You do things yourself because it’s cheaper than paying someone else to do it: you do your dishes because hiring someone to come in and clean up your kitchen often costs more money than time. The same holds true of many tasks that may require a little more skill than washing dishes, too, like changing your own oil and mending your own clothes. If you know how to do the task correctly, you can save yourself some money. Sometimes, you can even save time — an oil change can take plenty of time when you add up finding a shop, driving there and waiting to get it done. Of course, if you don’t have the appropriate skills, it can wind up costing you more to fix a problem.
Overall, DIY is often a good way to save money, but that’s not always true. There are some cases when doing things yourself can wind up costing more than hiring a pro or buying a pre-packaged product down at the store. The numbers can get even worse if you take a look at the time you’re spending on the project. Before you start a DIY project, it’s important to make sure that it will really save you money. Here are some examples illustrating what I mean.
- Growing Food: While it’s not always more expensive to grow your own food, rather than buying it at the grocery store, it often winds up being more expensive when you factor in all of the costs. When you have to bring in dirt, water your plants, buy seeds and handle all the other little things that go into gardening, the price tag adds up surprisingly fast. The bottom line is that for much of the produce you want to eat, it’s less cost effective to grow your own.
- Printing: More than a few people have tried to cut wedding costs by printing their own invitations, but the truth is that most professional printers are far cheaper. The same holds true for other big printing jobs, from flyers to posters. After all, it’s not just a matter of buying paper — there’s ink and other equipment concerns.
- Building a Computer: It used to be true that it was significantly cheaper to buy computer components and assemble them yourself. If you’re just looking for an average laptop or desktop computer, though, it’s now usually cheaper to just buy one already put together. The same holds true for many other types of electronics. DIY because you love it, but not because you mistakenly believe it saves you money.
- Sewing Basic Clothes: Because most clothes manufacturers can get cloth and other supplies cheaper by buying in bulk, it can be hard to compete with the price tags on certain clothing, like t-shirts. Other types of clothing — the sorts of stuff you’re less likely to pick up on sale or in any quantity — can be cheaper to make.
- Making Pet Food: Depending on your pet’s health, making your own pet food can sound like a good idea. But if you look at it from a financial perspective, it starts sounding less ideal. Most recipes call for meat that can be significantly more expensive than that bag of kibble you’re used to buying for your pets.
- Greening Utilities: There are plenty of projects that can help you make your home greener, like installing solar panels or reusing graywater for non-potable purposes. These projects can even save you money on your utility bills. But much of the initial work is less expensive to hand over to pros — learning the plumbing skills necessary to install a graywater system, for instance can be an expensive process.
- Making Musical Instruments: Putting together a rattle is one thing, but making most musical instruments (like a guitar) is an entirely different matter. While there are kits available, the necessary materials to get the proper tones from a musical instrument can be just as expensive as the finished instrument.
- Fixing Small Electrical Appliances: It’s a sad statement on how businesses operate, but the truth of the matter is that it is often cheaper to throw out a malfunctioning appliance and buy a new one if you expect to have to replace a part during the repair process. On small appliances, such as mixers, it’s not unheard of for a new part to be just a few dollars less than an entirely new appliance.
- Selling Personal Items: Certain things are easy to sell like DVDs but rarer items, such as antiques, are harder to price and to move. A consignment shop or other specialist can move antiques and other items a lot easier than you can and can guarantee that you’ll get a fair price for those items you’re ready to sell. It may be tempting to post them on Craigslist, but you may only get half the value of your item that way.
- Doing Taxes: The upfront price of having a tax professional do your taxes may be more than doing them yourself, but the odds are very good that a tax professional can get you a bigger tax refund, or at least help you reduce fees and penalties. Last year, there were more than 1,700 changes to federal and state tax laws. If you aren’t a tax pro yourself, it’s unlikely that you can afford to keep up with all of them.
