DIY Value

There are some things that it's worth doing yourself, and some things that aren't. Just to put end points on the scale:

There are three factors in the value of doing something yourself:

  1. the absolute amount of dollars you save (DS);
  2. the dollars-saved-per-hour-worked (DS/H), and
  3. the least tangible, but the most important, one: reward factor (RF). The RF is a completely personal choice.

All things you buy fall somewhere on this scale. You can make virtually everything (well, except some electronics) that you use in life, but for most things, it's much more efficient to do some kind of work you love to do, get paid for that work, and buy the things you want, with that money.

Consider making a drinking glass, for instance. If you work at Convergys, you can make $12/ hour. In two hours, after taxes, can easily buy four very nice drinking glasses, or dozens of [[Dollar_Store?]] drinking glasses. How long would it take you set up a glassworks and learn how to make four very nice drinking glasses?

How To Estimate

If you have no money, then suddenly Dollars Saved (DS) is an important factor.

If you do not have a job, then Dollars Saved Per Hour (DS/H) becomes much higher for even quite labour intensive things yourself - baking bread, for example.

Baking bread also has a huge Reward Factor (RF) because everyone loves home-baked bread, even out of a bread machine.

All of the DIY activities are predicated on you learning to do the thing well enough that you enjoy and are proud of the result. If you hate woodwork, and do a bad job of it, you will be miserable living with and using the furniture you made -- it will have a low (or negative) Reward Factor. It would be much better for you to get paid to do something you love, and buy the furniture with the resulting money.

Possible DIY Activities

Clothes: borrow a friend's sewing machine, learn to sew or get someone to show you, make your own clothes. Once you're good at sewing - months of practice usually, and dozens of frustratingly ugly and ill-fitting garments - the DS/H rating can be quite good unless you usually buy clothes at Walmart or Frenchy's. Reward Factor is not great - very well made homemade clothes look very ordinary.

Cooking at home: has a very high values in all three scales (compared to eating out.) Learn to make a few things well, then expand your repertoire. Don't be afraid to cook the same thing over and over until you have it just as you like it, until you are proud to serve it to a guest. Unless you have a very good memory, write down the ingredients, proporitons, and method in a database or recipe card.

Alcohol: because of taxes, booze has a mind-numbingly high DS/H compared to drinking at a bar. As with everyting, this is predicated on you enjoying and being proud of your home-brew product. For instance, you can home-brew beer for eight dollars a dozen, and about two hours labour per 5-dozen batch. Compare that with sixteen dollars a dozen at the liquor store, or forty dollars for the same amount at the bar.

Growing Food: if you love to garden, you can grow your own food. This is very inefficient measured by DS/H, but many people find it very rewarding.

Wrenching: Changing your own oil and air filter is high DS/H and high RF for many people. Borrow a friend's car computer cable, and get the manual, to reset the "Maintenance" light. More complicated work on your car, depending on facilities and tools you need, has a more variable DS/H.

Coffee: The calculation for the efficiency of making coffee at home instead of going to Timmie's, Starbuck's, or Steve O'Reno's, is left as an exercise for the reader.