The New York Times had a great article on Saturday: Even to Save Cash, Don't Try This Stuff at Home.

The article talks about how the slowing economy has prompted some homeowners to reach out of their comfort zones only to yield disastrous results. From collapsing ceilings to botched hair-dye jobs, people are spending considerably larger amounts of money to rectify their attempts to save money.

On Friday, I was trying to get in some R&R at my family's lake house, when the tank of the toilet started spewing water everywhere.

Since we'd just had the carpets cleaned, saving the carpet and not flooding the house were crucial. And since "Fixing Geyser Toilets" is not on my personal list of "Things I am Able to do Well," I called Angie's List.

Funny: I didn't have an Angie's List membership in the area where my lake house is, which the call center was quick to point out (even I don't get special treatment).

Attempting to figure out how to quell the toilet on my own had "disaster" written all over it, so I stayed on the line with the call center, gave them all the necessary information so they could do my research for me and got names of reliable plumbers in the area.

Twenty minutes later, I had a plumber at the house ready to work. He even had slippers so he wouldn't get the carpet dirty! He did the job, did it right and there’s no trace that he was ever there. Except for the lack of flooding…

That is much more than I would expect--and light years away from what I could've done myself. Ever.

Sometimes it pays to pay.