A penny saved…

My dream home is a little bit of a nightmare currently. I bought a fixer-upper in the truest sense of the term - and am only half way through the fixing up part of it. Now the challenge is to complete as many things as I can, all the while on a pretty much non-existent budget. One of my goals is to pay off my debt load so borrowing to improve my house is really a last option.

I’ve been doing bits and pieces, using paid trades for the work that I really can’t do myself (electrical, plumbing). Demolition has become my specialty but my husband is fond of saying that I’m better at tearing things apart than putting them back together.

My new projects are going to include a flagstone patio, a small pond, a gardening shed and completing interior drywall. In my true frugal fashion, I’ve already found 3 boxes of patio bricks, 3 bags of gravel and 50 square feet of flagstone. A neighbor of a friend has a pond form that he’s not using and is willing to give to me and I have a pile of 2 X 4 ’s, metal sheeting, salvage 3/4″ plywood and windows that will very soon become a shed.

Again, frugality is about using time instead of money. While I do work full time, I can make the time because this is important to me. It’s not about increasing property value as it is honoring a space I love dearly. While I will definitely complain for the next few weeks, if you ask me at the end if it was worth it, I’ll definitely say yes.

Just a reminder to everyone who wants to be more frugal…speak up! Tell people your plans, tell them what you need and be open to where materials come from. If you’re talking about what you need, you limit people from helping you. And there’s nothing wrong with taking help from others; just pay it forward where you can!

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