Do you have a project that you can do yourself? Before you tackle that repair or remodeling job, you might want to read this series of articles. We’ll explore the seven most common DIY mistakes and tell you how to avoid them.
Last time, we spoke about the danger of overestimating your skills. This time, we will cover underestimating the value of your time.
Sure you may have the knowledge and experience to tackle your project, but did you factor in your time? There are a few ways where time can get you into trouble. The first is underestimating the time it will take to complete a project.
Let me give you a couple of examples. Let’s say that you want to redo your bathroom tile. You figure that you can complete the job in a day, or perhaps a weekend. But what about those other demands on your time, such as your regular job, your responsibilities at home, the errands you need to run and the kids. A weekend job can quickly turn into six months of living without that bathroom. Here is an example from our own lives. We have been trying to get a new mailbox and mailbox post sealed and installed at our home for five months now. We have all of the materials and the knowledge and skills to do the job, but the project keeps getting pushed down on the priority list.
The other way time can get you into trouble is when you forget to factor in the real cost of your time. Let’s say that you make $40 an hour at your regular job. A DIY project may take two days of your time. If you take those days off of work to complete the project, you have cost yourself at least $640. Hiring a professional who can complete the job in just five hours would have cost you only $400. In that case, your time was definitely worth the cost of hiring the professional.
Next up: Our third common DIY mistake. It’s a big one!
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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