Home Renovation Planner & Budget Tracker
Plan every line item of your renovation with a contingency buffer, then log actual costs as the work happens. See budget-vs-actual variance per item and for the project, before a $40,000 kitchen becomes a $58,000 kitchen.
Your project
Budget vs committed vs paid
| Category | Budget | Committed | Paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kitchen(1 item) | $20,000 | $20,000 | $18,500 |
| Bathroom(1 item) | $10,000 | $10,000 | $11,200 |
| Flooring(1 item) | $6,000 | $6,000 | $0 |
Budget bars exclude contingency — contingency is a project-level reserve, not per-item padding.
How the math works
Every line item carries two numbers: what you planned to spend and what you actually spent. Tracking them separately is the whole game — a single "total spent" figure hides which line items are bleeding until it's too late to react.
The contingency reserve (default 15%) exists because renovations routinely surface unknowns: rot behind drywall, outdated wiring, plumbing that isn't to code. It is applied to the project subtotal, not per item — padding each line item individually just disguises overruns. Variance is measured against budget plus contingency, so a positive variance means you've burned through even the reserve.
The "share of home value" stat is a guardrail against over-improving: as a rough rule, a single project shouldn't exceed what the neighborhood's comparable sales can support.
Common questions
What contingency percentage should I use?+
10% for cosmetic work in a newer home (paint, fixtures, flooring), 15% as a general default, and 20% or more for older homes or anything structural — opening walls, moving plumbing, or electrical work. Kitchens and bathrooms skew higher because they concentrate the expensive trades.
Why track actuals separately instead of just watching the total?+
Because totals hide problems. If the kitchen runs $4,000 over while flooring comes in $3,000 under, the total looks fine while the kitchen is still bleeding. Per-item variance tells you where to renegotiate, descale, or pull from contingency while there's still time.
Should I apply contingency to each line item instead?+
No — that's the most common budgeting mistake in renovations. Per-item padding makes every line look healthy while the project quietly drifts over. Keep one project-level reserve and draw from it explicitly, so you always know how much safety is left.
How much of my home's value is too much to spend on a renovation?+
There's no hard rule, but appraisers and agents generally caution against improvements the neighborhood can't support — a $100k kitchen in a $250k-home neighborhood rarely appraises. The share-of-home-value stat is a sanity check, not a valuation; check comparable sales before committing.