Announcing the Save $1,000 in 30 Days Challenge | I Will Teach You To Be Rich

[...] #24: Cut your commute expenses by 40% Tip #25: Earn more money using your God-given skills Tip #26: Gardender? Cleaning lady? DIY instead Tip #27: Use barriers to prevent yourself from spending money (52 votes, average: 3.23 out of 5) [...]

Pritesh

Good tip, Ramit. But I would not go for cut my own hair or will let someone else (friends/family) to cut my hair. I did it when I was in grad school to save money but my friend did it so bad that I would not do that again! We specifically talked about this few days ago at work and all females said that they could definitely cut back spending on other things (cloths, transportation, food etc) but would not mind to visit a salon for a good hair style!

Having said that, I agree with Ramit. The point of this tip is not to go in details and argue whether cut your own hair or clean up the house would work for you or not but to find out a service/product which you and your family can do it rather than paying to someone else.

I am sure that some ppl would argue to spend that time with family and happily pay for the service (as one of my friend did!) . For them, here is an excellent link of one of Ramit’s articles (Time is NOT money–at least, not yours)-

http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/time-is-not-money-at-least-not-yours

At the end, two good links on ‘How to change car oil’ are:

Detailed instructions:

http://www.cleverdude.com/content/how-to-change-your-cars-engine-oil/

Video from the Backyard Mechanics (For changing oil, How to change your oil):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA989OnnXp4

Veronica

Recently my father has been complaining about the cost of living in this tough economy. As he is currently paying for maintenance on 4 cars, the relatively inexpensive cost of oil changes adds up when one car is at the garage every other week it seems like. I’ve suggested that someone in the family learn how to change oil but it hasn’t been listened to. I was really excited to see this tip, so maybe when I forward it to him, he’ll actually listen!

Steph

Single mom, I make $50/hr. I pay my cleaning/handyman guy $25/hr.
My son is special needs, and I am also finishing my masters while working full-time.

There are times when it pays to have help. I would not be able to complete my master’s, or even have a clean home, I’d have increased stress, and my son would not have the consistency he needs. I have help about 4 hours a week.

Sometimes DIY means give yourself headaches. (I know it doesn’t match the acronym).

Joe K

@Freddy,

I’ve been successfully cutting my own hair for 4 years now. I was a freshman in college and was away from my barber for an extended period so I decided I’d buy some clippers and cut it myself. Spent $30 on a pair of clippers and mangled my hair the first two or 3 times, but after that I got the hang of it and now I do a pretty decent job I think. I’m 23 and working full-time as an engineer at a big company and they don’t seem to mind. Now my hair is nothing special, very basic, shorter on the sides than on the top and I was only spending $15 per haircut. I only cut my hair once every 3-4 weeks so that’s only $15-$20 saved per month, but if you take 4 years worth that’s over $700 I’ve saved since I started, and if I continue for 20 years total that’s $3500 – $4000 saved.

I’m sure cutting your own hair would not really apply to women and it’s not much of a savings (I can certainly afford that haircut now) but I think a big impact of little things like that is getting you in the right mentality for saving on other more important things. If I have a mindset of saving everywhere I can, then when it’s time to make a big purchase or I get an impulse to spend a lot of money, I’ll think twice about it and consider all my options and the consequences, rather than just blindly consuming like many Americans do.

YScuba

I have been a do-it-yourself person for years. Sometimes I have to give myself “permission” to let someone else do it. So, I’m all for it. But if you change your car’s oil yourself, make SURE that you dispose of the oil properly. That means taking the used oil to a disposal center or to a garage where they recycle the oil. If you dump it down the sewer and you live in the middle of the country it heads right to the gulf adding to the dead zone there. If you live on the coasts it contributes to the pollution on those coasts. If you pour it on the ground, it eventually gets into the underground aquifers. Not to get too hysterical, but the oceans are in peril (I’ve seen it as a diver) and I don’t want my frugality to result in my damaging them.

Kaila

I learned how to change my own oil about a year ago. It costs roughly $20 to pay someone else to do it, and it costs me roughly $8 to do it myself (I’d never heard of a $75 oil change until I read one of the comments above). When I do it myself, I use a better quality oil than the $20 oil change gives me, and it’s usually faster for me to do it myself than to wait 30-45 minutes at a cheap-o place. I’m also very pleased that I don’t have to readjust my seat and clean dirt off my steering wheel and shifter knob.

I also used to only get my hair cut once a year. I’d pay someone to cut it for the summer and let it grow for the winter (it’s warmer that way).

