Lowes Coupon Add It Up First!
It all adds up!
It has been said a hundred if not ten thousand times that the small things can add up. With any home improvement that is absolutely the case. Sometimes you think you have everything down to the dollar budgeted and planned and then things begin to hit you….
I was running low on the budget for a recent project. It really felt like I was going to make it and just scrape by without having to hustle up some extra money – but its just not going to happen. In my mind all I needed was closet doors for 3 bedrooms, carpet for the bedrooms, and appliances. No problem I had a couple thousand left and since I am moving this month was having no problem with my plans to use a lowes coupon of course. Anyhow something was not sitting right in my emotions.
Over time you begin to have instincts about what is going on with a particular project – my mind was thinking of the 3 major items but my subconscious was seeing all the little stuff – and I hate buying all the little stuff.
First I was forgetting all the electrical outlets and faceplate’s On most re-habs you go in and look at the switches and you see 50 years of dirt that no one can seem to clean. So traditionally we replace all the outlets and faceplate’s – really – this is a detail that if you are not doing on your re-habs – you should consider it. Now each plate and outlet is only a few bucks but add up each room and you can easily hit $30. Now this re-hab is an older home so buying a smaller and cheaper faceplate was not an option – I was forced to buy the larger plates to cover the flaws in the plaster surrounding each outlet – once again not much money on a per item basis but add it all up and its another $20 total for the larger plates when you add the marginal expense versus the smaller plates.
Then came carpet pad. For whatever reason I was pricing out carpet at $1.40 ft with a great Lowes Customer Service representative – but I forgot about the carpet pad. Fortunately the rep reminded me – not their issue and I can get away with $0.45 sq ft but really that adds up when I have about 500 sq ft of carpet to finish. As an aside for you purists I do everything on a per sq ft basis and I know the carpet people think in sq yds – but sq ft works better for me and fortunately Lowes lists the prices on sq ft and per sq yd.
Anyhow this is an example of 2 simple items that are oftentimes over looked and can add up to hundreds of dollars very fast. One thing for carpet that will save you money and you do not spend money on – the transition metal for the carpet from room to room. You know the little metal piece on the threshold – completely unnecessary – you can do it by folding the carpet under – it lasts forever and a good carpet installer will do it for you without any extra charge.
Speaking of extras – ever wonder how much all the towel bars, toilet paper holders, etc cost? I forgot these in the budget also. Now Lowes Home Improvement has quite a selection in all the modern colors. Brushed nickel, chrome, bronze you name it they have it. And with or without the Lowes Coupon it is nice that Lowes does not charge much extra for the decorator grade items. I can always buy the little kits they offer that have all the necessary items included. One more kudos for lowes over other Home improvement stores is they do not carry the very ow grade items.
The reason I give them kudos for this is that by not carrying the cheap cheap o stuff you will never make a mistake of buying something so substandard that a wet towel would bend the bar. For those of you that have bought bargains at other stores or even wal -mart know what I am talking about – the towel bars may be strong enough to hold a dry towel but the extra water weight could bend them. It may not be that bad but really some stuff other stores sell is incredibly cheap and even give made in china a bad name.
Well that is it for now – just keep in mind the small stuff. I used to forget light bulbs all the time – but now that they are $1.50 for 4 even buying a dozen does not add up to much.
So the moral of this post? Use you lowes coupon wisely – gather all the big AND SMALL stuff in one shopping trip – after all the lowes coupon is good for up to $5,000 gross purchase – might as well get your largest bang for the buck!
I love lowes
Lowes are very competitive