I guess for me any time not at work is quality time, whether that is cooking a way better meal that what a fancy restaurant can make, or sitting on the porch drinking a coffee.

If it’s take the day off work to fix a plumbing problem or call a plumber, I would weigh pay. But if its after work, and money saved by doing stuff myself can go into retirement fund investments instead of paying out a huge amount to a service.

30 years ago it would be a harder sell, because things were cheap, but now, especially after COVID costs ballooned.

Dealer quoted 6 hours to change a VTC spring $1320 labour (at $220)

Took me about 4 hours. So free in my view. But if you wanted to factor my labour as money. $200 at my pay rate.

So the $1100 savings would be time I don’t need to work to earn that. I saved myself 22 hours being at work for doing 4 hours work myself.