Family take DIY to next stage - and save £36k

A FAMILY saved £36k by learning to do jobs rather than paying others - including cutting hair, fixing their own dishwasher and re-decorating their kitchen - using DIY online tutorials.

- By AMY REAST

Natalie Smith, 35, from Dymchurch, Is a self-confessed “frugal” mum and loves a DIY project to save some cash.

After she and husband Jason Smith, 35, moved into their first home 12 years ago, they began tackling tasks themselves to save cash - learning the skills others have so they would not have to pay out. Now it is a way of life for Jason and their two children - Finn, 14, and Lola, 12.

More than a decade on, they reckon they may have saved as much as £36k from their savvy savings.

When a new job needs doing, full-time blogger Natalie and Jason, a web developer, hop on Google and watch YouTube tutorials, refusing to pay a professional to do any job they can learn to do themselves.

Natalie watched countless YouTube videos to teach her to cut Jason and Finn’s hair like a pro.

After purchasing the right clippers, combs and scissors, she had made the money back in just one month.

Rather than paying a kitchen fitter thousands to re-paint their kitchen cupboards, she used online how-to guides and YouTube tutorials to teach herself how to clean, sand, prime and paint them.