what do you DIY that saves $$$ - Page 2

[Aubergine68]

We do our own taxes (dh and I are both self-employed, so not the easiest, but he has an accounting background).

Also cut our own hair. We end up buying a new pair of $25 clippers every couple of years, but that gets us about 15 cuts for dh and our two little boys, so very worth it, when you add the barber fees up.

If you buy a big bag of the better quality baby wipes (quilted work well), you can toss them in the laundry with cloth diapers and they are reusable -- or you can toss one without feeling too guilty. Some brands of disposable wipes do disintegrate in the laundry, so you may want to confirm that yours work before buying a bag to reuse this way.

[dogmom327]

I make most of our food from scratch.

I make yogurt, kefir and kombucha.

I make my own wipe solution.

I make most of my own cleaners (vinegar, baking soda, Dr. Bronner's, EO, etc.).

I do our taxes (but I do use a computer program because business taxes are really complicated--still saves us a couple hundred dollars though).

I grow fresh herbs (I never buy them) when the weather allows.

[Chicky2]

Loving this thread!

Let's see...

raise and process our own chickens (eggs and meat)

raise and process our own meat rabbits (and then sell some bunnies to people who do 4-H and this pays for ALOT of their feed)

raise and process guinea fowl (eggs when we can find them, and meat)

All our animals give us poo, which is a good thing because it goes w/the next on my list.

we garden. Last year's sucked, but this year's will be better since the toddler is not a baby this year, lol. Above mentioned poo goes on garden and saves money on fertilizer! We can and freeze (need to get a dehydrater!) and eat sooooo much fresh.


we gather pecans, persimmons, and sand plums for the cost of driving an hour and a half which we'd be doing anyway since we love my mom. Then I freeze the pecans, and make jam out of the plums (about all they're good for, these kind), and bread/muffins w/the persimmons.


My dh is awesome. He fixes everything that's broken, unless it's major mechanic work. He can fix our a/c and heating. He can fix our septic (ewwww, but I'm soooo glad he is willing to!). He can fix a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g. at all that needs fixing around here. He was not like this until we moved here. We figure it's our house, we (well, he) should learn as he goes. That's why we have the internet, lol. We did the painting, electric, a/c, tiling on our MIL's house when she needed to move out here, too. We put in a tile floor when we wanted one in our house. We built a rabbitry and poultry houses.

I cut the kids hair. I cut my own hair. I cut MIL's hair.

l cook most of our food from scratch. I love to cook.

I do NOT sew, but have a machine and need to want to use it, lol.

My dh got a really nice chainsaw for Christmas, and so far we've done the vast majority of our heating w/wood this year. It hasn't been cold most days (Texas), but we've definitely gone thru a whole cord of wood so far,and it was free. We had plenty of dead trees in our woods. AND he scored 6 free truckloads of wood from a guy who was cutting down a tree after a storm. It was a big tree, lol, and not seasoned yet, but for next year...And this weekend he's going to get several more loads of free wood just because someone wanted it hauled off.

I'm sure I'll be back to post more that we do...

Oh, I make kefir and kefir cheese and yogurt weekly.

Oh yeah....for 2 weekends in a row we are going to go to my mom's house and butcher and process 6 goats and so far they've trapped 11 wild pigs. They'll probably catch many more pigs before we go, so I'm sure we'll have to go back and have more 'butcher weekends'. It's going to be soooo much work, but soooo worth it. I'll have to borrow freezer space from a friend there will be so much meat.

[freespirited]

We did all much of our house remodeling ourselves, including painting, new walls (texturing), landscaping, exterior paint, new gutters, cedar fence, and dh totally rewired the house (that alone saved 12k). He just gets books and figures out how to do stuff.

I grow veggies in the summer, including a mini-orchard. I do my own nails. I home treat most of our illnesses so we rarely go to a clinic. That's all I can think of. Oh, and I do my own cooking and cna make cultured veggies and yogurt and our own muffins, and tortillas are next on my list to make.

[LianneM]

Such great ideas here!

I wanted to chime in on wipes - I prefer disposable on the baby (I get 7th Generation) but I throw them in with the cloth diaper laundry, and reuse them. They are great for dusting and other cleaning jobs

[I Fly]

I cut all the hair in our family. I have a short cut that needs cutting every 5 weeks, so this has saved me at least $1000 and many miles and babysitting issues.

[StormySar]

Well, we decide what we need (we do without a lot of wants), then we figure out how to do it ourselves. It's only when we can't do itourselve that we pay to have it done or buy it.

I cook all of our meals and snacks from scratch.
We make a lot o the kids craft supplies (re-use one-sided paper for scrap paper, make play doh, glue, paint, chalk, etc)
I sew a lot of accessories, and cloth diapers and wipes
I garden each year and can/freeze/dry the excess in the pantry. I try to grow a huge garden so I can preserve a years worth of sauces, veggies, fruits, pie fillings.
make our own soaps
I cut DH and DSs hair. the girls and I don't cut our hair at all.
DH does car repairs (he's so awesome at this... and has saved us literally thousands of dollars by now) and household repairs. he does our own lawn care so we dont have to hire anyone else. Though he thinks it would be nice to hire a local boy to cut the lawn to help him earn some money.
I make a lot of gifts. This past year I made a bag of cookies and included a couple bars of soap for every family in my family. the soap barely cost anything at all because I bought in bulk and my main source of fat I got for free and rendered myself.
we make a lot of toys for the kids, and 'stuff' instead of buying.
We homeschool, and so far I make our own curriculum out of free resources online and the library
If the kids need bedding, I make it... Like quilts. I made my DD a quilt for her bed for Christmas. Out of desire on my part and need for hers :-) Even second hand, comforters are a bit pricey but I was able to use all scrap fabric for hers and just bought the batting.
I repair ripped clothing. I save old pants and shirts to re-use their parts (buttons, zippers, pockets, etc) on other like-colored clothing. or I use the fabric to make a kids-sized peice of clothing, or keep it around for scrap fabric.
DH hunts to stock the freezer, though we do still buy meat. I want to raise chicken and rabbit.
We do without a lot of wants out of necessity. I've never been to a spa, or have ever had my nails or toes done up with manicures and pedicures. I barely cut my hair before my high school prom, and haven't had it cut once since then. We don't drink alcohol (well, dh does once in a while, I don't at all), we buy a lot of stuff in bulk (that I can't make myself - like eggs, milk, cheese, is all bught in bulk)

I do a lot of small things that end up adding up. And a lot of the stuff did require money out of pocket before beginning - like sewing machine and supplies, canning equipment, deep freezer (for the amount of food we store and hunt) but I'm glad we have them.

[EFmom]

The big one is home repair/renovation. We remodelled a bathroom and kitchen down to the studs the past year. We probably saved close to $30K doing it all ourselves. We've also put in new windows and doors, hardwood flooring and a bunch of other things.

I also cook from scratch, keep the freezer stocked with homecooked entrees and sew a little. We do our own yardwork and we garden.

I would dearly love to pay somebody to clean the house though!

[jessaroo]

stormysar-glue?paint?

How do you make the homemade art supplies. I am very interested in the glue and paint.

I also wanted to post a great book with recipes for house and body care:

Better Basics for the Home by Annie Berthold Bond