I’m leaning to be better about taking into account the value of my time. My work shirts now get laundered and pressed by the shop on my way to work, leaving those precious minutes to be paid toward other activities.
I can do most anything in the home, although I no longer get on roofs or crawl in attics/crawl spaces. I was trained as an electrician, and worked as a rough carpenter, sheetrocker, surveyor, concrete finisher, heavy equipment operator, etc., at various times. I can also do some woodworking. I had some AC training, but I never learned plumbing or heating. Like you say, much of it is available nowadays.
Jerky. Costs like $8 for just a few ounces of Jack Links cardboard, when I can spend not much more than that and have pounds of amazing jerky, right out of my own oven.
Yeppers. Been doing my own for about 2 years now.
Basic sauces. You not only learn how to make things delicious, you suddenly discover why your gravy has sucked all these years.
I will fix just about anything myself that isn’t too complicated or dangerous, because the professionals charge so much.
Change capacitors in my heat pump. Bad capacitors can cause the fans or compressor to not run or run intermittently. It will cost $38 for 3 capacitors and a little of my time vs. calling a HVAC company and paying a minimum $80 for them just to show up and then probably another $150 in parts and labor. Capacitors are quite often easy to get to, depending on your heat pump. Mine were stamped with a manufactured date of August 1995 so I think they did their duty!
Changing my own oil, and various other car maintenance like fuel pumps, plugs and coils, rotating tires, etc. Easier if you have tools and a paved driveway to work on.
Painting, it’s not really that hard and if I do it myself I know it’s done right.
Currently working on replacing bad Masonite siding and plywood on one short wall on my house. I think a window leaked water behind it so I need to caulk/paint all the potential water entry points on the window too. I’m fixing it for the retail cost of material versus paying a contractor. And now I know how an exterior wall is put together; studs, plywood, house wrap, trim, siding.
Fixing washers, mine didn’t want to spin, turned out to be a bad lid switch that sensed when the lid was closed. Also had another problem that required replacing a control box of some sort, wasn’t difficult.
Installing dishwashers. Really not hard and they aren’t very heavy. There is just a power, water, and drain connection. Just be sure you get a dishwasher that matches your counter opening so you don’t have to modify the counters.
Installing an electric water heater. Once again just hooking a couple wires to terminals and 2 pipes with screw-on connections. Hardest part was draining the old one. Drained water heaters are big but not that heavy.
These are some excellent ideas… thanks all. I will specifically use the tips about brakes and sauces. I’m thinking that some small electrical work might be achievable as well.
For a while I’ve been making bath bombs. It’s a cheap way to add some variety to bathtime for the kids.
Tomorrow’s coffee is on YOU!!! (because today’s is now all over my computer)
Learned to write software and run Linux proficiently: anything that most people do in day-to-day computing, other than playing a game*.
Heck, if my employer pays for software (and sometimes, thank the Lloyd that the current benevolent-ish dictators actually have the money to do so**), it’s because they don’t want to wait for me to learn it and cobble it into our system before they can start selling it. Generally, the main advantage of paid software is that it comes with support. As long as I know which questions to ask, I don’t have to learn too much about the nuts and bolts, and I can start cobbling it into our system pretty quickly after the benevolent-ish dictators ask for it.
Eventually, the nuts and bolts of the paid software becomes evident. Often, it’s either a bunch of open-source software cobbled together with a shell almost like I’d like it to be (which is still sometimes pretty nice - it’s not my money), or it’s (IMHO) an obtuse mess that shouldn’t be allowed to live. Sometimes, it’s obtuse and still pretty nice, and sometimes it’s awesome, commercial and not obtuse. The last case is usually a solution that addresses a problem I won’t ever be able to get a great abstract model of in my head, and is specialized to boot.
*Why games? Because commercial games are funner’n hell!
**The poorer dictators ask you to do crazy things (like… umm, I’d rather not say) yesterday, no mater how benevolent-ish.
When I bought my first house in 1980, I learned how to do all kinds of things myself. My dad gave me an electric drill and a circular saw that first Christmas! 
My greatest triumph was when I figured out why there was no appreciable heat to the upstairs radiators. Recall the date - pre-YouTube. I had (still have, in fact) a Reader’s Digest guide to home repairs. It explained how a radiator heating system worked, and I determined that there was probably a lot of air in the pipes. The previous owners had left the little keys that opened the drains on the individual radiators - yay for that! I found the water line in the basement and turned it on. Then I went upstairs with a bowl to catch the overflow, and one at a time, I opened and bled the radiators. By the time I went down to the first floor, the system was virtually air-free. I turned to supply water off and suddenly, my heating bills went waaaaaaaaaay down and the house got lots warmer! Go me!!
