If you insist on doing things yourself, the following are some examples of things you can do that will actually save you money rather than cost you money:

Organize materials: When you have a construction site you have things going on all over the place, so to minimize damage, and waste, it is best to have the materials for each task located near the task location.

You have a couple of choices for organization, you could pay someone else to do this, or you could do the grunt work yourself and save some money. It is not that much fun to carry supplies from one place to another, but it certainly does not take any special skills or training. Thus, it is the perfect job for you. Of course you could eliminate the need for this job altogether by a little careful planning and forethought. You could always have delivery directions written out on your purchase orders, that specify where on the site you want each item delivered, whether that be the second floor of the structure, or the back of the lot.

Paint: When you don't have to pay for labor on things you can do for yourself, you save big. So, when it comes time to paint the interior and exterior, grab a pair of old jeans, and a t-shirt, and get to work. You will have both the satisfaction of spending less, and the satisfaction of contributing to the building and finishing of your dream home. You can look at your estimated equity you have in the home and feel even more pride about the money you saved by painting yourself. Just make sure if you are going to paint the house yourself that you leave enough time on your schedule to do so, or enlist a lot of help, as it will take you significantly longer than it will take a professional.

Clean up: Someone has to do it, there is daily cleanup that needs to be done to keep your site running properly and safe, and there is the final clean up. If you are paying by the hour for labor, do you really want to pay $15/hour for someone to walk around your site and pick up trash? No! Do this yourself, and save. You can have your workers clean up as they go, for example, when they take something out of packaging, dispose of the packaging immediately. Then, at the end of each day, you take the time to walk through the site and do any additional cleanup necessary. This is a great way to get the whole family involved in the process of building your home, and instill in them some ownership and pride. It also allows them to learn about the process as well.

When your house is finished, someone has to clean up the dust, dirt, paint, and all of the other stuff to make the house look like new! It doesn't just get clean automatically. Generally a contractor pays to have this done, and you could too, or you could do it yourself.

Why pay someone for something you can do yourself? Especially if you do not need any qualifications to do it.