It’s not as big a loss as it looks, because now I have leftover supplies, which will help me talk myself into doing this all over again with a new project!
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Pros: you made it yourself
Cons (maybe): you made it yourself
There aught to be a word for that mental calculation you do when you weigh how long it’s gonna take to do something plus resources and compare it to your hourly rate at your actual job. Anything over a certain threshold it becomes more efficient to work and throw money at rather than do.
you have to take into account the possible fun you’ll have building something, fun you don’t necessarily find at work.
But I get the point, if it’s a chore you want to do to spend less you do have to make the meth
I bet in German there’s a word for that.
Well yes, buts its literally the same in English: opportunity costs = Opportunitätskosten
Last time I diy’d it was triple the cost
I got tools to do other things with after the fact, developed a personal connection with the things I made. The second version didn’t break and was substantially under the original projected costs, but the total was over triple
However, if you want things made to last instead of things to ship these days, the tools and materials of say a decent dining table can easily be under the cost of the product
$500 in lumber, $1,500 for a table saw, $700 for a helical thickness reducer, $700 for a helical planer, $300 for a biscuit joiner, and ~$500 in varius clamps, glues, screws, and materials puts the project at the ~$4,000 mark, which is the starting point for many decent good dining tables (without shipping/delivery)
That and there is a value to attach to the learning and skills growth, but it isn’t in dollarydoos.
This is the real reason I do so much DIY. I don’t save a lot of money, at least on the initial outlay, but I learn.
You forgot the additional $3000 and five years to do enough projects to gain the skills to make a table your loved ones will allow in the house. 🤣
Idk when your competition is $2,000 mdf with 10 hinges to fit into a 6"×35" box even your finger painting first try has the potential to be a treasured family piece if it can hold up a turkey and table cloth these days
The competition is go to a thrift store and buy a good one that someone threw out because it was their Nana’s. $100.
This is why we need tool libraries and maker spaces
Especially true as increasingly fewer of us have homes or even rentals with the space needed to house the types of tools to make things even if they are owned
There is sometimes the better quality one gets through DIY but it is rarely cheaper.
![Make It Myself [XKCD]](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/115b6fcd-085d-4bd8-9bd0-b44d8adac71e.png){kind=link}