Chelsea talks about where to invest or skimp in your home. Looking for budget decor tips? Check out this video:
Hi i’m chelsea from the financial diet and today i’m going to be talking about something that actually a lot of you have asked about which is when it comes to starting a home what do you invest in and what do you buy cheaply now obviously the question of where do i invest and where do i save a little money applies to everything from your wardrobe to how you travel
To how you outfit your home but today we’re going to start a little narrow and just talk about home stuff building the perfect home now we’re going to assume that like us most of you are probably renting right now but most of this stuff will apply to home owners as much as to renters and it’s really just about making the best of whatever space you have so to get
Some expert advice on the subject i spoke to my own mother who in addition to being a career house flipper and former interior designer is also an extremely good cook and savvy you know homemaker so she’s sort of like the martha stewart if martha stewart cursed like a sailor and she shared with me all of her tips about where to invest and where it’s okay to be
Cheap so let’s start with the general overall advice for your entire home now her first and biggest rule is to never pay full price for anything for your home pretty much everything you can think to buy for your home will either go on sale or some point or you can find it at you know a wholesaler or a discount store or even a thrift store things like cookware and
Furniture aren’t like fashion where it goes quickly in and out of style and you have to worry about being in season a pot is a pot and you can wait to get it cheaper her second overall rule is to purge your rooms each of them twice a year just go through quickly see what you’re not using what’s broken or needs to be you know repaired or what is just causing clutter
Her third overall rule which really applies mostly to furniture is to buy things based on functionality but be prepared to change them cosmetically for example if you find the desk that’s the perfect size and shape and in great material but it’s the wrong color get it but then sand it paint it and maybe change the fixtures as soon as you get used to the idea of not
Accepting things exactly as they come your options explode now her last overall rule for buying things for your home is to live there for a little while before you decide what you need you get the absolute basics but the rest you buy as you need it especially with things like the kitchen you get your basic flatware your basic pots and pans that you know you’ll need
But then wait and see what you actually run into a need for before you go out and purchase otherwise if you start backwards and just buy a bunch of stuff for your kitchen you’re going to be left like a lot of us with a lot of stuff that you absolutely never use so the next category of things for your home is furniture and you might think that furniture is really
The place where you need to spend a ton of money but that’s not always true first of all when it comes to furniture especially high quality furniture you should never be paying full retail price for things like big-ticket items you should be looking at things called demo sales which is where they often sell all of the designers showroom stuff at a tiny fraction
Of the price discount stores and even things like a state and thrift sales the second rule for deciding what furniture to invest in is that it’s way more about the material than anything else what you should really be looking for to invest in is material that’s going to last you a long time it may not end up being the most costly thing but what’s important is that
You buy good materials that can last possibly even a lifetime you should be focusing on things like wood leather and metal and really staying away from things like particle board and melamine and other quote-unquote knock down furniture because even though they’re cheap in the moment like the name says the second you move you literally have to tear them apart and
Throw them away now when it comes to places like ikea or other affordable furniture stores you really want to think about two things for what you’re buying there are they either a a really good material that’s definitely going to last or are they be what my mom calls little ingenious things such as you know a little shoe rack by the door or you know little storage
Things for your bathroom basically things that make your life better day to day but that you don’t have to worry about taking with you because keep in mind ikea might not be the most fancy place but they still have plenty of great solid wood furniture at great prices so again it’s not about where you got it it’s about the materials and how long it’s going to last
You now lastly for furniture when it comes to sofas some people will tell you to spend all of your money on a good sofa and some people will tell you the opposite my mom says listen to your lifestyle do you spill a lot on your couch do you frequently have people sleep on it do you have people over on it a lot is it something you plan on taking with you are you
