10 Steps to Budgeting for Your Kitchen Remodel

6. Decide whether you’re going to stay in your home while renovations are taking place.
Living someplace else while the work is being done is a good idea and will lessen your stress. Take into account the cost of an apartment or hotel, storage fees and moving fees.

If you stay, there will be a cost to your sanity. You could also set up a temporary kitchen in an adjacent room, and you should add in the cost of doing this.

7. Factor in the cost of eating out.
Face it, you will be eating a lot of meals in restaurants or bringing home take-out food while your kitchen is torn up. Fit this expense into your budget at the outset.

8. Create a spreadsheet for your budget and check it often.
Put your budget and how much you’re actually spending on spreadsheets so you can keep tabs on how much you are actually spending. If you see a cost overrun starting to happen, you can stop it.

9. Do some of the small work to lower your costs.
You don’t have to pay someone else to do all the work. Demolition – taking out the old cabinets, appliances and flooring – is easy to do.

10. Avoid extras. Don’t be tempted to deviate from your budget mid-project.
If you catch yourself saying “It would be so great if we added (fabulous kitchen feature here),” stop yourself. This is how budgets get blown. Go look at that remodeling budget you made in step 1, and repeat the number like a mantra. You can live without the little extras.