What have you saved money by doing yourself?

[ThisPlumShark]

Painting

I used to do a lot of DIY. Dad taught me basic electrics & plumbing (I know my limitations), painting & wallpapering.
I went to car maintenance classes, & also simple carpentry.
I know when to call in the experts.

I'll be a friend for life if anyone has Will Kirk's number as I need something rubbed down.

Made a huge 5width ceiling to floor length curtain - pattern matched and lined (plus smaller ones) to hide stairs out of dining room. Cushions for conservatory furniture (plus repairs to the sun damage), my own wedding dress (back in the day and simple empire line) wedding cake and those of MiL and nieces. DH was very good at DIY - construction, decorating, garden design. We're only now getting in someone to complete an ambitious project. I will also mend and repair clothes to within an inch of their lives, Even jeans have repairs to repairs!

Make my own honey. Saves quite a bit in honey purchasing but costs a small fortune in beekeeping equipment.....

Dye my roots
Occasional haircut for dd or dh
Did my own wedding flowers
Cleaning and gardening
Wallpapering
Decorating/painting
Re-doing by old mastic/silicone
I'm planning on tiling a splashback soon - could be a disaster
We're laying a patio soon - not looking forward to that.
Fitting skirting boards
I love flat pack except assembling a high sleeper bed - that took me 8 hours and wood kept falling on my head. Should have paid the £50 assembly fee.
Altering or Fixing clothes (if I really like them)
Fixing toys (if easy enough)

Dh is a carpenter so has done much more eg hung our doors, fitted out kitchen, makes us in built storage, insulated loft properly.

This is mostly all from necessity as we can't afford building work. It takes away our evening and weekends spending time with our young kids. Obviously could choose to not do the upgrades etc. just hoping the house will be 'done' soon!

I did too. Was a lovely and cheap cake!

Cut my hair

(I only ever wear it up so can't see the point of paying for a fancy cut!)

We have a leaking tap. We've just had a quote to repair it for £250 or source and fit a replacement for £450. DH has just bought a replacement part for £12 and is going to "give it a go." So come this time next week we'll either have saved £238 or spent £462. Either way I'm making myself scarce as DH is not a natural DIYer 🤣

@Loubylie I think you should take this further and create a 'Disneylandlike' experience by dressing up in various costumes and creating 'Breakfast with Moana' and 'Bathtime with Ariel'

It could become a business 😉

Second hand clothes via Vinted or charity shop, no takeaways ever and dying my own hair and eyebrows.

Not one major thing but have cut back in every area and tried to save more.
Saving on little things adds up overall.
Looking for cheapier alternatives and really liking the alternatives has been great!
I am at home all day and invested in a really decent heater throw. Huge help in the cold months.

We’ve used Simple cook. You choose recipes and they send you the herbs and spices - then other food you buy yourself.

Alternatively a nice M and S meal deal.

I’m in awe, and jealous!

You know the rules: picture or it didn’t happen 😜

Dog grooming too… except in my case the dog looks awful.

oh well she doesn’t care!

Fencing
Sourcing, splitting wood for log burner
Painting
minor plumbing,
minor electrics
grow own fruit and veg

I also do skill swaps- a family member does my hair and I help her with my skills.

I do my own nails, time is precious to find and it’s actually easier to do it at home myself. Never had a cleaner and no window cleaner anymore, I have a karcher and can easily do inside and out (and do a better job). I always use a professional decorator though, I’ve seen some really shoddy home decorating and would much rather a decent job.

Easier to think of things where I lost money by trying to do it myself.

I love flat pack except assembling a high sleeper bed - that took me 8 hours and wood kept falling on my head. Should have paid the £50 assembly fee

The only flat pack i ever paid to have assembled was the ikea day bed for DD. I took one look at the instructions and thought "nah, fuck that" 😂

Pretty much everything.

Kids haircuts

All painting and decorating

Hanging new doors

Insulating under floorboards

Tiling

Building furniture

Building an epic climbing frame for the kids outside

Taking down chimneys

Building decking

And so much more DIY

I'll give anything a go.

£120 if I remember correctly. I took my own dog so obviously learnt how to do my own breed. I’d definitely recommend it.

Dog grooming. Dh does any DIY. He's really handy - ex army. Dc are handy too- we always think how can do this without spending money/ ourselves so come up with odd inventions :)

Built a home office, sound proofed fence and office. Built enclosed kitchen garden.
Took up lawn and laid new grass.

Built lovely terrace after being quoted about 10 grand AND was told we had to take up the old paving slabs and take away ourselves! Decided it couldn't be that hard so did it ourselves.

Cook from scratch , grow our own veg, make our own dogfood once a week. Bake all in cakes and biscuits.

Mostly own beauty but do like to visit the salon.
There's loads you can do, if you give it some thought and are as tight fisted as us:)

I cook - we almost never get takeaways
I sewed up a rip in a duvet rather than replacing it
I paint my own nails instead of getting them done
Likewise facials - I’m endlessly amazed at people I know who are not exactly ‘flush’ shelling out to have someone rub cream on their face.

Painting decorating (though I work roughly in that field)
put up a fence and gate today! Digging out the old rotting fence posts in 3ft of concrete was tough
cut my own hair
have bought lime mortar to repoint some of my gable wall that’s a mess. Have been watching internet videos to learn how… fingers crossed
i always make people cards rather than buy, though that’s not really to save money.

I’ve coloured my own hair since Covid.

I do my own decorating (except wallpapering although I used to do it years ago)

also years ago me and my friend decided we could change the brake pads on our mini metros…we did, and we’re still alive….

replaced a part on my lawnmower

sorted out laptop issues

clean my own home and car, obvs

fixed a dishwasher fault once.

YouTube is your friend 😊