The Financial Benefits of DIY
By taking a DIY (do-it-yourself) approach to minor household repairs, you could save thousands of dollars each year. And, there are tons of resources available on the web to help you.
I’m a DIY’er.
Usually, I don’t want to deal with the hassle of getting someone else to handle a project I think I might be able to handle myself.
The cost savings is a nice benefit too.
After a quick survey on the web, in 2022 it appears that somewhere between 40% and 50% of Americans took on random DIY household projects like minor repairs on their own instead of hiring a professional.
Some of the reasons cited include:
- Money-saving potential
- Don’t want to wait to get a slot on a professional’s calendar
- Lack of trust that the quality of work from a professional will be good
- Opportunity to learn a new skill
- Desire to spend more on a product and less on labor
- Don’t want strangers in your house
Personally, I’ll admit all of these have served as motivation for me to tackle a project myself from time to time.
Recently, my truck provided an opportunity for a little DIY repair work or the option to take it to a mechanic.
I elected for the former and I’m glad I did because it saved a lot of time and money.
In this post, I want to walk through this recent DIY experience, along with a few others we’ve had over the years, and place a monetary value on some run-of-the-mill DIY projects.
Brake Drums
I drive a 2010 Chevy Silverado that has about 150,000 miles on it. It’s been a solid, inexpensive truck to own.
Since 150,000 miles sounded like a good time to see what maintenance was due on my pickup, I did a little snooping around on the web and found that it was time for new brake drums (among other things).
I have changed brake pads and rotors on the front wheels of my truck, but on the rear I’ve only ever swapped out the shoes.
A quick google search estimated that the repair would cost between $350-$400 (about half for parts and half for labor). I’m in a large city, so I’m betting it would have been closer to $400.
Hey, 200 bucks is 200 bucks, so I watched a YouTube video and ordered the parts.
All told, the swap took me about 90 minutes*, and I was off and running for another 150,000 miles.
(*one of the brake cylinders was damaged when I made the swap, so I had to add another $45 for a new one.)
It got me thinking, how much are all the other little repairs and DIY projects we do worth?
Just how much money-saving potential is there in DIY?
Other DIY Projects
Lisa and I bought an older home back in 2016 that needed a ton of work.
We actually moved out for 4 months and hired a contractor to bring the home into this century.
If you’ve ever done a renovation, you know they can be quite expensive so we tried to reserve the projects we could do ourselves in order to save some money while further improving our home equity.
For example, there was once 4 inches of insulation blown into our attic in 1959.
In 2016, after settling for nearly 60 years, there was about 3 inches left and it was virtually useless…and very dusty.
Instead of having the contractor replace the insulation, I pulled all the old stuff out and brought it up to code with R-38 batts which have brought a remarkable energy savings.
I never got a quote, but I think this saved us at least $2,000 in labor.
Savings like that add up.
Below is a list of DIY things we’ve completed over the last seven years and how much I think they’ve saved us in labor.
Some of these are guesses and others are based on actual quotes we got.
| Estimated Total Savings |
Oil Changes (8 per year for 17 years, $20 saved per) | $2,720 |
Spark plug replacement in Curt’s truck* | $800 |
Attic Insulation | $2,000 |
Crawl Space Encapsulation | $7,000 |
French Drain System* | $8,500 |
Electrical Service Entrance Upgrade* | $9,000 |
Water Heater Replacement | $1,000 |
Home office for WFH | $1,200 |
Pantry Cabinets | $800 |
Window Sash Replacement* | $12,000 |
Front door replacement | $1,500 |
Kid’s J&J bathroom remodel | $17,000 |
Front porch re-tile (it looked like a waffle house out there) | $5,000 |
Refinish old dining table instead of buying a new one | $400 |
Recessed lighting throughout house | $3,000 |
New millwork and siding around exterior of house | $3,000 |
Garage door opener replacement | $400 |
Various appliance repair (microwave, dishwasher, washing machine, & oven) | $500 |
Total Savings | $75,820 |
*based on an actual quote we got at the time. |
I have only two comments before we move on:
- Chevy dealer…$800 to replace 8 spark plugs? Seriously?
- All the appliances, save the washing machine, were bought new in 2016. They were all made by GE. Only our stove has worked without any issues for 7 years.
I’ll spare you all the other details, but these projects/repairs occurred since we bought our current home in 2016.
It was a fixer-upper, so it provided plenty of opportunity for us to take on some DIY projects. I hope you don’t have as many as we did.
All told, we saved $75,820 over the course of this 7-year span which comes out to $10,831.43 per year.
That’s almost what Average J would need to save each year to be a millionaire in 22 years.
Even a fraction of similar savings could add up to significant opportunities to invest over time.
Know Thyself
You might also look at this list and think you’d need a background in electrical, civil, HVAC, mechanical, and carpentry work to do all this but I went to school for none of those things.
I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express once and I use YouTube, which may sound excessively simple but you really can learn a lot on the web.
There are certainly projects we’ve passed on over this period too.
For example, Lisa’s old car needed a new transmission (not once, but twice) and the house needed a complete HVAC overhaul when we bought it.
Those were very expensive repairs, but also too much for me to handle myself.
When in doubt, just look into it before you call the repair guy to bail you out.
Another alternative is to call your friends and relatives.
The electrical service entrance upgrade at my home was way out of my league.
You should only do this under the supervision of a licensed electrical pro, or…in my case, the watchful eyes of my father-in-law.
He happens to have a PhD in electrical engineering. He’s forgotten more about electricity than I’ll ever know and the city inspector agreed that he was qualified, so off we went.
And guess what? I learned a ton while he helped me out. There’s lots of value in that.
Why DIY? It’s the Small Things
There’s a navigational maxim called the 1 in 60 rule.
Basically, it states that for every single degree of heading you’re off in navigation (you know, like 360 in a circle), you’ll end up one unit off for every 60 you travel.
For example, if you leave your home on a heading of 180 (due south), but should have used 179 or 181 you will find yourself one mile east or west of your destination after you travel 60 miles in a straight line.
Close, but not where you meant to go.
Traveling 600 miles? You’ll be ten miles away.
3,000 miles? Just fifty miles of extra travel to get to your intended destination.
The thing is, one degree of directional travel is almost indiscernible when you are standing in place. Even after a few steps, you may not notice a few degrees to the left or right.
Some people will look at a money-saving list like this and wonder if it’s worth it.
Sometimes it isn’t, but let me encourage you to grab even small victories when you can.
Over the long haul, (like your working career and years spent saving), it can make an enormous difference.
Besides, we’re in the information age. There’s a “how-to” article, video, or book for almost everything. Consider me for example.
One year ago I had no idea how to build a website or edit a video and I’ve done plenty of it now just by looking for information and a willingness to learn.
At least try to DIY the next time you have an opportunity before you pay someone else to do it for you. In many cases, you’ll find that it wasn’t as challenging as you thought it would be.