I also built a couple of picnic tables and hung a porch swing. I was handy!
Since then, I’ve gotten married to an even more handy man. Between us, we’ve done lots of remodeling, including taking the kitchen and 2 bathrooms down to the studs, breaking the basement concrete to put plumbing in down there, rewiring the entire basement, built decks, installed lights and ceiling fans, and done all kinds of work on a variety of boats we’ve owned.
We’ve gotten to the stage, however, where the checkbook is truly the better tool for the job. I’d much rather pay $100 to get the gutters cleaned than to fret and worry while my husband messes with it. (I don’t do roofs. No thanks.) We also don’t do much on our cars - I’ll replace wiper blades and burned out lights, but we let our car guys do everything else. But I’ll paint our walls and I do most of the yard work (spousal unit has had 5 spinal surgeries and 1 knee surgery - I’ll let him drive John Deere, but that’s it) but in the winter, we have someone clear our driveway if we get more than a couple of inches of snow.
All kinds of basic repair stuff using Google/YouTube/etc.
Our ancient gas dryer was not getting hot. I was able to troubleshoot and find the part (an ignitor?) and get it working again. Fast forward two more years and the drum stopped turning. Ten dollars for a new belt and we’re turning again.
Basic plumbing, carpentry, electrical work all done with my iPad by my side.
Another vote for cut my own hair. I also can highlight it. I get my hair to look exactly like I want it to without some stylist hacking it up and then charging me at least $40 for the privilege.
Now that I’ve learned how to ROLLER-SKATE, I’ll never pay for PINEAPPLES again.
Eh, these seemed a lot more fun when I was a kid.
Again, Welsh Polack Wife is a big fan of a can of cream-o-soup and a packet of salt, soy protein, and caramel color. And she often doesn’t even add in the dripping so it tastes vaguely like food. I mean, a roux is practically free and you already have all the flavor at the bottom of the pan! If my “Oh, I’m not hungry” isn’t a clue, it should be.
Youngest is following in her footsteps. She watches cooking shows, but she doesn’t learn from them.
Two things come to mind immediately.
(1) Now that I’ve learned how to save money, I’ll never have to get a loan again.
(2) Now that I’ve learned how to hang a door, I’ll never pay for finish carpentry again.
Item (1) has saved me many thousands of dollars in interest. Item (2) hasn’t saved me a lot of money, but it sure has saved me a lot of aggravation.
Fry chicken.
Another vote for jerky if you like it.
I would also add, learn to grow a good garden. I’ve been eating “free” asparagus for years now, along with other perennials like herbs, artichokes, strawberries and rhubarb. It takes almost nothing to throw some spinach, lettuce, beet, carrot, corn, bean, pumpkin, arugula and seeds in the dirt every few weeks during the growing season. Things like fennel, parsley and cilantro will self-sow every year if you let them. Onions, garlic and potatoes are easy, too.
Some berry canes along the back fence will bring lovely berries of many sorts: For me, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries and boysenberries show up every year. Also grapes.
Plant a few fruit trees and before long, you’ll have annual apples, pears, plums and peaches.
Saves a ton on groceries. I can’t believe what people pay for this stuff.
I’d really like to do this but it seems like a lot of work. We put something out in our 10x40 plot every year and it seems like we get nothing but weeds and squirrel-eaten tomatoes. What’s the secret to a productive backyard garden if you don’t want to be a full time farmer? (I’m in zone 7A).
Came here to say that! If I was a better looking man I might pay to have a really sharp haircut but on me a self administered buzz cut is good enough.
We’ve been sort of doing that for a couple of years now. Aside from tomatoes, though, we’ve had the most success with herbs - we got fed up with buying those herbs in the pot things at the supermarket that cost £2+ and still die after a couple of days, whatever you do. So now we grow our own. We’re trying vegetables again this year, reasonably successful so far.
That said, the farm that owns all the land around our house is growing sweetcorn in the field over the road, so in a couple of weeks we’ll be stocking up for the rest of the year 
(It’s legitimate, before you ask; the farmer has said we can just go help ourselves as long as it’s just for our own use)
I would say the same about chickens - we haven’t bought an egg from a shop for about three years now. But in reality, by the time you account for chicken feed, medical supplies, repairs to the run/house, etc (we get ex-battery rescue hens, so the chickens themselves are so cheap as to be almost free), it’s not really saving any money. But the eggs we get are way better than the shop ones and the chickens make fun pets.