Mennonite Money Principle #2: Do the Work Yourself

(This is the third part of my Money Principles from the Mennonites. Yesterday I covered Don’t buy anything you don’t need.)

Mennonites are masters of this – or at least the Mennonites that I grew up with are. The Mennonites I know will learn how to do just about anything in order to avoid having to pay someone else to do it. They’re cheap as hell, to tell you the truth. And so am I.

As I mentioned in my first post, my husband’s parents dug their own basement. They started with two shovels. They lifted the house up on wooden stilts. They don’t have a lick of training in construction. They don’t even have high school diplomas. In fact, they wouldn’t even be able to write out a list of the materials they would need to execute this task. But they now have three bedrooms, a bathroom and a laundry room down there – fully finished, with electricity and plumbing and carpets and the whole deal. As far as I know, the only help they got in building it was from their equally-untrained brothers. Other Mennonites might be impressed with the feat, but they wouldn’t balk at it. Everyone I know does that kind of thing.

My parents are no different, and Ben and I have inherited our parents’ aversion to hiring others. In the last two years that we’ve owned this house, Ben has completely renovated five of the rooms, doing all the electrical and plumbing work himself. His only training comes from his dad.

We just can’t bring ourselves to pay other people to do things we could do ourselves. More than anything, we’re just plain cheap.

So this is Mennonite Money Principle #2: Do the work yourself. Instead of buying finished products, relying on machines, or hiring others, make it yourself. Grow it yourself. Cook it yourself. Assemble it yourself.

The great thing about doing the work yourself is that, besides saving money, there are so many other benefits.

• The unparalleled sense of satisfaction you feel when you complete a job yourself. You know what I’m talking about. That sense of pride as you step back after putting on the last coat of paint and survey your work. The deep pleasure of digging into a delicious pot of soup you cooked up yourself. I did this, you think. My husband and I live for that feeling.

• The health benefits. When you grow your own fruits and vegetables, you get access to the freshest, healthiest food available. When you cook from scratch you skip all the preservatives and processing that come in a package, right to wholesome goodness. When you hang up your own laundry and mow your own lawn and shovel your own driveway you get a natural, full-body workout that you can’t get at the gym. And I really hate the gym.

• The positive impact on the environment. The less you rely on machines to dry your clothes, take you places and entertain you, the less you pollute the environment. The fewer products you buy from the store, the less stuff has to be shipped in from all over the world. I’m all for that.

• The bonding time you get with your spouse when you do stuff together. I love painting a room while Ben lays down the floor tiles nearby. I love shoveling dirt onto our garden together, or bringing tools up the ladder to him while he nails shingles onto the roof. Some of my favourite moments are working on projects together with my husband. They’re so great.

• And lastly, of course, you save soooo much money. You can spend less on clothes by sewing. You can spend less on home décor by creating your own artwork. You can spend less on your grocery bill by baking your own bread, soaking and cooking your own beans, and slicing your own steaks. And you can spend less on a gym membership by getting exercise the natural way – by working.

Of course, it’s not always as simple as I’ve made it out to be. For a lot of these things you need access to a certain amount of resources – like time and space. You can’t do much gardening, canning, freezing, and buying in bulk, for instance, if you live in a small apartment. You can’t always cook full meals if you work full-time and have three kids. I certainly don’t blame anyone who isn’t able to do all of these things.

And not everyone is good at everything. Not everyone can paint a landscape for their living room wall or install a toilet themselves. I acknowledge that. But I do think we can all do a lot more than we often realize.

Regardless, it’s what my husband and I strive for. We aim for a lifestyle that allows for more and more freedom to do things ourselves and less and less dependence on others to do it for us.

You may notice that with such a lifestyle there’s not much room for stuff like watching TV or playing video games.  Good. Both of those things, as I mentioned in my last post, suck up money. You can cancel your satellite subscription and sell your PS3. That’s even more cash in your pocket.

You may also notice that with all this stuff, you don’t have as much time to do paid work. Again, Good. In my experience, most paid work is generally repetitive and unfulfilling. Our motto is to keep paid work to a minimum and spend more time on the unpaid, satisfying, money-saving work. Even if it means being poorer than most people. But that’s just us.

Before I sign off I want to leave you with this quote from Robert A. Heinlein for inspiration:

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

I personally believe this. Do you? What are your thoughts?

What kinds of things do you do yourself to save money?

Tagged as: finances, frugal living, Mennonite living, money