What have you saved money by doing yourself?

[ThisPlumShark]

Painting

I haven’t, I work more and pay other people as my time is usually worth more than theirs.

I don't buy ready meals

Loads of things - garden, painting when it's not complicated, nails, eyelashes/brows...I like gardening, and I prefer to do my own nails etc when I have time rather than having to fit it in during my precious weekends.

I learned how to make takeaway style food

Cancelled Disneyplus and do nightly puppet shows.

@scandalito Recipes and advice please 🙏🏼 - we need to do this! Often takeaways are so disappointing and crazily expensive.

Pretty much everything. I knit,sew, make curtains, clothes, alterations, decorate, DH, plumbing, electrics,(signed off by electrician) I assist with some,most vehicle repairs. (Youngest DD brakes this week,CO2 sensor next. Laying flooring,tiling fitting bathrooms and kitchens. We've always bought doer uppers. We grow a lot of our own fruit and veg,1000 lettuces in a pack for pennies.

I never reached a point where I could start paying people to do those things/eat out or lots of takeaways. I'll be a happy woman the day I can afford to pay for a decorator!

We built the garden office ourselbes. nstead of paying the company to do it. Halved the price.

The problem is that for me to pay someone £200 a day I have to earn £350 a day. So I try to do as much as possible myself

Painted upstairs, no one except those who live here, are allowed upstairs!

Kids haircuts. Curly hair make it easier to disguise wonky bits.

Sewing/repairs to my children clothes. Fakeaway night instead of buying a takeaway

Dog grooming for my 3 dogs was costing loads so I did a day’s course and bought the things I need to be able to groom them myself. They look great and it’s nice knowing I’ve saved £100 each time they’re cut.

I recently asked some advice on the Housekeeping thread and saved £££ by carefully washing some huge “dry clean only” curtains.

Home decorating. Home cooking. We have a takeaway about once a year, if that. Do my own cleaning. Make fresh brewed coffee every morning.

Decorating - although I am a shoddy worker and would sack myself if I could.
Cleaner - stopped the cleaner when I retired.
Rarely eat out/get take always. Will meet friends for a drink rather than food.

I would never pay a decorator. I'm pretty decent at it if I do say so myself 😂a professional would do it maybe 5-10% better. But that percentage isn't worth it to me in terms of how much more it would cost. I also don't really see it as a chore so that helps. Sure at the time it's a lot of work but I thrive off the satisfaction of doing it myself.

I'm reluctant to pay for anything I can do myself. But then I have a reasonable amount of spare time to do these things in.

I've cut my own hair for years, and did DH's as well for a while during covid etc.

All decorating.
Did my own wedding flowers with ones bought from the supermarket including table ones.

When I was working I used to outsource as much as possible…cleaning, gardening, ironing, hedge cutting. I retired at the end of last year, and so far have only taken back ‘in-house’ ironing. Partly as it was an extravagance at £20ish a week(that’s a bottle of wine!!), but mainly because I found it didn’t actually take that long to do and I don’t mind doing it once a week. But, bar doing a bit more in the garden myself just because I can, the rest remains in the hands of experts 🤣

Cut and colour my own hair for the last 10 years or so.

Changed a tap in my bathroom

Baking and decorating fancy birthday cakes

Painting and Decorating

cleaning downstairs windows

Cooking pizza and curry instead of takeaways

That’s interesting! How much was the course if you don’t mind me asking?

I'm going to replace 3m of broken downpipe. Will save a few quid.