Before you spend your money on your new build or renovation, learn how early spending decisions shape stress, cost, and long-term outcomes.

Learn how early financial decisions shape your project experience – in ways you may not anticipate.

This is Part 5 in the ‘Start Here’ Mini-sodes Series.

Listen to the episode now.

Hello! And welcome to Episode 389.

Once a project starts to feel real, money often becomes the loudest voice in the room.

This episode is about pausing before you spend, and understanding how early financial decisions shape not just what you can build, but how stressful, efficient and satisfying your project experience actually is.

Many homeowners believe the smartest move is to hold onto every dollar until construction begins. To save hard, minimise early spend, and assume the real costs only start once building is underway.

That belief makes sense. This is a significant financial investment, and it’s natural for that to feel confronting, even overwhelming.

But what we’re going to talk about in this episode is that why, when, and where you spend matters just as much as how much. And how early, intentional investment can often save you far more money, stress and regret later on.

This episode is part of the Start Here Mini-Sodes Series, designed to help you pause at critical moments, challenge common assumptions, and make decisions that support both your future home and your future self.

Now you’ve seen how a project really unfolds through four phases in Episode 385, you’ve learned what to do before you begin designing anything in Episode 386, you now know what to do before talking with builders, architects and designers in Episode 387, and your research is now focussed on what’s helpful thanks to Episode 388…

In this episode, we’re talking about money. Not budgeting spreadsheets or exact figures, but the mindset shifts that help you spend with intention rather than fear.

So let’s dive into Part 5 of the Start Here series, ‘Before You Spend Your Money’.

Once money enters the conversation, everything can feel more intense.

Until now, your project may have lived mostly in ideas, plans and research. But once money starts moving, decisions carry more weight. Fear of getting it wrong often shows up quickly.

One of the most common beliefs at this stage is that the real money to be spent is in the build itself, and everything else should be minimised.

Construction costs are large and visible. Pre-construction costs, by contrast, can feel like money disappearing without anything tangible to show for it. But this is one of the biggest misconceptions homeowners bring into their projects. Because the money you spend before construction has a significant influence on how much you spend during construction, and how stressful the experience will be.

Spending earlier is not about spending more. It’s about spending deliberately, in ways that reduce risk, improve decision quality, and prevent expensive mistakes later.

Another dynamic I see often is how differently people relate to money at different stages.

Pre-construction costs are usually paid from personal savings. So they feel personally impactful and immediate.

Construction costs, especially when financed, can feel abstract. Like zeros on a bank statement, as opposed to a pile of real cash. Progress claims can feel psychologically distant, and the amounts can feel so large and hard to relate to, which strangely can make it easier to approve changes without fully appreciating their cumulative impact.

This often leads to homeowners being extremely cautious early on, but far less discerning later, when the financial consequences are much larger.

So before you spend any money, it’s worth recalibrating how you think about value.

This is a big financial investment. Feeling nervous or protective is completely normal. But the goal is not to avoid spending. It’s to spend in ways that support long-term outcomes rather than undermine them.

A helpful shift is to focus less on where money is spent, and more on what that spending enables:

• Some spending creates clarity.
• Some spending reduces stress.
• Some spending saves money later.
• Some spending simply makes things look nicer.

They are not equal.

Spending time and money getting educated and prepared, clarifying your brief, understanding your site, testing feasibility, and aligning your team can prevent redesigns, delays and cost blowouts later. It doesn’t feel exciting, but it has enormous leverage.

By contrast, spending heavily on finishes or aesthetic choices before you truly understand your budget and priorities can lock you into decisions that later feel stressful or regretful.

I often encourage homeowners to think about what genuinely enhances their daily life.

A home that is functional, light-filled, thermally comfortable, and easy to live in will improve your life every single day. A home that is energy efficient, durable, and low maintenance will quietly save you money and mental load for years.

These outcomes rarely come from splurging on finishes alone. They come from good decisions made early. Decisions about layout, orientation, glazing, insulation, ventilation, materials, building methodologies and service infrastructure. Decisions that are much harder and more expensive to change once construction is underway.

