2008 Recap of DIY Savings
To recap on the year, I have put together a list of some of the bigger DIY projects my wife and I have undertaken this year that have substantially saved us money. Actually, after adding up the estimated savings, we have increased our emergency savings this year by almost exactly the amount we have saved doing DIY projects. With research and patience, I think you would be surprised as to the amount of work you can do for yourself, if you are willing, that will save you plenty of money in 2009.
Vehicle Frugality
In addition to fixing (what I can) when things break down on our vehicle, I like to give my car a complete tune-up every 30,000 miles. I purchased the mechanics manual for my car this year and it took me from pre-beginner mechanic to still-know-nothing-but-try mechanic. Try I did and the savings were huge this year, as you can see below. Like I have mentioned before in posts, my wife and I still drive her Junior High 1995 Dodge Neon, which now has 181,500 miles on it. We know we are going to have to purchase another car eventually, but in the meantime, we will continue to do regular maintenance and hope the engine and transmission stay alive; otherwise, any other fix is worth fixing in my opinion. Below is my 2008 savings related to our car, not listed is finding our car this year when it was stolen when riding the bus to the subway!
- Speedometer and Odometer. Our speedometer and odometer would work until we would hit a bump and it would stop working. Or, it would stop working for no reason and we would hit the dash and it might start up again. After researching a little on Google, I fixed the problem by taking off the dash and soldering a few contacts, which fixed the problem forever and for free. Savings = $150
- Air Bag, Horn, and Cruise Control. These are listed together because they were all fixed by replacing one part in my car. The mechanic wanted $350 for the part and another $150 for labor to fix all three. Not wanting to spend the money, I cracked open the mechanics manual and found the part on eBay for $10 from a person that was parting out the same vehicle. I then bought a $10 part to remove the steering wheel (needed to replace the part) and a few swear words later, everything was fixed. Savings = $480
- Tune-up. Every 30,000 miles I give our car a tune-up. Not only do I save money by doing this myself, but it keeps our old car running pretty good. This year our tune-up included replacing the fuel filter, air-filter, spark plugs, PCV valve, transmission fluid, radiator fluid, and of course the oil. I also changed the oil every 3,000 miles at home, which doesn’t save a whole lot of money, but does allow for using better quality oil for cheaper. Savings = $300
- Brakes. My wife held on for her life after I changed the breaks for the first time, but it worked! Again, our maintenance manual gave me a great step-by-step tutorial to changing our cars breaks and rotors. Not surprisingly, the brake pads and rotors are fairly cheap, it’s the labor that gets you. Savings = $200
House Frugality
My wife and I have only lived in our condo for about two years. We purchased the unit as a foreclosure and have done a lot of work to it, of course all of the work we have done ourselves (some of it we have done twice, because we are doing it ourselvesJ). Besides renovations, we have also saved quite a bit of money this year by fixing various things in our home ourselves. Below is our list of 2008 house savings by being frugal and stubborn.
- Oven. This is a true story, this Thanksgiving our oven quit working mid-turkey. With some people over to eat and a half done turkey, we started a fire and roasted the rest of the turkey in the fireplace! Our oven, which is slightly over a year old and barely past the warranty, picked a horrible time to break down. After a little research, I purchased a part for $113 and installed it and our oven was back in business. Savings = $200
- Renovations. This year was round two of our renovations, we did quite a bit of stuff when we first purchased our condo, but then the money ran out. Now that there is money again, we are busy again. This year we saved money by doing the following projects ourselves: installed recessed lighting in our kitchen, removed carpet in our bedroom, installed wood flooring in our bedroom, painted kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom, removed popcorn ceiling in bedroom, and installed new closet hangers and shelves. Savings = 1,350
- Energy. Although hard to accurately guess the savings in this category, we have take a few steps to reduce our heat/cooling bills. We put weather-stripping around the doors and windows, put plastic around the windows that let in a breeze (winter), purchased a programmable thermostat and set it for the following schedule: (winter) 63 degrees when sleeping and when we are gone (summer) 83 when sleeping and away and 78 while we are at home. Savings = $100
- Miscellaneous. Hung our plasma TV over our fireplace, installed a new electrical outlet next to the fireplace (for TV), built and installed shelves in our storage space. Savings = $200
Shopping Frugality
Although it’s hard to argue that we saved a lot of money by shopping this year, it’s of course impossible to not shop at all. Here are a few of the ways we saved money by spending money???
- Plane Tickets. Because of a funeral, I purchased a last minute plane ticket to a small Midwest airport. Searching on Kayak, the ticket cost $1600, after calling the airline and getting a bereavement flight, the cost was $515. Savings = $1085
- Craigslist. I purchased a climbing tree stand for hunting and picked up a free printer this year on craigslist. Savings = $175
- Firewood. We used to keep buying the packages of firewood at Safeway for $5 a pop, which would basically last one night. We then had somebody deliver firewood at a cost of $80, but for the amount of wood, it was worth the deal. Savings = $40
Total 2008 Savings = $4280
Of course, these were not the only ways we saved money this year and there were plenty of times this year we probably splurged on things we shouldn’t have, but it puts a year’s worth of hard work into prospective. We were able to substantially increase our emergency fund this year, something that would never or happened if we contracted out more of our jobs or foolishly shopped. On top of savings, I learned a lot this year on car repairs and basic household projects. I’ll be fair and say I was frustrated a lot by doing many of these things, but while I’m at home working on projects, I’m not out spending!
How did you save this year? $
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