Let’s say you’re considering a repair, oil change, whatever. You could do it yourself, or you could pay someone. If it would take 1 hour of your time, how much money do you have to save before you’ll consider doing it yourself? You can compare this to your hourly wage if you want.
$132.
Last time I changed my own oil was about 1985. The wrench slipped, the oil pan cracked, and it cost me several hundred to fix because in that car they had to pull the engine to replace the oil pan. The guys at Goodyear now change my oil for $20-$30 depending on what oil I get, and if they crack the oil pan, they’ll have to fix it on their dime.
I would think this strongly depends on how enjoyable you find the activity. Many people cook for fun or do home improvement, even though you could pay someone to do it. Maybe you even find it relaxing. For a car enthusiast, doing an oil change will probably be more fun than cleaning your apartment, while someone else wouldn’t even dream of it.
The hourly wage comparison is misleading because I’m doing it on my time anyway. There’s no opportunity cost there.
I charge $250/hour for consulting.
Exactly. I don’t think anything of spending 30 or 40 hours making a sweater I could probably buy for $40, because it’s a hobby to me. Or fermenting my own saurkraut over the course of a month, when I can buy a package for $1.50.
But car repairs - there is no upper limit at which I would try to do it myself. First of all, I wouldn’t enjoy it, second, I’d be terrified of destroying my car by doing it wrong. And in the case of a $25 oil change – you can hardly do it yourself cheaper anyway, when you figure in the cost of oil, proper equipment and disposal, never mind the time.
This is what I do. I rarely work out to a monetary basis. I do things I want to do, and don’t do things I don’t want to do. Money is rarely a factor, time is often a factor though. Perhaps I just have too much of the former and not enough of the latter.
The value of my time varies greatly by the demands put upon it.
In other words, if I’m busy, my time is probably more valuable than it is when I’m sitting around bored and doing nothing. This is called Supply And Demand.
+1. I have done routine car maintenance because I had the tools and desire. And when I am finished I know it was done correctly.
It depends on the task. There are some things that I won’t do for any amount of money. It also depends on my skill set, and what the task requires. If adjusting a widget is going to take me 20 hours, and I’m probably not going to do it properly, then it’s worth my while to get someone else to fix it. However, if I need a seam resewn, or a button attached, then I’m almost certainly going to do that myself, rather than take it to the tailor’s. Unless, of course, I’m taking the garment into the cleaner’s anyway, because most cleaners will do minor stuff like that for free if you ask them to do it.
I don’t think I ever really pay someone to do something for me that I’m capable of doing myself. (I mean within reason…I buy prepared food and stuff.)
Considering how much of my time I give away – helping friends move – or just posting my usual drivel here! – my time must be worth damn near nothin’! Bugger all! Make me a better offer and I’ll take it!
(Now, back to video games and pr0n…)
Well, in the case of oil changes, it actually saves me time doing them myself. I always buy a few changes’ worth of oil and filters at a time and just keep the used oil in my garage until the once-a-year waste disposal event the county does. If I took the car in, I’d have to drive to the place several times a year and wait around while they did it. The same principle applies to most minor repairs and maintenance items.
I do not trust my practical skills to repair anything at all. Attempts to fix my rather expensive TV, both by a slightly more competent friend, then by doing it myself, resulted in very little benefit in the end, with the larger risk of no TV at all or serious injury.
I pay no matter what the cost, or just leave it be, remaining broken. Such is the disposable world we live in.
My store charges $60 per hour for miscellaneous custom framing labor. I get paid… less than that.
But surely people are doing some things not because they enjoy them, but to save money. Things like mowing the lawn/yard work, painting the house, etc. I thought of this question because I was thinking it’s no longer worth the money saved to patch/darn socks/underwear.
I’ll work for less (or free!) if it’s very enjoyable or I’m desperate, or it’s a favor and Im good at it, but it generally takes $25/hour to get me interested in something I wasn’t otherwise interested in. More if it’s something I actively dislike, of course.
Of course there are some things that I would pay a premium for, like back taxes, due to it causing me stomach cramps to even entertain.
That said, I always let the other person make an offer first, in case it’s worth more than $25 to them.
Patching and darning clothes is an activity that I can do in small bits of time, while I’m watching a movie. It’s generally quicker for me to mend a seam than it is to find another garment that I like, plus there’s driving involved if I buy it in meatspace. So mostly, doing that sort of thing will save me time AND money.
Last week, I took a trip and spent over $500 in air fare and about 2 hours in travel time. If I’d driven, I would have spent about 10 hours in drive time. So I guess I value my time at a little more than sixty bucks an hour (gotta subtract the flying time from the driving time, you know).
This. it’s an expensive PITA to bring my vehicles in for service/maintenance. I can’t justify it, except in cases where DIY would have my primary transportation out of comission for an inconvenient length of time, or when the cost of tools gets stupid (e.g. front end alignment after replacing loose tie rod ends).
I also enjoy DIY whenever possible because then I know it’s been done right: the oil level is correct, the drain plug and filter have been tightened to the correct torque, the wheel lug nuts haven’t been overtorqued, and so on.
Some projects are just too big. We had a new roof put on our house a few years ago. There’s nothing about roofing that’s too complicated or high-tech for me to do myself, but it’s a damn big job, and there’s a substantial risk of falling that comes with spending a lot of time on the roof. I’m willing to pay good money to have a crew do the work in two days, rather than having me spend two weeks up there (in addition to handling the logistics of material ordering/delivery and waste disposal).