Do things your self

When I was growing up I think my family violated every child labor law on the books. I spent the majority of my youth doing chores and yard work (when I wasn't playing with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or my Star Wars action figures). I would wash the cars, trim trees, pick up dead oranges (we had sixty orange trees in our back yard), do laundry and help mop the floors, spray weed killer and help with any other house maintenance. I could have used an "etc." for that last line, but I really wanted to stress the nature of many of my weekends - they sucked. At the time I just wanted to hang out with the neighborhood friends or play some computer games (this was pre-puberty so girls weren't really on the radar).

After having graduated from college and living by my own means, however, all those torturous things turned out to be a great lesson on how to do things your self. Each one of those tasks my family could have afforded to pay someone else to do. But like everything in life, there is always an opportunity cost and you have to manage your priorities. While back then I would have easily shifted my priorities to watching X-Men cartoons on Saturday morning, it was clear to see that my parents valued my sheer misery.

Looking at my life now, there are so many things I could (and sometimes do) pay others to do. Much of that comes with home ownership, but the point is that we all can be more self sufficient. Take for example, washing your car. For 25-30 minutes of work you can probably do it yourself at home or take your car to a self-wash car wash. Either way is going to cost you about $4 or $5 but more often than not, your car will look even better because you tend to put more pride into your things than others do. If you factor in the time it takes to drive your car to a car wash and wait for a team of guys to wash it for you, you are really only actually saving maybe five minutes. Sure you avoided manual labor, but that time is still shot and you just spent $20.

Another example is simple home repairs. I'm no handy man by any means, but I can spot things I can do around the house myself. Recently a put in very simple flooring in part of my attic. It took maybe a FULL day of work though I spread it over several different times. To do the same work, I had received a quote from a contractor for over $500 dollars. When we first moved in I painted the room in our house we wanted to change colors. This was a fun activity for my wife and I to do together (I still got stuck doing it myself) and though painting can take you a lot longer than a pro, again you can save hundreds of dollars. Its simple, time consuming work that involves patience and effort, but you CAN do it your self. There are many other types of home repairs that may be needed maintenance or could be just sprucing up your home and adding value (like changing your door hardware or touching up dents in  your wall.)

At some point I really would like to have maid service. If only once or twice a month, it is not terribly expensive and would save a lot of time. However, that time is not now. With our smaller sized townhouse, it is not difficult for my wife and I to knock out most of the household chores (laundry, vacuuming, dishes, cleaning toilets, etc.) in a few hours on a Saturday. My mother lives in a house four times our size and still maintains it herself. Again its a simple question of what is that saved money worth to you.

Some other expenses that could be cut out:
1. Hair cuts (only recommended for simple dews. My dad used to cut my hair and I looked 7 until I went off to college. But it is easy to buzz someone)
2. Washing your own dogs
3. Ironing your own clothes instead of the cleaners (I have to be honest and note that this is my big pet peeve and one of the only areas I splurge on expenses)
4. Changing your own car oil, air filters, tires (basic car maintenance)
5. Cooking at home (spend a little time and cook at home a few nights a week, it saves a ton of money and you usually eat a lot healthier)


The point is that you can control a number of expenses in your daily life by simply putting in the effort. Most people value their time far too highly. I myself seem to piddle away half of my free time on random nonsense whenever I find it. By sucking it up and doing some of less fun but easier tasks in life yourself, you can really make room in your budget to do more substantial and meaningful things with your free time in the future. I challenge you to sit down and calculate how much you spend on these types of things each month or year and then make a list of what you could have done had you saved that money. You could invest it!

Sincerely,

Coco