Ever fixed something and saved yourself a ton of money?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Lots of times, but the one that really made me feel like something was when I replaced the alternator on my '78 Corolla in June 1986 after driving from Columbia, SC, to Orlando, FL, a couple of days after graduating high school.

Wild guess, saved myself $150.

Protip: when you’re replacing an alternator, check that the electrical connector matches before going to all the trouble of bolting the thing on and tensioning the belt and all that. Needless to say, the second time I did the job went a lot faster than the first.

22

All the time. I have an inherent distrust of professional repair people, so if I can do it, I will. Biggest one probably was replacing the infamous blue pipe water line that went from the street to the house. Had to rent a trencher for that.

I’ve repaired my dryer twice, roof once, and enclosed a porch.

I had a professional build me a small brick retaining wall, and had them pour a concrete base. The base broke and sagged, and now there’s a two inch gap in the bricks. I wish I’d done that myself.

23

I am the youngest of four, and nine years younger than my closest sibling. This meant I was always home with mom or dad when the other kids were out doing teenage things. A good portion of this time was spent “helping” dad fix the car or house or watching mom cook. Because of this early exposure to DIY-ness, the only repairs I have paid someone else to do on any of my cars since '77 has been exhaust work, front-end alignments, and tire mounting and balancing. The last repair I did was replacing an axle shaft seal that the dealership quoted me $990 to do. It cost me $12 and a few hours of a Saturday afternoon. If I ever have to do one of those again, I could do it in one-fourth the time.

24

Lots of car repairs; mostly when I was younger, broke, and had a pretty comprehensive set of basic tools. I did stuff like changing u-joints, water pumps, radiators, master cylinders, brake pads, alternators, and belt tensioners.

I’ve also done some minor appliance repairs- replacing the detergent dispenser on a dishwasher, and thermal fuses on clothes dryers are ones that come to mind.

I’ve also done a fair amount of home maintenance type stuff- replacing toilets, replacing toilet innards, furniture repairs, and stuff like fence repairs, etc…

I mostly hire it out these days because I don’t have the inclination or time to do it myself.

25

My soil is hard packed heavy clay. Very hard to dig.

26

This is my strategy too.

I can figure out why something is broken and how to fix it, but I’m not going to fix it. I don’t trust myself and I worry that I will get injured from one of endless means.

Instead I just buy my own parts and find someone who works for $20/hr out of his house to do it. So far I’ve saved quite a bit of money doing that. When something breaks on my car, 90% of the time I can figure out what broke and what parts I need. But I’d rather hire someone experienced to do the repairs.

27

I try to fix everything myself.
In the past few months I’ve repaired:
My washing machine (installed new mode shifter and tub seal).
Both cars (new batteries in both).
Refrigerator (new defrost timer and defrost heater).
A/C - new contactor, and motor start cap.
Sprinkler system (that was a bear - I had to dig up all the valves and their lines to find a leak, and then replace everything).

28

Yes. There is very little involved in a home that I can’t fix myself and I’m also very qualified to do much of the work associated with homes. I work on wells and water pumps so plumbing and electrical are required skills. I also have the advantage of guys on my payroll I can drag to my house to help me fix stuff.

I do a small amount of vehicle maintenance. I could do more but would generally prefer to pay a mechanic than spend too much time. If we are running short on stuff to do, we’ll do oil changes, breaks and rotors and such, but it’s been a while since we had even that type of downtime.

It doesn’t take a lot of skill to save significant amounts of money in my area. Skilled tradesmen are becoming really expensive. That includes me. I try to gauge my customers competency when they call, there are a number of things to check or fixes I can walk a competent home owner through before it merits going there. If I show up it’s a $150 minimum. Competent home owners are becoming a rarity though. Many lack even the most basic of hand tools and their trouble shooting skills can lead them to calling out the wrong trade before they even get the right guy for the problem.

29

Oh, yah, sure. I was a Microwave Radio repairman in the Air Force, so I’ve a good understanding of electronics, a fair shade tree mechanic (but I mostly pay for that now, cars are just too complicated), and I’m familiar with household utility systems (I do some plumbing, but I hate it). I had the fan motor bearing on the heat pump go out, and replaced that, as well as it’s start/run cap, and that’s something that would have cost a bit to have fixed. Also, the speed sensor on the washing machine - thank goodness there was a troubleshooting/service guide inside it.

Other than having a pro work on the cars a few times (as has been noted, they are very reliable these days), I’ve only paid to have my heat pump replaced when the compressor puked all the Freon (or whatever they use these days) in the past 30 years or so.

30

A few months ago someone left the freezer door ajar overnight (we have one of those 3-door fridges with the freezer as a drawer on the bottom). Next morning, non-frozen articles in the freezer, and ice maker not working, and fridge area not all that cold. First thought (from my wife) “we need a new refrigerator!”.

“No”, says me, “let me see if I can figure-out what’s wrong, first.” She gives me the dubious eye. I found that the drawer was left open, and the condenser or other part of the cooling system was working overtime to try and keep everything cool/cold - something was working very hard by the sound it was making. The ice maker was leaking melting ice as well. Looks like a the 5 year-old fridge is broken.

