Do You Save When You Do Things Yourself?
Once again, I feel like playing the devil’s advocate. No, not really. But this post will be related to my prior post, Does Cheap = Savings? Basically, when we’re trying to minimize costs, we tend to do everything ourselves. If the pipes break, you fix it. If a bowling bowl suddenly flew through the air and smashed your window, you’d fix the window yourself. If the bowling bowl made a huge crater on the wall, you’d fix that wall yourself. Not that I intend to smash houses with bowling balls, but you get my drift. When you’re saving up, I think sometimes you forget that you’re not capable of doing *some* things — that’s only normal.
But is it really viable to do everything yourself? If your favorite jeans suddenly got ripped, what would you do? If you’re good at sewing, then it would be no issue. But if you’re someone who can’t even work with a needle without pricking yourself every five seconds, how would you think your jeans would look like after you’re through with it? After going through pains trying to sew your jeans back to perfection, you’ll most likely get a professional to mend it later anyways.
What I want to say is, if you know what to and how to do it properly, by all means, if anything needs repair, do it yourself. However, if you have no idea how to do it, research first. If you think you can and you want to take the risk, then go ahead, knock yourself out. But if you’re feeling anxious and you’re not too sure about it, it’s better to have someone in the know do it instead. Why? Well, if you’re going to get someone re-do what you did later, you won’t have only wasted money but also your valuable time.
Filed under: personal finance
