The basic premise of achieving FIRE always comes down to spending less than you earn. The bigger gap you can put between your income and your outgoings and the quicker you can achieve FIRE. There are two ways of making the gap bigger – earn more or spend less. Ideally, do both!

The importance of doing things yourself to reduce costs was one I’d read about on FIRE blogs but I didn’t really think it was something that applied to me. I’m not particularly handy; I’m lucky that Converse is a great cook, because I am not; I don’t have any artistic talents. As a rule I don’t make things. I wasn’t really convinced that there was anything I could do myself that was going to save us any money. I thought that ‘doing it yourself’ to reduce costs wasn’t something I was going to be able to benefit from. But here I am, only five months into FIRE and I’m beginning to realise that while I’m not about to whittle my own cutlery, sew my own clothes or paint a mural on my bedroom wall, there are many small things that I am now doing for myself.

I’ve stopped almost all kinds of deliveries. From takeout to supermarket shopping to getting things through the post, if there’s an option to come and pick it up myself and skip the delivery cost, I’m doing that. When a colleague had a birthday at work recently, I borrowed a cake tin and made a cake myself. It turns out you don’t need to be a great baker to make a vanilla sponge cake. Although I can walk home from work, it takes an hour and in summer the heat is punishing, but what I did discover is that if I walk 15 minutes to the bus stop which is two stops farther down the line, the bus fare drops by almost half. When my friends want to do something after work, I can crack open a can of coca cola or lager as well as any bar tender, and for about an tenth of the price.

There are probably a handful of other small, boring but effective ways I’ve found of lowering costs by doing things myself. What I’m finding is I don’t need to be particularly, creative, crafty, handy or skilled. Most of the time, I just need to be willing to put a little more effort in.