Planning on moving soon these are all factors that will decide what is the right price point for a couch if you’re really settled and have a guest room and are very delicate about your couch you can go ahead and invest but if you’re still a little messy with your couch and frequent have guests on it probably not next is your kitchen and when it comes to buying for
Your kitchen what’s important is that you start at the holy trinity of stores which is industrial kitchen supply stores discount places like tj maxx or home goods and thrift stores now a place you definitely want to be investing is a good set of pots and pans paying more upfront will get you pots and pans that could last you honestly decades but if you can’t afford
Offset all at once and they can be very expensive what you can do is just get you know your cheapo set that you use day-to-day and once per year invest in one pot or pan one piece that you can get individually at these discount stores and add to your collection another place to definitely invest is in good knives and obviously if you’re buying a set you probably
Don’t want to go below $100 for that set but you can also buy knives one at a time if you need to and don’t forget when you’re investing in your good knives they’re pretty much useless after a while unless you buy something to sharpen and maintain them now one basic kitchen appliance that you’ll definitely want to invest a little bit in is a good food processor
It serves tons of different purposes and if you get a little bit more expensive one it will last you for decades another place to invest is in a few good wooden cutting boards because wood is naturally antimicrobial and just will last you a very long time plastic unfortunately as like as my mom would call it a breeding ground for germs and so something you want
To avoid in your kitchen if possible and don’t forget when you’re getting a cutting board to get a separate one for raw meat because you don’t want cross-contamination and now on to the good news aka what you can buy for your kitchen on the cheap without feeling guilty so first of all anything made out of fabric which includes pot holders oven mitts dish towels
Fabric napkins anything like that get cheap because it’s gonna get disgusting now all of your day-to-day flatware silverware stemware all of that gets cheap because you’re going to break it now as far as appliances you can feel good and buying cheap crock pot it shouldn’t cost you more than like 40 bucks and that’s even kind of a nice crock pot and you can use it
Basically every day and it’ll never fail you it’s the simplest technology and you should never spend a lot of money on it now lastly for miscellaneous home supplies now mom’s probably biggest rule about you know anything home supplies is do not invest in your linen even if you think you’re the kind of person who’s fancy enough to be sleeping on you know the thousand
Thread egyptian cotton you know sewn together with the tears of virgins white sheets you can probably buy those at a discount store 90% of us regular people can get regular cotton sheets and towels your towels are probably going to get ravaged by makeup stains or hair dye or bleach or who knows what and your sheets especially if you’re a woman we know and even if
You’re a guy sheets get gross after a year there’s nothing worse than those white sheets that were clearly white at some former point in their life but have now been like a yellowish beige for like a cool three years don’t become emotionally attached to your linens get them for cheap now when it comes to mattresses you should definitely invest in a more quality one
But you don’t have to go top-of-the-line and the best advice i’ve heard which my mom definitely backs up is to go with a firm mattress and then get some kind of memory foam over the top of it so that as you wear it out you can change out the memory foam and keep that mattress for longer of course you’re also going to want things like a basic toolbox with things
Like you know a basic cordless power drill you want all of your cleaning supplies to keep your house in working order and you’ll also want things like you know an iron and ironing board whatever you’ll need at a moment’s notice to look professional and adult like now perhaps the biggest thing with home supplies that definitely covers your whole life and can really
Change your day to day is storage everything from you know floating shelves to a shower caddy to furniture that comes with built-in storage every bit of storage you can have helps make your life more streamlined more organized and less cluttered so that means that when you’re out buying big-ticket furniture items you should really look for things that already have
Built-in storage to help you like you know beds with drawers tv stands with built-in shelves anything to help you keep organized and have everything in its place so in summary when it comes to making your space the perfect one for you what you need to invest in and what you need to buy cheap depends a lot on your lifestyle but the certain universal truths of good
Materials storage and buying things that are going to last for many years apply to everyone it’s just about deciding what those items should be so thanks as always for watching and don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and to go to the financial diet.com for more bye
Transcribed from video
Where To Invest (And Where To Skimp) In Your Home | The Financial Diet By The Financial Diet