Penny Pinching - Do it Yourself

I realize that after all these years of living on a tight budget, a paramount watchword of my penny pinching is to first try to do it MYSELF. Just that byword has led me to refinishing furniture, re-gluing countless things, re-sewing countless garments, and doing all sorts of small general repairs. My mother was my role model in that respect. She was the handy person in our household, as well as being a crafts person. She sewed clothes, did alteration, taught me how to knit and to do other crafts, like mosaics. When we looked at clothes in the store, she often said, "I could make it for less!" and then went on to add those embellishments which otherwise would have cost a fortune.

So we got used to the idea of a certain self-sufficiency! A prime example of my mother's prowess is that she maintained the original furnace in our mid-50's home until her death, more than 50 years later! She boasted that a Public Service man had said in her later years that "someone had taken good care of this furnace!" And she was proud to say that it had been HER. One one of my last visits home I watched her fiddle with the furnace, spraying the belts and so on. I asked her how she had learned that and she said that she had watched the maintenance men from the utility every time they came on a service call and asked a lot of questions. I did the same thing when the man from the Gas Co. came to look at my vintage gas stove! People usually love to talk shop and you can learn a lot which you can put to good use later. I had a car which used to stick in the transmission. A repair guy suggested I use cleaning additives before taking the whole engine apart. So I did. And voila! It worked. So every time the transmission got gummed up, I put in a can and avoided I don't know how much transmission repair!

The same thing is true of a lot of things. When you go into a salon, for example, you expect instant results, so they use harsher chemicals. But sometimes you can, say, lighten you hair at home over time using much gentler methods, say lemon juice or hydrogen peroxide. I have had great success with that and saved myself oodles....I have a whole collection of do-it-yourself beauty treatments from the old days, and I have used them to cut the expenses of my upkeep! (Like putting a smidge of witch hazel under my eyes before I put on eye cream to soup it up!)

You can actually do a better job on some leather repair jobs by re-sewing the seam by hand, using the original holes. If you go to a shoe repair place, they will usually use a machine, and you won't get as good results! You can also save on dry cleaning by brushing your jackets, and freshening them with Fabreze on the inside, and spot cleaning and pressing them yourself. Cleaners for the most part are not spot wizards, and I have had jacket pressed on a mangle and almost scorched! (The brass buttons all flattened!)

By dipping into the realm of the knowledgeable, you can learn what standards to apply elsewhere. Years of going to the Vidal Sassoon Academy have taught me the basics of a good cut. And I can now judge the competence of the cutter and figure out whether the cut is worth what I pay. (I am going to a cheaper one now. The cut is not as precise, but good enough for the money.) I have also been known to straighten out cuts myself when I got home, if I felt that something was awry! I have even convinced my husband to do his own trimming between haircuts. Luckily the fashion is for messiness, which makes it easier for amateurs.

Anything you can do yourself without immediate call for a professional will inevitably save your money! I used to work in law offices, and with that and the help of the Nolo Press Self-help Law books, I have gotten myself out of numerous scrapes. The last one was fighting off an eviction from my rent-controlled apartment due to a minor snafu. WE always could have resorted to a lawyer, but I thought I would see what I could do first, and sure enough, with the help of faxes, and certified letters, calls to the city housing department, and good legalistic reasoning, I finally fobbed him off.

Similarly, I have worked my way through countless false tickets, and other consumer problems. I suppose it makes me a minor jack of all trades, but what the hay. I even got money out the Department of Water and Power here. It took months, but I did get my money for the flat tires caused by their faulty plates on the road! When you are on a tight budget $30 here and there can make a difference, you know.

The rise of internet resources has certainly made all this so much easier! You can find out how to do practically anything on the net. I learned how to replace parts of my bargain concertina with snippets of aquarium tubing! And there are how-tos on almost anything you want to tackle. I love reading the hip makeovers on threadbangers.com, although I don't take out my sewing machine much. But I still get good deals on clothes with minor flaws at the thrift shops - even a Bill Blass Dress with just a torn shoulder seam for 10% of its value. (I used to joke about stupid rich folks, and how I profited. But then, my grandmother way back for a rich woman who had Parisian underwear, which was darned to death!)

It's harder now, because they are making all sorts of machines that are cheaply produced and less easy to repair. They are meant to be disposable. But even then sometimes you can trace a problem to its source and jerry-rig it. The spring in my old stove went years ago, and before I renovated it, I taped over a vital button to keep it shut.

So read all those fix-it books (I like the older ones. They will tell you how to mend a chair, for example.) And surf the net for inspiration. The tinkering is actually lots of fun, and think of the money you will save!