

  This Carpet is great!!!  It has so much cushion I think you really bounce when you walk on it.

• Then came the wood floors I so dreamed about at night.  Hand scraped dark wood floors with rich tan undertones.  And yes I dream about wood floors at night, this is my forever house you know.  This is where my budget went south.  Brent would say to me "Kerri do you really need that?  Just go with something cheaper."  My response to Brent, "you always told me, you can get whatever you want on  the next house, guess what we are in the next house and yes I really have to have it".  Don't worry I got my wood flooring and they look gorgeous.  Originally we were going to refinish the existing oak wood floors ourselves.  Well, we ended up ripping them out along with the baseboards.  It just wasn't going to work.  The original wood flooring was not thick enough to refinish, and all the baseboards in the whole house were ruined.  So whats a girl to do?  I know, get the wood floors I dreamed about. Since brent was freaking out over the cost, I called a friend of mine who's husband does floors. He was able to find the the same wood floors I picked out, and negotiated a price of almost $2 per sq foot off.  Now that doesn't sound like much but when you are talking 890 sq feet that is huge!!!

  

  I love my wood floors.  I will say the only thing is you have to sweep twice a day because dark shows everything.  I knew this when I picked them out and I think they are total worth it.

Now when you move make sure you let the Post Office know, so they can direct your mail to your new house and you get tons of great coupons for moving.

•  Bed Bath and Beyond 20% off entire purchase (not one item but entire purchase)
• 10% Pottery Barn ( I haven't used that one yet, I already gave Brent a heartattck over the cost of the new floors so I better stay away from that store even though I love it)

Lowes $10 off $50 (which by the way I went to yesterday and they wouldn't let me use my coupon.  The machine said we already used, but I know we didn't.  The manager gave me a number to call to get a new coupon if there was a error, and he said that I could bring my recite in with my new coupon and he would adjust the price.  I was not to happy.  At this point I just shopped around Lowes for an hour with a 2 year and 5 year old getting all the of the items I needed.  I drove out of my way to go to Lowes because I had a coupon.  After I purchased all of the items needed and got out to the parking lot I decided to march my butt back in there with a cranky 2 year old and returned my five cans of spray paint and painters tape.  I did have six cans but I really needed one can right away for my next project.  I left and on my way home I called customer service and they apologized for inconvenience and said they would send me a new coupon and I told her no thank you, that would not even cover my gas to get back to Lowes.  I would just find another store to buy all my items from.  So she said she would hand it off to the manager at the store and guess who called me at 9:30 at night?  The manager from the store.  I began to tell him why I was upset.  He responded with "yes ma'am I am the manager you talked with today and sorry for the inconvenience.  Customer service should have taken care this when you called and he would credit me the $10 now."  I was really not happy at this point.  "I told him I already returned the spray paint, so what are you going to credit?"  I told him that I just purchased a refrigerator, dishwasher and a bunch of stuff for the house we are renovating, and that we are lowes card members.  So he credited our Lowes card $40 for the aggravation he caused me.

So my whole point is...shop around, get recommendations from family and friends, and use Coupons!  This is the way we were able to stay on budget for our whole home remodel, even though we had some unexpected extras that were not in the original plan.