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The problem I see with people doing these cost analyses for home or car DIY repairs is that they always compare two simple things: 1) the out-of-pocket cost of

The problem I see with people doing these cost analyses for home or car DIY repairs is that they always compare two simple things: 1) the out-of-pocket cost of the professional job vs 2) the hourly cost of the DIY job, plus parts and materials. They completely forget to account for the cost of their their time in scenario 1. Having your car or house fixed by someone else isn't that easy. Unless you have a personal butler, it's not like you just tell some person "fix this" in 5 minutes or less and walk away, then pay them when it's over. If it's a car repair, you have to transport your car to the repair place, then either sit there while they fix it or find some alternate transportation, then you have to come back after it's done. If it's a 1-hour job, how much time will you waste just traveling to and from the repair shop, plus potentially waiting around for it to be done? You probably could have done it yourself in less time. For a house repair, you don't have to travel there, but you probably want to stay at home while the work is being done unless the house is empty, or you really trust the contractors and sub-contractors. So in either scenario, there's a lot of your own time that's not being accounted for. And this all assumes that the professional will actually do the job correctly, and you won't have to deal with issues from them doing it poorly. This could easily end up taking FAR more time than the original job. And in my experience, the so-called "professionals" frequently do a shoddy job or are completely incompetent (so now you need to spend a lot of time trying to figure out who to hire so you don't get screwed). So in my view, if you mostly know how to do something yourself, it doesn't need a whole team of people to do, doesn't require expensive specialty equipment, and isn't highly dangerous, it's quite likely a better deal to just DIY.

mindslight 2y ago
I'm also coming from a DIY-first perspective and agree with your point. But I've also come to see there's actual value in only spending your own time just prepping/waiting/managing rather than having to physically and mentally exert yourself during that time. It's probably a result of getting older, plus having too much on my DIY plate that the context switches are becoming a killer. Still yes, the biggest issue I have is most times I hire someone to do something, it often goes sideways and I have to get deeply involved anyway. This effect seems to be even worse for white collar work, where "professionals" tend to push cookie cutter solutions without much interactive analysis.
- ddingus 2y ago
  As I get older, I agree with both of you! I was raised to fix it rather than spend wherever possible. Picked up a ton of useful skills that have paid me back a ton of money when I measure up with friends of similar age who used shops, contractors, etc. Now it costs me more personally! It sometimes is just more work and energy demand than I feel good contributing because it can then take away from other parts of my day or days. That all said, sometimes the money just is not there when the demand was! And so I do the damn work anyway.
- shiroiushi 2y ago
  >But I've also come to see there's actual value in only spending your own time just prepping/waiting/managing rather than having to physically and mentally exert yourself during that time. To me, having to deal with people I don't trust one iota is a huge mental exertion too, that more than compensates for any physical or mental exertion needed for just doing the damn thing myself. And that's on top of all the time/effort needed to research places, compare prices, travel time, waiting time, etc. Sure, if I had Alfred, my trustworthy hyper-competent butler, to take care of more mundane things for me, I'd let him do a lot of this stuff instead. But I don't, and the people that work these jobs (at least in the US) are usually anything but competent.

mindslight 2y ago

I'm also coming from a DIY-first perspective and agree with your point. But I've also come to see there's actual value in only spending your own time just prepping/waiting/managing rather than having to physically and mentally exert yourself during that time. It's probably a result of getting older, plus having too much on my DIY plate that the context switches are becoming a killer. Still yes, the biggest issue I have is most times I hire someone to do something, it often goes sideways and I have to get deeply involved anyway. This effect seems to be even worse for white collar work, where "professionals" tend to push cookie cutter solutions without much interactive analysis.

ddingus 2y ago
As I get older, I agree with both of you! I was raised to fix it rather than spend wherever possible. Picked up a ton of useful skills that have paid me back a ton of money when I measure up with friends of similar age who used shops, contractors, etc. Now it costs me more personally! It sometimes is just more work and energy demand than I feel good contributing because it can then take away from other parts of my day or days. That all said, sometimes the money just is not there when the demand was! And so I do the damn work anyway.
shiroiushi 2y ago
>But I've also come to see there's actual value in only spending your own time just prepping/waiting/managing rather than having to physically and mentally exert yourself during that time. To me, having to deal with people I don't trust one iota is a huge mental exertion too, that more than compensates for any physical or mental exertion needed for just doing the damn thing myself. And that's on top of all the time/effort needed to research places, compare prices, travel time, waiting time, etc. Sure, if I had Alfred, my trustworthy hyper-competent butler, to take care of more mundane things for me, I'd let him do a lot of this stuff instead. But I don't, and the people that work these jobs (at least in the US) are usually anything but competent.