What is your "Car Guy" ticket worth?

Boost_Crazy said:

Partly because it's usually faster to do it myself than to schedule and wait for an appointment. 

This is an underrated aspect of my DIY ethos. Especially these days, when everyone is so busy and understaffed.

wae said:

My wife does not begrudge me any of

I guess the only downside is that when something does break, the normal calculus would drive most folks to get new appliances.  If it's $400 to have a guy come out, look at the dishwasher, and fix it, why not just spend another $400 and get a new one?  But for us, it's more like spending $50 or $100 on a part and spending an hour or two making the repair versus dropping $800 for a new one.  It makes it a little bit hard to justify replacing things sometimes.

This one hits close to home....The kitchen range just ate a motherboard and the wife was leaning towards a new range and while we are at it a new fridge to match.

$170 dollars later there was a new motherboard in the range, the oven now works and Mrs NOHOME has forgoten all about that new fridge thing. Whew...that was close.

I would not be able to have the things I have if I had to pay someone to do all the build, maintenance and repairs I have done. Both cars and around the house.

I can't say exactly, since I'm firmly in the "shade tree" category of pretty much anything I do outside my profession.

But I would say it's probably in the $2,000 per year range.

It is hard to put a $ figure on it but it sure is nice to be able to fix your own stuff, especially the little things. I find as I get older and have a different level of disposable $ the equation changes a little on do I want to fix this or not. One part of the equation that people haven't talked about is opportunity cost, what would you do with that time if you weren't fixing stuff? If it was laying on the couch then you saved all that money, if you would have been running a side hustle or a second job then the savings is a little different. Wifey and I talked about this with lawn mowing yesterday. I have never bought a new mower and I do the lawn saving ~$200 a month over paying to get it done (like almost everyone does around here). I used a $300 Craftsman for the last 3 years and haven't spent a penny on it. I have taken it apart several times to fix little things but nothing more than oil, battery and a valve adjustment. I bought a used New Holland for half of what the box stores would want for a new POS and it about killed me to spend the money. That said it will pay for itself in a year versus paying someone and I will probably sell the Craftsman for a profit.

My sister and BIL can't / won't fix anything around the house, even something like hanging shades would need to be contracted or my father needs to do it. For them it is ok because they have the $ to have someone do it right (it would be hard for them to get it right). They spent their extra time and money starting a business and that worked out too. You got to be happy.

It was probably net positive before I got into endurance racing, but most likely I've now obliterated whatever lead I had.  No regerts.

there's another aspect of this that should also be considered:  how much of your leisure time do you spend fixing stuff, and is that how you really want to spend your leisure time?

i have written the check a couple times recently because i'd rather be working on MonZora vs mowing the lawn / fixing the dishwasher for the 10th time / etc.

my whole family knows that we are many thousands of dollars ahead because i DIY 95% of what we need.  i try not to buy too many "i'll never use this again" tools, like the BMW M62 timing chain tool kit LOL.

EDIT: LOL i typed up my reply and didn't hit send.  NY Nick covered my points while i was getting a refill on my coffee.

Being handy can save tons of money, but it can also be a trap. 

I don't want to pay anyone to do anything I can (or think I can) do, however, I only have so much time in my life. 

I also strongly identify with stringing broken junk along for way too long simply because I can make it work and few others can. All that really means at the end of the day is that I use mostly broken junk my whole life. If I just buckled down and bought the good one to begin with maybe I'd be able to use the good one my whole life. 

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

  i try not to buy too many "i'll never use this again" tools, like the BMW M62 timing chain tool kit LOL.

I think about stuff like this from time to time. from a 'world efficiency' perspective, me buying a single use tool is awful! Also the time, as you mention. If the job would take a pro 16 hours and it will take me 25, I had better have other life benefits coming out of the work than just getting the job done. 

But that is a big part of being handy right, that we generally enjoy the work and learning new skills and take pride in the time we spend fixing. If we didn't, we wouldn't develop the skills to be handy in the first place. So as long as I like the work, I don't worry about the rest. 

In reply to NOHOME :

Absolutely brilliant!!!! 
      I fixed her toaster with a simple reconnection of the heating element. At zero cost but she had ordered a new one on line  as soon as the issue appeared.  
   Now she's mad at me.   

Car guy ticket probably saves me three grand a year on average, but I have a weird fleet to maintain.

Handyman ticket saves me far more per year, probably double the car savings. Not just in home repairs but in keeping things going. Kids toys, appliances, HVAC, plumbing, yard equipment. Plus I have a stash of hardware/parts in the garage for fixing stuff so I don't have to buy much. I strip broken things for usable parts and junk the rest. I also bring home stuff that is broken and fix it for us to use. All the kids Power Wheels were from the side of the road, we have a fleet of six now. Once I got a reputation for fixing stuff, my friends just bring stuff to me now.

I use the money I save to buy good things like Robbie said. The clothes washer was free, but man our stove is kickass.

The problem with all of the car work needed is that 95%+ of it is a direct result of me being a car guy and buying broken E36 M3, racing it, upgrading it, etc.  So any savings there is at best just a consumption of my spare time, but most likely costing me money.

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

  i try not to buy too many "i'll never use this again" tools, like the BMW M62 timing chain tool kit LOL.