Just because a project is on this list doesn’t mean that you should stop doing it yourself immediately, though. There are ways to make many of these projects much more cost effective and, of course, if you enjoy the process, there’s no reason to stop doing it. For many people, projects like gardening can be very enjoyable and are favorite hobbies, although it seems likely that doing your taxes won’t rank quite as highly. And there are also other reasons to make sure you have control over every step of a project — such as making sure that the food your pets eat comes from a controlled environment. It’s just important to understand the financial aspects. That knowledge can make a world of difference in which parts of a project you choose to focus on or whether you’d rather free up some time so that you can do something you enjoy.
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I learned about printing invites and clothes making the hard way. It really sucked. On the other hand, we don’t itemize our taxes (well didn’t; we probably will next year) so we could do them with TaxAct and save a ton of money. (Phew! I must be the only person in the world who doesn’t hate tax time, btw.)
My garden costs me about $5 per month during watering season. The dirt is free, the seeds are saved from the prior year, or cuttings from friends, it takes no more in equipment (rake, shovel,etc) than one would already have for the yard – and so I’ve probably got $5 in the rake, hoe and shovel as they all came from garage sales. There’s NO way I can get an overabundance of fresh veggies for $5 per month at a store!!!!! And when I consider the premium money that the local fair pays out in prize money for myself and the grandkids when we enter the produce at the fair, we actually make money
Sewing – almost free! You’ve got to get the material from rummage and garage sales, or from moving sales… that’s the best one. Remake other clothing into something new. Take a $1 bag sale bag and stuff it with 10 fluffy bathrobes and a beautiful black background flowered ladies dress, and make 8 pairs of kids jammies, with matching teddy bears, and recover your old couch pillows in that beautiful flowered print, and including the thread, you’ve done it all for under $2. You can’t beat truly salvage/frugal sewing !!!! And there’s leftovers for fluffy comforters and baby quilts to give away later.
The point about gardening is fine IF you have certain things already in place. For me to have a garden right now would require felling four trees. Can’t do it myself. Maybe $200 if I do all the bucking and trim once they are on the ground. Then I’d have to have a plot with a six foot fence – we have deer here. How much for the fence – $ 100-$200? Then there is preparing the soil, adding good stuff (compost/manure etc.) How much for that? Fortunately I already own a device that will turn the ground. The point is that it really depends on where people start and what capital investments they’d need to make. Also what they have time for. You have to like gardening and be there everyday to watch over how things grow. Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense.
I agree this is a great post. The question is always when it actually saves money to have the pro do it versus DIY.
BTW, I belong to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture.)
I you lived in my neck of the woods…. a notice on the local bulletin board at the feed store would bring someone willing to fell the trees for free for the firewood. Or you could try container gardening on the porch or patio or walkway, or Food, not Lawns. It doesn’t take much space at all if you use existing flower beds or walkway areas – areas that are usually more decorative can grow a LOT of food.
Fencing is free or near free, if you wait long enough, at garage sales and at the metal shed or recycling shed at the transfer station. Or on craigslist you can sometimes find it free. Or you can make it out of old baling twine and some clothesline. Used bailing twine is free for the taking around here
Manure is free here – they load, you haul. And most of us already have a good compost pile going with kitchen and yard debris. A shovel or a spud digger will both turn the ground cheaply
Timewise, I work overtime every week, and babysit grandkids in the off hours… so time is very limited… but the grandkids are all getting handy at helping in the garden, altho sometimes it is hard to find tiny tiny gloves
And CSA’s support the local economy, and are great for those who don’t have the energy for a garden – but are way way more expensive than doing it myself. And the food comes without the satisfaction of having done it myself
I would like to add a few:
11. Dentistry. (j/k)
12. Oil Changes. I have a place I trust that does a 30 point lube and Oil Change. They give me great printed records of my history (Which helps when you sell) and costs about $30.00. After 5 they give a free one and I am always getting coupons that take $5 or $10 off. I used to be religious about DIY oil changes but they just don’t make sense for me anymore. The time to buy the supplies, do the work and then dispose of the used oil just does not add up. by the way, the 3,000 mile thing is a myth. There is no scientific basis for changing oil that often. 6-7k is more like it for most cars. Use a trusted local shop or dealer (dealers typically will give a good deal and use better parts). Avoid the Quick-lube shops if you can.
