It seems fair to say that times are tough right now. Many people are struggling and lots more are looking for ways to cut back on expenditure. One method that is often touted as a good way to save cash is doing it yourself. But is a DIY approach all it’s cracked up to be? As with everything, there are two sides to the story. For instance, while doing your own decorating might be a big tick in the â˜yes’ box, doing your own car repairs (unless you’re actually a mechanic) is probably not going to help you â“ and it’ll probably reflect badly in your car insurance quotes.
So then, it seems that while doing things yourself does have potential, there is something of a tricky path to steer to get the best results from it. Let’s take food and drink as an example – this is one area of big spending where, for many of us, a little bit of DIY probably wouldn’t go amiss.
For instance, many people who go out to work every day by their lunch while they’re out. Whether this is a sandwich from the lunch cart, something from the company canteen or something upmarket from a local restaurant, it involves spending dollars you don’t really need to spend. Making your own lunch before work might not be that exciting, but if you’re looking to cut back, it makes a difference.
Say you currently spend $5 a day on lunch and other snacks while you’re at work. That’s around $100 a month just on lunch alone. It’s not much of a stretch to say you could save upwards of half of that by switching to homemade meals. After all, it isn’t much of a stretch to spend $5 on a single cup of fancy coffee when you could be making your own for a fraction of the cost, so food is clearly an area where DIY can help us save money.
As mentioned above, household activities such as decorating can also be benefitted by DIY. Maybe you already do all your decorating yourself, which is great, but many of us still hire someone in to take care of these things on our behalf â“ and labor is costly, especially if you want a really good job. Instead, buying the supplies yourself and setting aside a weekend to decorate a room costs a small percentage of hiring someone to do the job for you â“ and if you’re spending all weekend painting, you won’t be spending money elsewhere, either.
All of this shows that if you want to save money, it pays to take matters into your own hands. Of course, there are some things where DIY is resolutely not advisable, such as anything to do with electrics or other tasks that require a professional touch. However, there is a surprising number of ways where we can save money simply by putting a bit more of an effort in. From getting your own insurance quotes instead of sticking with the same supplier to getting busy in the kitchen, we could all make some changes in order to save some cash.
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