Budgets

[nod]

Good all

 

I just thought I would write out a Quik post that may help some of the newbies 

Im just about to set off to site 

I’ve been up since 5am doing the build spreadsheet 

Looking back over the last Almost two years There has been parts of the build that have run over Somtimes due to price hikes Useally my over optimistic estimating 

But looking back through the spreadsheets there are areas were you will pull some if not all of these costs back All be it further down the line 

Though they are a real body blow at the time 

For instance we agreed at the beginning there would be no compromise on the kitchen 

Even with fitting it myself rather quotes were mind blowing 

But after twelve months of looking 

My wife has found the kitchen of her dreams for 10k less than the absolute bottom line that we were being quoted for 

On the day we went to pay the deposit I noticed there was no instant hot water tap included 

Exstra £1000 My wife got up and said there is no way I’m paying a 1000 for a tap Quik as a flash the salesmen said we will chuck in Quooker tap Free of charge 

and I bet they are still making plenty 

 

So all is not lost when things run over or fall behind 

[Triassic]

9 minutes ago, nod said:

My wife has found the kitchen of her dreams for 10k less

Im hoping my wife will do the same, fingers crossed!

[Declan52]

I was obsessed with the constant filling in off our spreadsheet. When you have a very small budget it really does focus the mind on how far you need to push each sales rep in order for it to fit the figure you have in column D18.

[newhome]

17 minutes ago, Declan52 said:

I was obsessed with the constant filling in off our spreadsheet. 

 

Me too. Every main job had a budget set at the beginning and I used to obsessively enter every invoice in the spreadsheet every weekend and reforecast every job based on any new information. That then changed the bottom line figure so I would look for areas where I could economise when we overran in any areas. We did economise on the kitchen and TBH I don’t really mind about that. It looks perfectly ok to me and I don’t cook much anyway TBH lol. We economised on the sanitary fittings and I regret that a little, at least in the bathrooms that are used regularly, however it was important for me to land the project on budget in order to keep the house at the level I could sell it for on the open market. 

[Declan52]

I had a little column at the bottom that was titled Florida fund. Each change I made in any other section above had an immediate effect on this so I was able to see how good we where really doing. It was also a great driver in pushing me on when things hit the fan in that  not only was I going to end up with a house that I was also getting a once in a life time holiday out of it as well. 

At the end on the build we had saved enough to be able to do 3 weeks in Orlando seeing everything that we wanted and more. The only problem is Orlando ain't a once in a lifetime visit. We went this April for 2 weeks and hopefully will go again next Halloween.