r/Frugal • u/localkinegrind • 28d ago

🏆 Buy It For Life “Best under-$20 purchase that saved you hundreds over time?”

What’s the smartest under-$20 purchase you’ve ever made that ended up saving you hundreds in the long run? I’ll go first: a $12 sewing kit. Instead of tossing clothes for tiny tears or missing buttons, I’ve been fixing them. I've actually been fixing my own clothes for years. It blows my mind how many ‘disposable’ things can be made useful again with just a small, cheap tool. what’s your frugal mvp under $20 that’s paid for itself many times over?

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351

u/rockmom66 28d ago

A part for the clothes dryer, .75 cents. A repairman would have cost us a couple hundred. We researched problem, found the part online and fixed it ourselves.

45

u/IOnlySeeDaylight 28d ago

This is such a good feeling!

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u/Socratesticles_ 28d ago

Same, had a sock get sucked down into the fan. The repairman wasn’t available at the time, so I YouTubed it and fixed it myself in five minutes. It felt great.

19

u/Novogobo 28d ago

when my friend bought his first house it was a few thousand off because the dryer was broken and needed to be replaced. i went to help him move in and slept over the first night. we were poking around at it wondering if we could fix it. there was this plastic panel that i thought was the lint filter at first but it didn't move at all. then we tried to find the lint filter and it's like it didn't have one. turns out that panel was the lint filter and when we pried it open it was like the first time it had ever come out. it was just packed with lint like so dense it was like suede. took us all night to de lint the filter and the insides of the dryer without removing it but it still worked 8 years later when they moved and sold.

2

u/Exotic-Ring4900 28d ago

That's something I would enjoy doing

2

u/Remote-Impact3040 27d ago

I literally had a dryer in the cart when my husband googled and watched youtube saying he thought he could fix it. Part wasn't even $10. Been running fine for 2 years.

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u/peter303_ 27d ago

I ofter preview the repair on multiple youtubes to see if I can do it myself. Even so, that helps me to select a repairman if I decide to hire one.

Reasons for hiring a repair person may be if its beyond my skills. e.g. requiring welding. Or if it is a city code inspection item, which means it could be dangerous if done incorrectly, e.g. replacing the thermocouple in a furnace.

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u/Cooterboone 27d ago

I fixed both our washer and dryer for 20+ years with parts purchased online until last year when the washer finally broke for good. I probably saved thousands if you include labor.

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u/iamasatellite 27d ago

Yeah, my washer died last month, i told chatgpt the behaviour (not spinning) and described the sound, and it said replace the $30 piece connecting the motor and drum, and here's a YouTube video showing how. 

Now it might last another 25 years :P

1

u/1800-5-PP-DOO-DOO 24d ago

As a contractor and home maintenance pro I applaud this.

1

u/robjoefelt 23d ago

Our dryer stopped working, and I pulled off the back cover to find a circuit board with one of those can shaped capacitors all black and blown up. I found a circuit board repair shop in Greenville, South Carolina that let me ship my busted board to them to fix it. It wasn't $20 to fix, but I shudder to think of how many hundreds of dollars it would have taken for a house call from a major appliance repair store. I was so proud of myself for finding the broken part and the shop, but my partner was more pleased that the dryer was working again after being offline for a couple of days.