Wait. Your budget is too tight to move forward at the moment. With more savings, you will be better prepared to deal with the inevitable overages and materials increases.

If you have storage, you can buy some specialty items like light fixtures or powder room sinks right now. But unless you keep a spreadsheet as to what you've bought and the location it's intended for and storage location, you run the risk of forgetting you've bought stuff.

You also run the risk of changing tastes affecting your choices as you become more educated about those choices. That is a bigger issue than you think.

Where in the world can you build a home nowadays for $85-$90 a square foot?

You can get a brand new doublewide in MS. But that doesn't include the land, the septic, the electrical, etc.

It's not the materials per se, it's the labor and the level of finish. If you did all the work yourself, built a small ranch, on a slab, with concrete floors and salvaged materials, you could just about get there. But being an owner-builder is a lot of work, the job never seems to get completely finished, and you must have a very strong marriage to get through it.

And even if you do all the work yourself, you still won't be able to get much in the way of finishes.