In general, I think people should delegate the things they just don’t like to do in order to free up time to follow their bliss, pursue their passion and build wealth in their own way, on their own terms. Hire someone to clean your house, do your laundry, mow your lawn and even balance your checkbook if you abhor those activities.
The only disagreement I have with the list above is #10. Current Tax software is excellent (I use TurboTax) and being the captain of your own financial ship, I believe, is too critical to outsource. I am currently reviewing the book “Lower Your Taxes: Big Time 2009-2010 edition”. It is an excellent eye-opener and will help many people make better decisions about their home, job and business. Understanding how to reduce you taxes is an essential key to growing wealth.
That said. I build computers because I like to, I mow my lawn for the same reason(the neighbors think I’m crazy but mow-time is my time which I don’t get much of anymore).
The printing comment is awesome. I have an old samsung laser for quick black and white stuff but always use a print shop for anything professional. You can have anything done online at snapfish too (http://www.snapfish.com/store). Mugs, posters, calendars, magnets, etc…
-WR
btw- Great Post!
DIY is just trading your time with money. If you have tons of time and nothing to do, of course it’s worth it to do it yourself. Otherwise, forgetaboutit because you can get a side job and earn more money.
I agree with not DIY especially when you don’t know what you’re doing – i.e. #6 and #8. It would be nice if I can fix everything myself but I’m not very handy with tools, may hurt myself, and botch the project. Then I have to spend more money on hiring someone to fix it.
I question #10. A tax-only preparer is more likely to take the proverbial ‘shoebox’ of data and enter it into the forms. Where I see value is when (either the Tax Guy or financial planner) offers tax-related advice. Two examples: For the last few years, a non-itemizing person needing to take IRA RMDs was able to donate directly from the IRA, effectively making the donation avoid tax. By the time she gets to her tax man, it would be too late, she needs to be made aware of this early in the year. Next, the whole issue revolving around Roth conversion. For this retired woman, I calculate a preliminary “taxable income.” Based on that, we convert enough to keep her in the 15% bracket. At tax time we recharacterize to nail the number dead on. Both of these efforts are not what the regular tax guys appear to address.
Efficient gardening saves me hundreds every year, even if I pay myself my wage. My garden pays for itself in the cost of tomatoes ALONE!… Gardening, when done properly, is one of the most effective bits of frugality you can do.
Building your own computer is not only cheaper, by vastly superior to anything the big manufacturers put out… Dell, HP are jammed back of cost cutting measures: crappy components, insufficient PSUs, poor cabling, lack of upgradability, built in incompatibility.
I also fix small appliances… Last repair: frayed cord on $40 space heater -took 10 mins to repair.
… STARTING OUT all the above probably cost me more than buying, but the knowledge and ability turned out to be fantastic INVESTMENTS.
Yes! I think what you’re talking about is a form of outsourcing in some way because you are having someone else who is more of an expert at that task handle it so you can save time doing other things that may be worth your money. However, I’d have to disagree for the gardening one because some people actually just enjoy gardening as their therapy so they like to grow their own vegetables and have a little garden patch even if it’s just for fun.
I disagree with item 10, of not doing taxes by your own. I have been doing my own taxes for 2 years now using an easy-to-use tax software and have not regretted doing it ever since for the following reasons :
1. As an ordinary guy with no financial background, the tax software itself is able to determine how to best allocate the tax figures to get a bigger refund.
2. Before even filing the tax itself, I can do what-if analysis by myself first (if I hire somebody to do it for me, there would be no more time for that)
3. I learned more about taxes and possible deductions (which are very helpful for me in the future)
I also disagree about filing taxes. If you have a particularly complicated situation, especially perhaps your own business, maybe it’s worth it to get a CPA who specializes in taxes because they can not only do your taxes, but handle things like payroll and give you advice for lowering your tax burden throughout the year. But for most people who work at salaried jobs, I think turbotax is completely sufficient and you save at least $100. Unlike the article above’s implication, the software is updated every year and keeps you aware of new things in the tax code.
Plus, many people consider H&R Block or Liberty Tax to be “professionals” and I can’t imagine that being worth it for anyone. They are mostly people who get paid $8 an hour to enter the info in a turbotax-like program for you and you pay a lot of money for that.