I think about stuff like this from time to time. from a 'world efficiency' perspective, me buying a single use tool is awful! Also the time, as you mention. If the job would take a pro 16 hours and it will take me 25, I had better have other life benefits coming out of the work than just getting the job done. 

But that is a big part of being handy right, that we generally enjoy the work and learning new skills and take pride in the time we spend fixing. If we didn't, we wouldn't develop the skills to be handy in the first place. So as long as I like the work, I don't worry about the rest. 

Like Dad always joked: "Any idiot can do the job when they've got the right tool!"

I really don't know and have no idea how I would compute such a thing.  I do what I can.  And some of what I can't do I fake.  And what I really can't do I farm out.

This discussion seems to equate "car guy" with "DIY", and that's not always true. It's perfectly possible to be a car guy (or girl or whatever) without being able to DIY. It's a lot EASIER, of course, but let's not disparage our wrenching-impared brethren. That type of car guy can still have a net positive on the household budget due to informed shopping. I don't DIY on the Tesla at all (well, very little) but if it wasn't for me Janel would have just bought a new Jeep Cherokee instead.

As for DIY - I grew up with a grandfather who was a radio ham and the other side of the family was a bunch of farmers. When I was 7, we moved into an old house and spent the next 10 years renovating it one room at a time. Meanwhile, I was fixing up bikes I found in the garbage and tearing apart anything electronic I could find. When I got my first car, I wanted to modify it but I didn't have any money so I started designing and building my own modifications. We all know how that turned out :) But I'm a strong proponent of "outcome based education" for adults - when faced with a task, learn what you need to learn to accomplish it. That task can be assigned by yourself ("I don't like that deck", or "I wonder if I could put that synth in a new housing") or by forces beyond your control ("why did the toaster stop working?"). The DIY ethos is that you decide to take on the task.

I'll pay a pro to do some things that I know I don't have the ability to do, or the time, or because the consequences are bad if I screw it up. But I'll tackle a lot of things myself because I can figure it out, I can get it done on my own timeframe and I have control over the final result. And I'll learn something, which is always good.

My brother-in-law is a "it's not working/worn out/I don't understand it, so throw it out" kinda guy. I've been fixing his kid's stuff for nearly a decade, and they've learned that it's possible for things to be fixed or adjusted or repaired instead of just replaced. They also come to my place to build pinewood derby cars :)

I'm not sure the oldest will end up too far from his dad's mindset, but the younger boy will definitely reach for the tools instead of the visa card when he gets older because he loves to see how things work and to try and make them work better.

I'll go a bit further as if you "pay" yourself $20/hr for stuff you do vs paying the $100-150/hr, you come out ahead even if you take longer, if you can. Not to mention the parts markup of 20-30%... If RockAuto would ever get my oil filters in stock again, I could quit ordering/purchasing the same filter at Oreillys that's twice the cost....

In reply to NY Nick :

Good point. My personal break even point is if the task takes X time, if I worked those hours on a job, will I make more than it would cost to have someone else do it?

Example: It takes me 8 hours to do a mechanic task. If I made $300 in a day (8 hours) and the mechanic would charge me $200 to do the same, farm it out, I'm $100 ahead.

The brake work I just did probably would have cost $2-300 because of the rust and hard to find parts, let alone waiting to bring it in. Even more if I had it towed to the shop. Instead I fixed it in my driveway for about $15.

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

there's another aspect of this that should also be considered:  how much of your leisure time do you spend fixing stuff, and is that how you really want to spend your leisure time?

Time spent sitting on my back porch, drinking beer or whisky, and staring off into space is not wasted time. That is very valuable time.

Beer Baron said:

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

there's another aspect of this that should also be considered:  how much of your leisure time do you spend fixing stuff, and is that how you really want to spend your leisure time?

Time spent sitting on my back porch, drinking beer or whisky, and staring off into space is not wasted time. That is very valuable time.

agree 100%

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

Beer Baron said:

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

there's another aspect of this that should also be considered:  how much of your leisure time do you spend fixing stuff, and is that how you really want to spend your leisure time?

Time spent sitting on my back porch, drinking beer or whisky, and staring off into space is not wasted time. That is very valuable time.

agree 100%

"How much value does a fire pit add to your life?"

The way I accounted for it, the ability to cross-over my mechanical skills to save on house  stuff and routine car maintenance  equates to an extra paycheck every year.

Did I spend/waste all this extra dosh on project car parts and beer ,or would my time be better spent saving burning orphanages? Hell yeah, but that was not the question. 

It's worth enough my wife is driving my trailer to help me  an OBS stepside Chevy today.

I saved about $400 today by installing pads/rotors on our minivan. Rock Auto's prices really help there, and I get to pick the parts I want. 
 

I did have to buy an impact screwdriver to get the rotor retainer screw off because I couldn't find mine from the last time I had the front rotors off a Honda. I should keep my impact screwdriver near my brake parts kit, because that's the only time I use it!

When I closed my body  shop/ race car fab and prep, I kept all my equipment. When I had a large crash in the race car I was able to repair it in the 6 weeks before the Runoffs. Then I built a new car from a bare tub, saving thousands of dollars. Over the years I have learned how to fix most everything I own. People have always assumed I am wealthy because of my lifestyle and things I own, but as with my race car, I am probably at 10% of what others may spend.