Mr. Vega loves to fix things. He’s a visual person, so frequently he can figure things out just by looking, but when he can’t, he turns to You Tube. Thousands of helpful people have made videos of themselves doing maintenance and repairs, so you can just watch and follow along. You can get instruction on oil changes, cooking, mechanical repairs… even farm chores for beginners!

We’ve saved a lot of money by being willing to try new things. Made-from-scratch food, gardening, remodeling projects and auto repairs. And having access to visual instruction makes it all so much easier… I learned how to open a coconut with almost no effort by watching a video someone had posted of an old island man doing it!

Just this week, one of our pawn shop tool scores stopped working suddenly. When the manufacturer’s repair shop gave us a repair quote of $50-$200 (“We won’t know for sure until we open it up,” Mr. Vega took to the internet and found that the likely culprit was a $20 part. And some kind DIY-er had made a video of himself replacing that exact same part. Feeling confident that he can do it, he ordered the part and saved us $30-$180!

What new-to-you projects have you tried lately, and did you get help from a video?