To not understand how people afford home improvements

You are probably right and I can totally understand why some solidarity can help in a situation you have described but the post probably needs to be worded differently to avoid sounding slightly ridiculous!

I afforded mine because i do have money left at the end of the month.

Higher incomes and/or different spending choices.

And in some cases, fewer children.

DH and I were in agreement that two was enough. So I suppose I could say that I’m not sure how people afford three or four DC. Or pets. Or frequent visits to soft play etc.

We spend money on holidays but very little on eating out and practically none on drinking. Both our dads had regular pub nights every week. DH doesn’t. PIL ate out every Saturday night. We don’t.

I drive an old fiesta long paid for - I have no interest in upgrading it.

DS24 and his girlfriend have bought a house - they both did part time time jobs in univ holidays and studied higher paying vocational courses. They’re both on £30k plus straight out of univ and bought in a cheaper area from ours. They both have basic but paid-for cars - others their age that they know are paying £300 a month on car loans/leases. They’ve borrowed or bought furniture on Facebook etc, only white goods and TV are new.

Plus some might have had an inheritance or windfall and spent that.

I actually had a carpenter round recently who asked to use the bathroom and spent a worrying amount of time in there....
He came out and told me I should just cut my losses and sell the house!😂

I do all mine DIY including fitting kitchen and bathroom. Learnt it from YouTube and online advice forums when I first had my house and had little spare cash. If you are able to do this and buy basic or second hand fittings (lots of second hand kitchens on eBay) it is actually not that expensive to do most renovations.

Now I could afford to pay people and should do as I have no time, but I like doing things myself, it's fun.

We desperately need to do some work on our house but can't afford it, will potentially get some inheritance in the next couple of years which will pay for a new bathroom

Another thing that helps is being good at DIY. Obviously you have to pay for materials which are often not cheap but you can save a fortune by doing the work yourself.

Paint isn't cheap but you don't have to buy the latest on trend colour from Farrow and Ball.

Check out your local auction house for DIY bargains. Mine often has furniture etc which with a bit of elbow grease can be upcycled and will only cost a few pounds.

I agree , there seems to be a lot of post like this recently. There was one asking about new cars and holidays very recently.
I know the col is hitting some people hard but not everyone is on the bread line.

A lot depends on age & lifestyle. Older people generally won’t have as high a mortgage/more equity they can use.
Younger people higher earners & family help.
You can’t really borrow cheaply today so less will be taking out loans or increasing their mortgages.

I wonder if the OP is just feeling like I do at times...
that MN seems to be full of people who are struggling by having to decide between the foreign holiday or the new extension (obviously still putting half their wages away for savings and pension plan).
Meanwhile you are staring at the woodchip wallpaper you have had for 20 yrs knowing it could be there for another 20!

Sometimes it's just nice to know you aren't alone!😄

DH and I are quite handy, so we saved a fortune by fitting our own kitchen and bathrooms and other general DIY stuff. We're also good budgeters (these days...) so we can cut back on things if we need to build up savings. It definitely helps to be a two-income household.

We have avg income but low outgoings which leaves us with 50% income which goes into savings per month. It's taken us 20 yrs to get to this point.

From what I hear most of it is loans/remortgage/inheritance
The rest is just having more money in earnings to save

Savings/gifts/inheritance /loan/re mortgage

There are people in this country who have spare money it just depends how you prioritise it.

We had an insurance payout recently and spent some on re vamping our garden. My sil is extending her mortgage to do a extension

You must realise some people have more money than you, surely? These posts are so baffling.

Really? You can't imagine that others may have a lot more income than you?

Eh?

No it doesn't. Our kitchen cost less than half that, from IKEA and it's nearly that old and is as good as new.

In fact, I'm a bit frustrated as to how long cheap furniture, kitchens etc do last as if it did ever wear out, start to look tatty or the fittings broke, I could justify replacing it <eyes coming up to 30 YO perfect condition Billy Bookcase that's survived 2 house moves and I'm now fed up with>.

Same with our bathroom which, judging by the style is from the 1980s but seeing as porcelain and cast iron doesn't generally wear out, we feel we don't need to replace it.

But OP, surely you realise that everyone has different disposable income and just because you don't have any spare money doesn't mean that others with different incomes and/or essential outgoings don't too? What is the actual you're trying to make?

When we were younger we afforded it by buying a place with a maxed out mortgage. Living there for a few years while our wages went up but our repayments didn't and putting the "extra" over cost of living rise into savings. Then we used the savings, possibly got a loan and did a lot of the work ourselves on weekends.

It was hard but doable, especially while young. As we got older that was less attractive so we just didn't buy a place at the top of our possible budget. Then we had money spare for maintenance and improvements.

We downsized and spent the money on our lovely house. No mortgage,smaller garden ,no off street parking and more money to spend on the children.

In our case it's not home improvements, it's fixing terribly cobbled together, cleverly hidden major defects in our new house, using whatever insurance money we can manage to get, whatever we can spare from our one income, and borrowing from my family.

We absolutely wouldn't be doing anything if it wasn't urgent stuff. Yay for those who can afford not-needed improvements. They're lucky.

We kept back some money from our sale/purchase but sadly we also got an inheritance that helped fund the improvements too.

We've been mortgage free for 5 years now but we still pay that amount into various savings, we only holiday in the UK and I usually project manage any works which saves a huge amount.

I know what you mean, OP. I've had no running hot water for years coz I can't afford a new boiler. Not to mention the bathroom is falling apart and I need roofing work done.
It can be terrifying wondering if your house might fall down while you struggle make ends meet.
I've managed to get alot of stuff done by saving but so much more to do.

My best friend is in a similar situation. Her floor is like a trampoline and she actually jumps into her kitchen to avoid the worst areas....she's just terrified of what it might cost.

I really don’t understand threads like this. Some people have more money than you. Some people earn more or have savings (or both). Some people use a loan or re-mortgage. I’m not sure what’s so confusing about it.

People would probably ask how my son & his partner both fairly low paid jobs and young - under 30 afford their home and some of the stuff they have in it

but a big inheritance from my late parents mean they have a small mortgage
The house was extensively renovated by the previous owners so really anything they do is mainly cosmetic and wants rather than needed

but I often pay for stuff - I recently paid 4k for shutters / blinds for the whole house
2k for carpets upstairs and stair carpets and a new bed for them
1k for garden furniture and garden stuff

They also have a lodger which covers 70 percent of the mortgage