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🔨 Home renovation budget calculator – plan vs actual

Pick what you're planning, enter your own quotes, add a contingency reserve and see what's left as the bills come in. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

What are you planning?

You get a list of common lines to start from – names only, no amounts. You can change everything afterwards.

How to budget a home renovation

Updated October 1, 2026
  1. List every part of the job – materials, labor, permits, delivery, dumpster rental and the small things that are easy to forget.
  2. Get quotes and enter them as planned amounts.
  3. Keep planned and actual apart – fill in the actual cost when the invoice comes.
  4. Add a contingency reserve as a share on top of the planned costs.
  5. Check the budget during the project, not after – that's when you can still adjust.

The same calculator works as a kitchen remodel budget, a bathroom remodel budget, a deck budget, or for painting, landscaping, finishing a basement or moving. The templates give you the lines; the amounts are yours.

What drives the cost

  • 📐 Size and scope – square footage, and whether you move plumbing, wiring or walls
  • 🪵 Materials – the grade of cabinets, countertops, tile and fixtures you pick
  • 👷 Labor – local rates, and how much you do yourself
  • 📝 Permits and inspections – set by your city or county
  • 🏚️ What's behind the walls – the age and condition of the house

Why no price estimates?

What a remodel costs depends on where you live, the house and the choices above, so there are no averages filled in here. Your own quotes are the numbers that matter.

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Questions about remodel budgets

List every part of the job – materials, labor, permits, delivery and the small things that are easy to forget. Get quotes and enter them as planned amounts. Add a contingency reserve on top. Once the work starts, enter what each line actually cost, and the calculator shows how far each line is over or under and how much of the project budget is left.
It depends on how firm your quotes are and how much you can't see before the work starts. An older house, opening up walls or floors, and fixed-price quotes versus rough estimates all change how much room you need. You pick the share yourself – 5, 10, 15 or 20 percent or your own number – and the reserve is shown as its own amount on top of the planned costs.
Pick kitchen remodel or bathroom remodel and you get a list of common lines to start from: cabinets, countertops and appliances for a kitchen; demolition, tile, waterproofing, vanity and fixtures for a bathroom; plus plumbing, electrical, labor, permits and dumpster rental for both. The lines have no amounts – rename, remove or add lines to match your project.
Enter the actual amount on a line when the invoice or receipt comes in. Each line then shows how much it is over or under plan, and the result shows what you have spent so far, how much of the reserve has been used and what is left. Checking as you go, not after, gives you time to adjust the rest of the project.
No. Prices depend on where you live, the size of the job, the materials you choose and who does the work, so there are no estimates filled in here. You enter your own quotes and the calculator keeps track of them.
It is how much the lines together have gone over their planned amounts, up to the size of the reserve. The reserve is never a line of its own, so it can't be counted twice. If spending goes past planned costs plus reserve, the calculator says by how much.
Yes, in your own browser. Everything is stored with localStorage on this device and is never sent to a server. You can leave and come back later in the same browser, download it as Excel or a one-page PDF, or share a link that carries the whole budget.