I am currently working on a few DIY’s and was thinking about how expensive some projects can be. Sometimes making your own headboard or making over a piece of furniture might not be the most budget friendly.

Here are a few tips before you start your DIY to make sure you’re on budget.

Know your materials, big or small.

1. Know all the materials you need. – Looking at a DIY you want to make might seem simple and affordable, but once you add up all the pieces it can actually be expensive. For example we wanted to make a project out of the galvanized rods from the hardware store, it seemed easy enough but once I went online and added up the materials, it was going to cost over $200. Although this amount can be less than a piece from the store it didn’t make sense for us at the time. Know your budget and what you require before you start.

Space. Make something, get rid of something else.

2. Are you able to sell a piece of furniture to fund your project? –  This is obviously one of my favorite things to do. I rarely make a DIY for a room and keep all the pieces I already have, it starts to look cluttered and messy. I usually assess the room I thinking of adding a DIY project to and see what needs to go. I funded my black sideboard project with the sale of my chaise lounge. Once we moved the chaise no longer worked and we really needed some storage in the living room.

Could you make that mural or buy it cheaper?

3. Can you buy this cheaper at the store? – Don’t get me wrong I love DIY’s but occasionally there is something I want to make that’s cheaper in store. Make sure you do your research and cost compare the item you want to make.  For example we wanted outside furniture.  We saw a set at our local hardware store, really liked the design and thought, we can make that!  We went home drew out the design, it seemed very straight forward.  Then we decided to calculate the cost of the materials, wood, seat cushions etc and realized it was less expensive from the store.

DIY dipped napkins from old napkins I had around.

4. Is there piece you have that could be a future project but it works for now? – May seem like a silly question but sometimes we don’t have the budget to do everything at once. When we moved into our new house we had a few purchases to make like furniture, houseware etc, there wasn’t really extra money to start making DIY’s. We needed bar stools for our bar height table, the problem was, we needed eight stools. Do you know how much bar stools are? The cheapest we found was $150 EACH that would have been $1200 plus tax!! Mark ended up finding school stools online for $30 each nine stools, with taxes, shipping etc it worked out to $500, which was still a lot but we saved $700. These stools work for now but in the future our DIY project is to paint them black which will look great in our dining room.

DIY dresser I painted and sold!

5. Do you really need it? – This also may seem like a ridiculous question! Sometimes I see DIY’s online and fall in love, pinning everything I can  but I don’t really need any of them. I simply want to make  something or like the look of the project. I’ve started to only make projects we need or have space for? I honestly painted a sideboard we had once because I had the paint and knew it would look great. We no longer needed it so I sold it on Craigslist which paid for the paint that we used on the new sideboard. Sometimes that can work but really think if you need the project or if you’re doing it for fun!

Hopefully these few tips help you on your DIY journey.

A Plentiful Life Affordable Bargain Hunter Bargainista budget Budget DIY budget friendly diy DIY budget DIY projects Do It Yourself Frugalista money saving Money Saving Monday Money Saving Tips Tips for your DIY