Do It Yourself
An ethic of self-sufficiency, and a way of limiting what you buy.
DIY is an ethic of self-sufficiency, in which you limit your participation in consumer culture by making the things you need and maintaining the things you already have. Doing things yourself saves money, teaches you how things work, and heads off a certain amount of idle consumption.
Contemporary DIY ethics have roots in the punk scene, where artists sidestepped the corporate structure and monoculture of popular music. Artwork, distribution, and the music itself were simplified into basic forms to accommodate the constraints of the ideal, and there was still plenty of room left for expression. Those lessons can—and should—be applied to most areas of life: cooking, technology, travel.