Money saving Part 2: How to D-I-Y to Save

The series begins in the previous post. If you want to start at the beginning read: Simple tips to save money in your everyday life.

There are lots of services out there that we can pay to have done. They are all great, wonderful, and talented at what they do. Sometimes though, you need to find ways to save anywhere you can. We’ve been there.

Here are some ways I’ve DIY to save at home.

A lot of people today leave home to get services done. I can imagine especially in the city as everything is at your fingertips. You go to the salon, the car wash, a restaurant. The list is nearly endless. Drive down a busy city street and you can visibly see that everything you need is right there waiting for you. But, it’s at a cost.

I realize that all those working at these businesses are making a living. I understand that. But maybe your situation calls for you to save every penny you can. Here are the ways I’ve made changes to help us focus on our financial priorities.

As I already said, DIY a.k.a. Do It Yourself. It’s just something I enjoy. I don’t like to pay for things that I can do myself. Unless you’re talking about food. I’d much rather have a chef than cook myself.

Physical appearance

From hair, nails, and even clothes shopping, can be services you pay for. Not in our house.

My youngest three have never been to a salon. My oldest boys have only had one professional haircut and my husband hasn’t stepped into a salon in over 12 years. I’ve been cutting their hair for that long. If you do the math for our family it saves us close to $2,000 a year. I’ve learned how as I go. I had cut hair a few times in my life before so it wasn’t all new. A great person to follow if you want to start is @thehaircutbox. She’s on Instagram and she sells haircut boxes. She has tutorials on Instagram and YouTube. Anyone can cut hair at home.

Another probably obvious one for women is nails, tans, and hair dye. I am saving by not getting a tan or going to get my nails done. I love doing gel nails at home because it dries fast and is free of toxins. You can follow @gelmoment_alib to find out more. For a pick-me-up, I have a tanner that I use at home to get a fake tan. For over 10 years I’ve done my hair color at home. It would cost me at least $60 a month plus a tip to keep up with my hair in a salon.

House/Cars

The DIY way of doing things really applies to a whole lot. My husband figures out electric work and house updates on his own. If I want to decorate I won’t buy new decor in the store, I’ve usually gone to Pinterest for inspiration and then go to secondhand stores or the thrift and made the looks I want. If I loved earrings I found overpriced then I went home and got the supplies to make them myself. That leads into another blog post I’ll get to where you can sell the extra you make for side income.

Online people post their cash-wash pictures. This person had gotten a yearly membership and had saved $420. I thought $420??!?!? I never once hit the car wash in 2022 and must’ve saved hundreds then! It’s easy and fun in the summer to wash your car. For me, this is a simple save. I know some who’d much rather drive through the carwash.

Outdoors

Gardening is a way you can save on groceries. No matter your yard size you can grow some vegetables to use in your cooking and avoid the prices at the supermarket. These days getting some chickens for eggs is also a great idea. We had chickens and got rid of them before the prices went wild. A mistake maybe.

I can go a lot more into gardening as we have done the farmers market for years and my husband is pretty good at gardening how-to. I will get more into that in a post soon as it’s about time to think about what you want to grow and prepare yourself for that as the weather is going to change.

Meal planning

I’ve decided to put meal planning in it’s own post. You can follow along to read the next post about it!

Again, these are just things we do. No judgment or anything wrong with doing life differently. Thanks for being here and I hope you come back for the next post!