Gen X grew up in a time when fixing things yourself was a normal part of life. When something broke, they figured it out or learned it from someone who already knew how, and those habits are still useful for them today. It’s especially handy given rising labor costs & service call fees. Here are eight Gen X home skills that could save you thousands.
Sweating copper pipe
So many Gen Xers learned how to solder copper pipes when they were younger. After all, copper plumbing was the standard. It’s a skill that serves them well now because fixing a small leak will cost you only a few dollars in fittings, flux & solder, as long as you already own a torch.
But hiring a plumber is a lot more expensive. You’ll need to pay around $45 to $150 an hour, along with minimum service charges & travel fees, and a simple leak can soon become a multi-hundred-dollar bill. It’s much better to figure out how to do it yourself.
Rebuilding a toilet
You won’t find Gen X homeowners freaking out when a toilet keeps running or won’t stop filling, as they know how to replace the internals instead of buying a new toilet. It’ll cost you between $5 & $50 to get the parts to fix your toilet. However, calling a plumber for the same fix may run you between $85 and $230, depending on location and company pricing.
Doing it yourself will save you from paying professional labor for a job that should take you less than an hour. You also get the satisfaction of knowing that you managed to repair it yourself.
Relighting a pilot light and swapping a thermocouple
Gen Xers know all about the simple components that older gas water heaters use, and they understand how easy it is to relight a pilot light. A professional service visit to do that will cost you up to $150. But relighting it yourself is free, as long as you know the steps, and even the cost of replacing a thermocouple is relatively low.
It’ll cost over $150 when you include labor costs. As such, you may want to try getting comfortable with the appliance labels & safety steps so that you can avoid the cost of unnecessary service appointments.
Replacing switches, outlets, and light fixtures
Gen Xers grew up doing basic electrical repairs at home, including replacing worn outlets & broken switches. Even dated light fixtures were no big deal for them. Today, these skills come in quite handy because the price of an average professional outlet replacement is usually around $130 per outlet. Then you have the labor to factor in, too.
But it doesn’t have to be that expensive, since you could try turning off the breaker & matching wires yourself. Mounting new hardware is relatively simple once you’re familiar with it. As a result, learning such a skill could reduce the cost of repeated service expenses for you by a fair amount.
Cooking from pantry basics
Growing up, Gen X understood that dinner meant using whatever was already in the kitchen. The idea of continually running out to get some food was a foreign concept to them. Such a mindset has stuck with them. Today, they know how to turn basic pantry items into full meals, and that makes it far easier to avoid the most tempting of food deliveries on busy nights.
It also makes leftovers part of their regular routine, meaning that lunch the next day is, more often than not, already handled. Gen X has far fewer takeout orders & impulse grocery runs. That saves them a good amount of cash.
Keeping a “use it up” system
Gen Xers also remember a time when their family kitchen budgets were a lot tighter. It helped them learn about habits like putting older food at the front of the fridge and freezing items before they spoil. Labeling leftovers with dates is second nature for them. All of these habits help them to cut down on waste, yes, but also prevent them from needing to replace food that went bad.
They’re able to stretch what they already paid for by using it before it goes out of date. It leaves them with fewer spoiled vegetables & unused sauces, so any grocery money they do spend is money well spent, not wasted.
Preserving food
That’s not all for food. Gen X’s parents would stock their pantries & freezers for the long-term by canning vegetables and making jam. They’d prepare large batches of meals because it’d help them stretch their grocery budgets across months, rather than weeks, and that’s still a useful skill to this day.
Buying produce when it’s cheaper and storing it for later will prevent you from paying for expensive out-of-season purchases. Yes, jars and freezer bags will cost you some money upfront. But they’ll often pay for themselves soon enough, thanks to the savings you’ve made from reducing food waste & repeated shopping trips.
Doing hair, nails, & basic grooming at home
You don’t need to go to an expensive salon to look good. Gen X knows that all too well. Getting that treatment at home was a normal part of growing up for them, and they’d happily get haircuts between salon visits & use basic grooming kits to tidy themselves up. An at-home makeover saves you time as well as money.
You don’t need to keep trying to find time to book an appointment. That’s not to say you should quit pampering yourself at all, but rather, getting some small, regular touch-ups could reduce how often you end up paying for full services.
17 Things Gen Z Gets Wrong About ‘Adulting’
Yes, we agree that they’re super well-versed in memes, side hustles, and iced coffee drinks, but when it comes to the actual business of being a grown-up? Let’s just say it is a little shaky. These are the everyday adulting things Gen Z keeps getting wrong, and they might need a quick reality check.
17 Things Gen Z Gets Wrong About ‘Adulting’