I am my own gardener and cleaning lady. Sometimes my roommate helps.

Grumpy

Just remember that what goes around comes around. If you stop using a service provider, their income is reduced. So what do they do? They stop spending too – maybe on your business, or your spouse’s/brother’s/whatever. The last thing (hyperbole, I know) you want to is stop putting money directly into your fellow citizens’ pockets, and that’s what happens when you stop buying high-labour/low-capital services such as dogwalking, cleaning and gardening. (No, I’m not involved in any of those activities.)

Freddy

@Joe K: thank you, I’m going to give it a try

styleosophy

I hired my niece to do my housekeeping. Helps her and the economy as she is in college and looking for a job.

Anne Howe

In principle this is a good tip however, but it puts money as the only value you get from that service. If you make more money than you pay the cleaning lady per hour I would just work an extra hour and bank the difference.
win win, the cleaner still has a job, you continue to invest in community and you get to do something you like better, maybe? If that does not sit well, do the cleaning at surface level, cut the cleaners hours.You could lose your cleaner, find that you really hate doing that cleaning job and then what?

mike c

Been cutting my own hair since 1999. These days, it’s mostly a buzz cut, since higher powers have taken it upon themselves to create a receding hairline where my bangs used to be. But in the beginning, it was just a normal short-haired guy cut. Just took some clippers, some scissors, and a good hand held mirror. And a dust pan and broom to clean up when I’m done. Initial cost, about $40. I easily made up for that in the first year.

A few months ago, I helped my inlaws sell their lawnmower, because my MIL decided she had earned the right to never have to mow the lawn again, despite having two kids to put through college over the next few years and having a whole lotta mortgage debt piling up. Instead, she pays a landscaping company to mow the lawn… ridiculous waste of money considering the benefit they receive for the service. I told her she should have the kids mow it, since she already gives them money for doing absolutely nothing anyway. Did I mention that their lawn is also only about the size of a large post-it note? Frustrating!!!

Budgeta

I cut my own hair. Recently I started to color my own hair because of the ongoing cost and the ongoing damage to my hair.
I do have a leg up on most of you because I am a licensed cosmetologist. Still, they don’t teach you how to cut or color your own hair in beauty school. I just figured out how to layer it myself pretty early on and have done so most of my life. I have taught my 2 oldest daughters how to cut the back of my hair. So one of them does it for me. TOTAL COST: FREE. Don’t hesitate to teach your kids some tricks of your trade. Chances are they can do it too and you all will save money.
Let me make this clear, MY HAIR LOOKS GREAT or I would not do it myself! I am frugal, but I don’t like to look poor or unkempt.
My teenage daughters only allow me to cut their hair. I also taught them how to cut their own bangs . These 2 girls are very beautiful and stylish and I like to think I am too. I get compliments on my hair all the time and so do my daughters. Now I’m having them recruit their friends for haircuts. Easy because they love my daughters’ hair.
With regard to the hair coloring part, I was a little fearful to foil it myself, but I found a great website to help me. Go to killerstrands.blogspot.com. There’s a demo on how to foil “slices” of color into your hair. I followed that. I have a great bathroom with 3 mirrors and bright lights so I can see the sides and back of my hair easily. I did the front and top parts of my head and it turned out great. I was paying $125 every other month to keep it foiled. The hairdressers got lazy and always overprocessed my hair while they did someone else, so I always had breakage and split ends. I have long curly hair that I flat iron most of the time, so too much bleach and heat would fry it. Why pay $750 per year for someone to damage my hair?
This hair color tip may not be useful for everyone, but it sure helped me!
Cutting my hair myself saves me at least $150 per year. Cutting the whole family of 6 saves me at least $700 per year.
Cost of hair foils at salon w/tip 6X per year: $750
Cost of hair foils at home per year: $60
Cost of hair foils at home per month: $5
Total haircut and color savings per year: $1540
Take a look at the back area of your hair ladies, pull up the layers and take a good look. It may not be a pretty sight. When I saw the stripes and uneveness in my own hair, I realized that I could do it just as well myself. And I have! Again, go to killerstrand.blogspot.com and see if being a crib colorist is in the cards for you.

30 Tips That Can Save Your Money This Month

[...] #24: Cut your commute expenses by 40% Tip #25: Earn more money using your God-given skills Tip #26: Gardender? Cleaning lady? DIY instead Tip #27: Use barriers to prevent yourself from spending money Tip #28: Use price-protection [...]