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Anyone that knows me or has been following my blog knows that I love to save money on things. One of the things I love most is saving money on home improvement. I’ve been slacking on the blog posts for the last week, for which I truly apologize. However, it was for good reason! I’ve been spending my time over the last week buckling down and saving money on home improvement!

Saving Money on Home Improvement

I have always been a huge advocate of the DIY lifestyle. Last summer, I built a chicken coop for next to nothing! Very seldom will I hire someone to do work around the house, since I am pretty handy and can do most of the work myself for a fraction of the cost. I will admit my shortcomings and hire a professional when necessary, such as for major electrical work, etc. Recently, I’ve been remodeling our basement entryway and over the last week, I’ve been saving money on home improvement by hanging and finishing drywall.

In the past, I’ve completely remodeled a kitchen, laid new flooring throughout an entire house, painted, added new doors, windows, and replaced a roof, just to name some of the large projects. This doesn’t even account for the countless minor fixes I’ve accomplished throughout the years.

How Much Have I Saved?

I’ll admit that in the past I haven’t kept track of exactly how much I’ve saved in labor by doing all of these projects myself, but I wish I had. That’s why I decided to start tracking my savings with this project so I can put a dollar value on my hard work! With all of the projects listed above, I would estimate I’ve saved at least $10,000 in labor combined, and likely much more.

Hiring Drywall Costs

I’ll keep you updated as I finish out the basement project, but today we are just going to focus on the savings I have achieved by hanging and finishing the drywall myself. According to Home Advisor, the average cost to hire someone will range between $40-$60 per drywall panel, including materials and labor. I’ll average that out and use $50 per panel. I purchased 12 panels of drywall in total for the space I am drywalling, so my total cost to hire this job out would have been approximately $600. Not too bad for a drywall job.

My Material Costs

For all of the materials that I purchased, including the drywall panels, screws, joint compound, tape, and sandpaper, I spent a total of $112. Simple math tells me that I saved myself $488 by doing this job by myself! In total, I’ve spent about 10 hours on the project, so that’s a yield of almost $49 an hour for my own time. I’ll take it! I will admit that I’ve got one more coat of mudding and sanding to do before it’s ready for paint, but that shouldn’t take too long and then I’ll be ready to start painting!!

Final Thoughts

Saving money on home improvement is not for everyone. Some people are not able to do some of these larger DIY projects, and that’s okay! If you aren’t equipped to tackle these projects by yourself, there are plenty of other areas to save money. However, if you can swing a hammer, you may be able to save yourself some big bucks by getting your hands dirty and saving money on home improvement!

What project can you do to start saving money on home improvement at your own house?

-Real Money Robert