This is where stress is either compounded or relieved.

Avoiding early spend rarely reduces cost. It simply pushes cost into later stages, where decisions are more constrained and consequences can be higher.

This is also where money myths surface.

Doing things yourself does not automatically save money. DIY can introduce delays, coordination issues, compliance risks and quality problems that cost more to resolve later.

Owner-building or sourcing your own trades and materials can offer control for some, but often introduces financial, legal and emotional risk that homeowners are not prepared for.

Saving money is rarely as simple as avoiding professional input or taking on more responsibility yourself.

Another moment that often causes financial shock is when homeowners realise how far their expectations are from reality.

It’s common for early budget assumptions to be 50 to 75 percent of what a Design Brief will actually cost to build. Many people don’t discover this until tendering right before construction, after significant time and money has already been spent on design, documentation and approvals.

This is where the sequence matters.

When expectations are tested early, through informed discussions, comparable projects, and strategic decision-making, best delivered through a collaborative pre-construction process involving both your design professional and your builder, adjustments can be made gradually and thoughtfully. Scope can be refined. Priorities can be clarified. Trade-offs can be chosen deliberately.

That’s when I’ve seen HOME Method members make meaningful savings. Tens of and hundreds of thousands of dollars, achieved not through panic cuts, but through informed decisions made early, incorporated into the flow of the project.

When expectations aren’t tested until late, the necessary compromises to get things back on track to meet budget often feels like a loss. Loss of ideas, loss of control, loss of trust in the process.

So before you spend any money, it’s worth stepping back and asking yourself a different set of questions:

• Am I making this decision in isolation, or as part of a bigger sequence I understand?
• Do I feel confident how this spend fits into the journey, or am I hoping it will create clarity on its own?
• If this turns out to be wrong, will I be able to course-correct calmly?
• Is this spend helping my project stay in alignment with my values and priorities, and what I’m seeking  to achieve for my project?
• And when decisions start stacking up, will I still feel good about this choice?

This is not about being frugal or extravagant. It’s about being intentional.

The most successful projects aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets.

They’re the ones where money is used strategically, in service of values, lifestyle and long-term wellbeing.

When you understand where spending has leverage, you stop treating all costs as equal. 

When you understand that ‘expensive’ or ‘cheap’ is about what you value and prioritise, you’ll have greater clarity about what serves your project and your future home.

You stop reacting emotionally to every invoice. And you begin making decisions from a place of confidence rather than fear.

Money will always be part of this process. But it doesn’t need to dominate it, derail it, or define your experience.

In fact, your budget, your money – it’s not a limiter. It’s what paves the way to your finished home.

Used well, it becomes a tool. One that supports clarity, reduces stress, and helps you create a home that truly works for you.

Now… I hope that when you step back and look at this Start Here series as a whole, a clear pattern emerges.

Getting it right in your project is not about rushing ahead, collecting more information, or making decisions in isolation. It’s about understanding what needs to be in place before you take those next steps. Knowing what matters now, what can wait, and how each decision influences the next.

Money is no different.

When spending is guided by clarity rather than fear, it becomes a tool rather than a source of stress. It supports better decisions, steadier progress, and a project experience that feels more grounded and manageable.

RESOURCES

If you’d like support in taking this thinking further, there are a few ways to do that. 

If you’re still orienting yourself, and want to understand how cost, time, team, design and you all interact in a project, PROJECT 101 is designed to be digested quickly, and provide you with a great, early foundation.

Project 101 >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/project-101/

If you want guidance and support right through all four phases of your project, with the structure, tools and personalised help to navigate complexity, manage risk and avoid costly mistakes, HOME Method provides that ongoing support. It’s a small investment that will help you save you time, stress and money well beyond its upfront cost.

HOME Method >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/the-home-method/ 

Note: This episode is for education and general information only, and it’s not a substitute for personalised professional advice.