A frugal family say they have saved thousands of pounds over the years – thanks to YouTube tutorial videos.
Natalie Smith, 35, from Dymchurch, says she and her husband Jason, also 35, began their penny-pinching ways when buying their first home together 12 years ago.
Natalie Smith with husband Jason and kids Finn and Lola
They began tackling tasks such as cutting hair, fixing their own dishwasher and re-decorating their kitchen – all through online DIY tutorials.
More than a decade on, they think they may have saved as much as £36,000 from their savvy savings, with kids 14-year-old Finn and 12-year-old Lola getting in on the action too.
Natalie said: “It definitely saves us a few thousand every year.
“We only ever pay for work we can’t do ourselves.
“When we first bought the house we were completely skint so we had to fill it with second-hand bits and DIY everything.
The Smith family’s DIY kitchenNatalie Smith’s DIY pink painted cupboard, which she upcycled from Facebook Marketplace
“It was the case of making it nice but spending as little as possible.”
Whenever a new job needs doing, full-time blogger Natalie and Jason, a web developer, hop on Google and watch tutorials, refusing to pay a professional to do any job they can learn to do themselves.
When it came to redecorating the kitchen, Natalie and Jason took on the challenge of DIY-ing it as much as possible.
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.
Jason learned to fix their oven and dishwasher when the appliances broke down – when the family were faced with costly repair jobs.
She said: “Before I painted the kitchen cupboards, I Googled about the prep – sugar soap clean, filling, sanding, and finding the right primer for the type of wood.
Even the patio in the garden was put together thanks to online videos
“I looked at tutorial blogs and videos to work out which paints would be the most durable and what rollers and equipment I would need too.
“Afterwards, it all looked brand new again.”
Alongside that, the savvy-minded mum loves to snap up a second-hand bargain from Facebook Marketplace, which she can then upcycle herself, if needed, using her newly-developed DIY skills.
She said: “The sideboard in our kitchen was free and I repainted it.
“Our dining table is solid oak and was immaculate £150 from Facebook Marketplace.
“When our things look tired I sand and revarnish or repaint them.” Natalie said Jason tackled some of the most daunting tasks – such as replacing the heating element in the oven by watching a step-by-step YouTube tutorial.
Natalie Smith, from Dymchurch, takes pride in her frugal waysThe Smith family, from Dymchurch, say they have saved thousands over the years by doing their own jobs
Another included fixing the dishwasher by following another tutorial – and ordering the correct new parts based on advice from the videos rather than paying a specialist to come to the home.
Natalie says they free up money to go into a travel fund so they can take trips away as a family.
She added: “I just think it’s all about making small changes. Obviously, money is extremely tight for a lot of people. We’ve been there so we know.
“But I do think just trying to save where you can – it can make life more affordable.
“We definitely save thousands a year – doing monthly haircuts and cleaning our own windows saves £720 a year alone.”