Recession in America – Do It Yourself

This is the ninth in a series of ten posts focusing on the Recession in America and the impacts it is having on things other than your 401k and personal finances. Check out the first eight posts in this series titled -
Recession in America – What about our pets?
Recession in America – Home Foreclosures
Recession in America – Unexpected Landlords
Recession in America – Abandoned Subdivisions
Recession in America – Trading Stocks not Investing
Recession in America – Freelance Jobs
Recession in America – Gardening
Recession in America – Long Distant Families

A few weeks ago I discussed how an increasing number of families are turning to gardening as a way to bring down their expenses and cope with this recession. That is a perfect example of how people are shifting to do it yourself projects in order to save some money instead of paying someone else for a service. The trade off of saving money is investing your time and sweat equity into a project that will help your pocket book.

Fresh off of completing my income tax returns recently, I read that several of the tax preparation companies are reporting lower numbers of customers this year. Where are these people gong? Instead of paying a company to prepare their taxes, people are switching over to filing taxes on their own using software packages like TurboTax to save money. This is yet another trend that is a direct result of the recession and the impacts it is having on people.

Here is a lit of a few growing DIY trends that are catching on during this recession -

• Taxes – As mentioned above, many people are switching from tax preparation services to file their income taxes and are using software applications to complete their taxes. Depending on your financial situation, you may be able to save over $100 just by spending a few hours to do your own taxes!
• Home Improvement – Home improvement projects have always been a place where do it yourself work has always seemed to thrive. However, this trend is increasing as the recession grows bigger. Home improvement superstores are now marketing their products more and more around small home improvement projects that home owners can complete on their own.
• Yard Maintenance – Very few people enjoy cutting their grass (except for me), but many people are canceling their lawn service in an effort to cut costs. Instead, people are planning to maintain their lawns on their own this year. This is a great way to save several hundred to thousands of dollars by doing it yourself!
• Gardening – The topic of a previous Recession in America post, people are turning towards gardening as a way to cut back on their grocery bills. The number of gardens estimated to be put in this year is expected to grow by double digits. People are looking to start growing their own produce instead of paying a premium for having someone else do it.
• Brown Bag – Many workers are beginning to make their own lunches to avoid spending money each day on prepared food from restaurants and cafeteria’s. Spending a few minutes each day packing a lunch instead of eating out could save you well over $25 every week.
• Cup of Joe – Like the brown bag example, many people are starting to brew their own coffee instead of paying $4 – $5 bucks for a premium coffee at Starbucks. Again – another great way to save a good amount of money every week.
• Cleaning Services – Another nice to have service if you can afford it, is to hire a cleaning service to come into your home or business. Individuals looking to cut back on costs are now dropping these services and completing the work on their own. Even companies are dropping cleaning services or at least cutting back. They now have their employees completing these tasks in an effort to reduce overall expenses.

Most of the examples I have listed are very easy for the average person to complete. After all, making coffee and your own lunch don’t take a lot training and background. Buying prepared goods like coffee and lunch was more of a convenience purchase than one that paid for expertise in something. On the other hand, home improvement projects and lawn maintenance could be considered purchases for convenience as well as paying for expertise.

Do it yourself projects or tasks can come in many different forms as I noted in the list above. Regardless the reason of why people paid for these services in the past, many are moving away from these services to reduce costs. People are now finding they can easily do without these services and complete the work on their own to put more cash in their wallets. On the flip side, the companies who specialized in these services are struggling with many of them going out of business.

I wanted to note that sites like eHow are gaining a lot of popularity as a result of a do it yourself mentality. Instead of purchasing books and manuals on how to complete a certain task, people are turning to the internet for free information. If you are looking to make some extra money, you should strongly consider opening up an eHow account to write about your experience with do it yourself projects. You will be helping someone else out while earning a little extra cash along the way!

What DIY projects have you started yourself that you would have normally paid for?

Related posts:

1. What does eHow and the Recession Have in Common?
2. Monthly Household Budget – Expenses to Cut Back
3. Benefits of Home Based Jobs

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Tagged as: recession in america