DIY vs Purchasing

Have you ever looked at something & thought to yourself: Why does that cost so much or I could probably make that myself & save SO much money! As someone who considers himself very frugal I always do that. Before buying almost anything I like to compare, research, & analyze whatever it is. Courtney would say I am cheap however I would NOT say that I like cheap things. I am willing to spend more for quality & craftsmanship. Over the past 4 years of selling teepees we have received comments such as:

I am going to go over what it takes to make one of our teepees. This will also be a great guide if you decide you want to take on a little DIY project. I will tell you what you need to buy, where you can buy it, the pricing of the materials, & all of the work involved.

For this example we are going to make it simple & I'll tell you what it takes to make an All Black & White teepee.

We’ll only need two kinds of fabric for that style. For 20 of the 28 styles currently listed on our website you’d need three fabrics but we want this to be easy. Here’s what materials you’ll need to buy:

$95.72 for materials

Here are the tools that you will need:

We are going to assume you have all of those tools so we won’t factor in that cost.

Then you’ll have to spend your time.

Total time: 9 hours & let’s say you value your time at $11per hour which would total out to be $99.00

If you add up the materials & your time it would cost about $195 to make a teepee like ours. Which that does not factor in any of the tools or small items such as needles, thread, drill bit, & sand paper. It also doesn’t factor in gas driving around to shop for the materials. I understand that you could make a much less expensive teepee. You could use low quality pine or pvc pipe for the poles, a piece of string instead of bolts, avoid lining the teepee with muslin & simplify the pattern but I am trying to show what it would take to make a teepee of similar quality & craftsmanship to ours.