photo credit: wayneandwax

Unless the people in my previous post, Mr. Savvy and I generally have great success with our DIY projects.  Case in point, for the last few weeks, there has been a strong gas smell when we use the oven.  I finally decided to call the gas company, sooner rather than later, as I don’t want to blow up our house.

Friday, the gas company rep came out and said the issue was with the oven, most likely the ignitor.  So Monday, an appliance repairman came out.  He confirmed it was the ignitor and told me it would be $210 (parts and labor) to fix it.  He didn’t have the part with him but said he would return later.  I didn’t like the idea of paying that much for what looked like a simple fix (I could see the ignitor when he dismantled the oven to diagnose the problem).  So when he called back to reschedule, Mr. Savvy declined.

After locating an appliance parts store, we were able to purchase a new ignitor for $32.  After about an hour of Mr. Savvy’s time, the oven was fixed.  So instead of paying $49.95 for the service call and $210 for the repair, we paid $49.95 and $32.  We saved $178, almost 70%, by doing it ourselves.  How have you saved money by DIYing?