Gone are the days when a hammer, screwdriver or spanner could fix almost anything in the house. But that doesn't mean we should give up.
Just because your phone has more computing power than the Apollo 11 doesn't mean you shouldn't try and fix something, especially when calling out a repair man can cost as much as a new replacement for a broken appliance.
When my oven recently broke, I knew what we had to do. It didn't matter how many hours of back-breaking labour, intense web research and nail-biting frustration it took; my husband was going to mend it for me.
My reasoning was simple. We worked out it was probably the heating element that had broken and a quick internet search showed this would cost an average of £200 if we called out an oven repair specialist.
But our oven only cost about £250 brand new. It seemed massively wasteful to throw out an oven just because one bit had broken and the penny pincher in me wasn't prepared to spend 80% of a new oven's value fixing a three-year-old model.
Phase one: Research
We typed our oven model into a search engine and quickly found whole forum threads dedicated to exactly our problem.
There were step-by-step instructions to replacing the element as well as reassuring comments from other people who'd managed to fix it themselves. Our confidence grew.
Phase two: Sourcing the part
Finding the right heating element wasn't easy but, thanks to the web, we knew precisely what we needed for our particular oven.
However, none of the mainstream DIY retailers carried such a specialist piece. We could have ordered one online but it would have taken days to deliver.
I was due to give birth any day and so I had stocked the freezer with ready-made meals. If we had to rely on just the hob and toaster, we were clearly going to end up living on beans on toast.
Out came the Yellow Pages and we started phoning round local spares shop. Because the internet had told us the element's code, we managed to find one we could collect that day. We began to feel like pros.
Phase three: The repair
This is where our confidence took a bit of a bashing. The internet told us this was a simple job that could be done without removing the oven. And it would have been, if the screws affixing the heating element hadn't fallen into the back of the thing.
Out came the entire oven, only to have it happen the second time my husband tried to attach the element. At this point, things became slightly fraught.
But please be reassured, he has told me that this would have been an incredibly simple job if he hadn't kept dropping the screws.
Totals
So, we spent around three hours, seven cups of tea and a total of £22 fixing our oven (My husband might object to the 'we' in that sentence but I made the tea).
That meant we were £178 up compared to calling out a repair man: definitely worth the time we invested.
Five golden rules for mending it yourself
1. Go online
Whether your vacuum has started blowing, your washing machine has chewed up your underwear or your TV picture has turned upside down, it will almost certainly have happened to someone else already.
Type your appliance's symptoms into a search engine and you're likely to see a long list of discussions from people with the same problem. This can help you work out what's broken and also give you an idea how much it might cost to fix.
2. Ask the forums
The internet hive mind can do more than help you diagnose what's broken. Specialist forums and Yahoo! Answers let you tap into the experience of thousands of DIY enthusiasts. There are people out there able and willing to advise you for free, so why pay for an expert?
3. Don't overestimate your talents
Before you crack open your tool kit and prize open your PC, you need to be confident that you can actually fix the problem. You don't want to have to pay an expert to fix the problem and clean up the mess you've left.
4. Protect your warranty
Never try to repair anything that's still in warranty, you'll invalidate it.
5. Know when you need a pro
There are some things, particularly gas and electrics, that amateurs like us shouldn't be messing with. You shouldn't try installing wiring without a certified electrician's help.
- Felicity is Yahoo! Finance's new money-saving columnist. If you have a money-saving scheme you'd like to see tried out then let us know in the comment box below.
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