BUILD ON A Budget

Learn how to save on your next home renovation or build

- KRISTIN DOWDING

If failure is the best teacher, experience is the second best. And thankfully, it's possible to learn from someone else's experiences. Noell and Daniel Jett, authors of Create Your Dream Home on a Budget, built their dream home from the ground up. Now that they've made it to the other side, they've shared their wisdom, including how to create a budget and find the right contractors. They've also included a room-by-room guide and numerous DIY projects to help save other homeowners time and money and prevent avoidable mistakes.

"It's meant to be used as a guide throughout your home-building or renovating journey that you can come back to again and again whenever needed," Noell and Daniel write in their book. "Even if you aren't building from the ground up, there is plenty of information and inspiration in this book to help you renovate, remodel, or even just decorate your home for far less than the going market rate."

SAVE ON SOURCES

It's faster to source your home's materials from common retailers, but if you want to save money, you'll have to put in some time and research. "Just when you think you've called enough suppliers, read enough resources and talked to every possible person, you are about halfway there," they write.