I removed the cover to look under the bottom and see loads of dust all over everything. I remember that you need to vacuum under it every so often, so cleaned it nice, back and front (it was really dusty - like everything looked frosty). Also, I unplugged it while I worked (which may have reset the electronics). End result, after a day, freezer has things refrozen, fridge area is cool, and ice maker starts churning-out ice - no need to spend $$$ on new fridge!! [wife disappointed]

After the main issue was resolved, I found the ice-maker was really broken - the removable unit from the door - the “tray/bin” had cracked and allowed crushed ice to enter below thru a small hole, where the metal spinner runs, blocking it’s movement and preventing ice from being dispensed properly. Yes, I duct-taped a piece of thick plastic over the hole and, voila! Ice dispensing as normal, too! Woohoo!

31

There is nothing more satisfying than making, with my own hands, enough money to hire someone to do it right.

Actually, I do basic plumbing/carpentry type stuff. I love my family too much to have them live in a house where I have worked on the wiring. I rewired a chicken house once but the worst case scenario was an unplanned bounty of broiled poultry.

32

I pretty much do everything around the house. Or at least used to. Designed and built a two story addition, moved the mechanical room, well equipment, pressure tank and washer and dryer for that. I’ve a lot of plumbing experience. That probably saved 30k or so.

Anyway, I’m starting to ask for help. Had a contractor build a deck last summer, and this summer he did a total R&R on our mud room/entry way.

I just don’t have the time. It ends up taking way too long. And honestly, at 57 years old, I take a real beating doing that stuff.

I do plow my own driveway, that usually runs a $60 an hour. And, I need the truck here anyway.

33

I’ve replaced three different parts on my fridge’s icemaker/dispenser to keep it functional in the past ten years. Saved a few hundred bucks in labor charges.

34

A few years back I bought a closet auger and now I can aug my own closets and save $90 a pop!

35

I’ve repaired or remodeled tons of things over the years. I’ve come to realize, though, that once you can comfortably afford to hire work out -and once you recognize that you ain’t as young as you used to be - that feeling of satisfaction in doing it yerself fades quite a bit.
mmm

36

This is where I am, retired 70 years old and I can usually afford to hire out the big stuff now. I used to do everything except ceramic tile counter tops, I could never get that fine finish the pros get. A couple of years ago I built my son a 400 ft deck and patio cover along with horizontal cedar fencing and gates. It came out nice but that was my last big job I think.

37

I’ve done a few of these, and yes to the Youtube is awesome comment above. My last repair was a dishwasher motor which would have probably set me back three hundred bucks but I managed to fix it for $80 by myself, thanks to the net and Youtube.

But the one I’m most proud of is a brand new MacBook Pro that got water damage on it. I had no idea, but my girlfriend (at the time, now my wife), spilled some water or coffee or tea or something on the table, and it got in the little vent on the back of the MacBook. Later on in the day, I went to start it up, and the computer crashed and just refused to start up at all afterwards.

I figured, oh, no big deal, I just bought this computer a month ago, so it’s under warranty. Took it to the Apple Store. They took it back, looked at it, and informed me of water damage, and showed it to me. Sure enough, water damage. I texted my girlfriend (who I didn’t know had anything to do with the damage at the time, but we were just texting back-and-forth at the time) and she texted back an apologetic text confessing that she spilled some some liquid earlier that morning.

Ah, fuck. I need this computer for work, so it’s gotta be repaired. So what’s the damage? Apple Genius told me it’s a Level 4 repair, or whatever they call it, so new motherboard all that shit, twelve hundred bucks. Well, fuck me. So, I said fine, you hold on to it, and send it. The next day, I had a change of heart and called them up and asked them if the computer was still there. They said they hadn’t sent it out yet. So I cancelled the repair, picked it up, went to Target and bought whatever the highest percentage rubbing alcohol was. Got to work with some Q-tips, rubbing alcohol, and cleaned out the water damage/corrosion that I saw.

And guess what? Fucker worked right when I plugged it in. I was absolutely stunned when I heard the chime and saw that start-up Apple logo. And still does ten years later. I spent three bucks cleaning out the motherboard that Apple wanted to charge me $1200 to fix. Yay me.

38

Dryer was sounding like a cross between a stuck pig and a Martian War Machine. Replaced drum bearing and belt just for grins. Taking the drum out was a major bit of work and then getting the belt back around the idler pulley was no cinch either, as it had to be done totally by feel whilst lying on the floor.

Also replaced motor in dehumidifier, twice. (Would have done it a third time but they didn’t make that motor anymore.) The second time I had to invert the mounting bracket because of some minor differences between what were supposedly identical pieces of equipment.

39

I can’t count the number of brake jobs I’ve done over the years. And spark plugs, condensers, and points. Yes, I’m old. Get off my lawn!

I’ve repaired the AC several times. Ants in the relay. Corroded connections. Shot starter capacitor.

Replaced the ice maker a couple of years ago.

Currently remodeling the kitchen, dining room, living room, and game room. Saving thousands on labor.

40

On other boards, I’m sure there are trades people swapping stories about the times they’ve been called out to fix something very bad, to discover that the only reason it’s so bad is the owner tried to fix it himself.

If I fixed things, I’d be IN those stories. So unless it’s dead obvious and dead easy, I call someone. (Just from long experience, if it’s a piano I can usually identify the problem accurately. But piano repair takes exactly the kind of old-fashioned general skill that I lack.)