Often, doing something yourself will save you money. People often avoid doing things themselves because they are afraid that they don’t have the skills to do it, or they are afraid that doing it themselves will take too much time. But, this isn’t always the case.
Here are three ways when doing it yourself can be both easy and economical.
Cooking
Even if your aren’t a brilliant cook, you can save money buy doing certain things yourself. For example, skip the bagged salad mixes and put together your own salad using a bunch of greens, etc. If you chop your own vegetables and add your own sauce to them, you will save. Cook rice from scratch and season it yourself instead of buying the prepared versions. Progress to making your own pizza dough, tomato sauce, and pancake mix.
Minor Repairs
Before you call the repair person, why not try to do it yourself. Replacing a washer on a dripping faucet is pretty easy and is a great return on investment, since calling a plumber would be very expensive. The same goes for toilets that won’t flush, doors that stick or squeak, light fixtures that need to be hung, etc. Check out do it yourself repair books from the library to determine just how easy or hard the job might be. Just make sure to take proper safety precautions.
Sewing
If you can learn some very basic sewing skills to do it yourself, you will save. I’m not saying that you have to be able to create your own wardrobe, but you can do minor alterations and clothing repairs. Being able to hem a pair of pants, sew on a button or adding decorative patches to a stained garment can be very useful. I gave my daughter fancy girly jeans simply by sewing some pretty appliques to her brother’s hand me down jeans.