3 Items I'm Saving on When Remodeling My House

I'm currently in the middle of remodeling an entire house that I basically tore down to the studs. During this project, I've been very careful about where to splurge vs. spend. Although I have a mortgage on my house, I'm financing the remodel myself and I don't want to go over budget.

RELATED: The Ascent's Complete Guide to Mortgages

If you're remodeling as well, it may be helpful to see where I've decided to save so you can decide if doing the same might help you keep more money in your own bank account.

1. Flooring

When I built my house many years ago, I had site-finished hardwood floors installed. This was not inexpensive, as it meant real hardwood floors were installed in my house then sanded, stained, and sealed by hand.

While my floors were beautiful, I have since realized that this was unnecessary -- and maybe not the best idea with kids and dogs, as there are now more than a few scratches in the floors. Rather than doing the same in my new remodel, I opted for a much cheaper engineered hardwood flooring (that also made a lot more sense in my home's climate, where humidity makes real hardwood difficult).

The reality is, flooring is a big-ticket purchase since you need it for every room of your house. There are plenty of great-looking options out there including luxury vinyl flooring, engineered hardwood, and ceramic and porcelain tile that don't cost a fortune and can look great in your home.

2. Light fixtures

Light fixtures are something you're likely to need a lot of. And you can splurge big time, getting gorgeous chandeliers that cost thousands of dollars. But there are also plenty of almost-as-gorgeous light fixtures that cost hundreds.

Since there are so many options at just about every price point, it's silly to buy the very expensive lights when a cheaper substitute will do. You aren't going to be touching these or getting super up close to them since they hang from the ceiling, so they can be a good place to save.

3. Faucets

If you haven't shopped for a faucet lately, you'll be shocked to discover that there are many, many options that cost thousands of dollars. Some of these faucets look like works of art. But, don't lose sight of the fact that their ultimate purpose is to provide water -- and that you're going to be grabbing them with grubby hands a lot of the time.

Rather than spending a fortune, I'm opting for high-quality, simple faucets that are priced in the hundreds. It's very unlikely anyone will ever really notice the difference, except of course when cleaning them, since the simpler, cheaper ones are less likely to have tons of crevices that get filthy.

If you're remodeling a home, you may also want to think about saving on these items as well. Or, if faucets or floors happen to be really important to you, think about other areas where you may be able to cut some corners. You can't splurge on everything, so it's helpful to come up with a list of priorities so you can allocate more funds to them.

It's easy to start to think every single decision is going to make or break the look of your home -- which is why I spent about 12 hours researching different hinge styles when I first built a house. The reality, though, is that most of these decisions are not going to matter once the whole project is done. In fact, I don't even remember what color my hinges are anymore! So, decide consciously where to splurge versus save and then stick to it rather than busting your budget to get the perfect option in every situation.