PFT #90 - Personal Finance Tip of the Week: Ordering Supplies for Landscaping and General Contractor Jobs

According to Zippia.com, in 2021 the average amount homeowners spent on home improvement was $10,341 which was up 25% from 2021. This makes sense as people spent their cabin fever time improving their homes and now that Covid is more controlled.

People are spending more due to M1 money supply with unemployment and stimulus checks. Now that labor rates are rising due to lack of resources, the general contractors and landscaping companies are raising their rates and passing them onto you. This is just another result of inflation.

So what can be done to curb the cost? The easiest one is reducing the cost for supplies to complete jobs. Generally speaking, the typical markup for materials is between 7.5 to 10%; however, some contractors will mark up materials 20% or more.

What you can do is ask the contractor for a materials list and place the orders yourself. Now with larger jobs, it comes with more complicated supply lists, ad hoc purchases and add-ons.

In addition, you may make several purchases throughout the project life cycle so you need to stay on task. In many cases you should be able to order the large majority of goods while removing copious tasks away from the contractor who may not want that burden.

The bottom line is that this is an easy way to save money and you can learn a little bit along the way. For example, a $30,000 job could save you anywhere between $2,250-$6,000.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello everyone, I am David andyou're listening to the Personal finance Tip of
the Week, and this week's topicis on reducing costs per contractor and landscaper
work Part one. According to zippiadot com, in twenty twenty one,
the average amount homeowners spent on homeimprovement was ten three hundred and forty one

(00:22):
dollars, which was up twenty fivepercent from twenty twenty one. This makes
sense as people spent their cabin fevertime improving their homes, and now that
COVID is more controlled, people arespending more due to m one money supply
with unemployment and stimulus checks. Nowthat labor rates are rising due to lack

(00:42):
of resources, the general contractors andlandscaping companies are raising their rates and passing
them onto you. This is justanother result of inflation. So what can
be done to curb the cost?The easiest one is reducing the cost for
supply to complete the jobs. Generallyspeaking, the typical markup on materials is

(01:03):
between seven and a half to tenpercent. However, some contractors will mark
up materials twenty percent or more.What you can do is ask the contractor
for a materials list and place theorders yourself. Now, with larger jobs,
it comes with more complicated supply lists, ad hoc purchases, and add
ons. In addition, you maymake several purchases throughout a project's life cycle,

(01:29):
so you need to stay on task. In many cases, you should
be able to order the large majorityof goods while removing copious tasks from the
contractor, who may not want thatburden anyway. The bottom line is that
this is an easy way to savemoney and you can learn a little bit
along the way. For example,a thirty thousand dollars job could save you

(01:52):
anywhere between twenty two hundred and fiftyto six thousand dollars. So that will
do it for the personal finance tipof the week. Until next time.
I am David