Its a very large savings to be able to do these things by myself. For example, the brake pads themselves only cost my friend $57 for the highest quality you can buy, but it would have cost her ~$300 if she would have taken it into a local shop for the same service because of the additional labor charge.
I guess Im "self taught". My superpower is that I can watch someone do a job once, and provided I have the correct tools, then I can forevermore do the job myself. Google is a big help too because I had to look up the proper ft.lb (foot pounds) for a 2016 Chevy Malibu lug nuts (its 100 ft.lbf in case you were curious ).