How I Save Money Tip #15: Do It Yourself!

This tip may not be for everyone, but its a BIG one for me. How I Save Money Tip #15 is Do It Yourself!

I’m big about stretching every dollar, so the idea of paying someone else to do something that I can do myself drives me bonkers. Contractors, repairmen, and others charge a ton for labor. Sometimes, its 20% of the whole job! If its something I’m interested in learning, or have the basic skills to get done, I’ll try to take on the challenge myself before hiring it out.

Now, sometimes you don’t have the time to do things, and its nice or a treat to hire someone to do those for you, if you have the room in the budget. For example, I have someone that helps me keep my house clean every other week. I pay for that so that I can spend more time doing the deep cleaning projects around the house, instead of spinning my wheels on routine cleaning tasks. But, the key is if you have the room in the budget for that item.

We recently had a leak in our upstairs bathroom, and we’ve spent all summer remodeling it ourselves. I’ve never remodeled a bathroom by myself before. I did a TON of research – FOR FREE – online through blog posts and You Tube videos. I learned how to tile, how to set a bathtub, how to use a paint sprayer, how to use a nail gun, how to use an air compressor and much much more. We finished the bathroom. Now, I have all of these new skills that I can use all over my house! All it took was a little time to learn. We did hire out the plumbing, but I figured I paid for his expertise. We didn’t want any more leaks.

Since then, we’ve gone on to construct an entire wall of built ins, build wall-to-wall floating shelves, fixed our front door, build a custom veggie garden, and even built a bar! I’m looking at building a garden shed and a workbench next. Stay tuned!

I don’t know that I can ever pay for a contractor again. I know I will at some point, but I won’t like it. LOL.

Aside from chores and home improvement, another way to save by Doing It Yourself is appliance repair. There are a TON of videos on how to replace appliances. Earlier this year, we needed to replace our ice maker in the freezer. I told my husband that we just needed to order the ice maker on Amazon for $50, and screw it in. He called a repairman instead, who charged us $195 for 10 minutes of work plus the ice maker. Seriously?

Make your own cleaning supplies, cut your family’s hair, sew buttons and fix holes. These are easy ways that Doing It Yourself saves you money every day.

I HATE spending money on stuff that I can do myself, provided that I have the time. That’s why Doing It Myself is my 15th tip for How I Save Money.

Learn More

Check out all of my easy, actionable money-saving tips in my post 15 Easy Ways to Save Money!

What are some DIY wins that you’ve had recently? Tell me all about them in the comments!

How I Save Money Tip #15: Do It Yourself!