re: Oil change shop air filter up charge….WTF

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I always change my own, on all 3 vehicles.
Mobil 1 full synthetic and a decent filter (not the cheapest) for about $40, vs not knowing what the hell someone else is going to do.
Takes little time or effort, and I can check everything out under the car while I am down there.

I do my own brakes, calipers, even did my coilovers recently

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Seriously, changing your own oil is simple and cost effective. I save about $50 on my truck and about $25 on my wife's car. Not a pile of money but it has to be done and it takes less time to do it myself.

I do brakes on bunches of peoples cars. The most difficult part is getting the rotors off. I can do a 4 wheel brake job on just about any vehicle (as long as there aren't any drums on the dam thing) in about 90 minutes and the parts usually cost about 1/3 of what they would charge at a shop and it doesn't require the vehicle to sit at their shop all day. Disc brakes are about as simple as simple gets. My wife can do her own...she won't because she is a woman and why would she...but she has and can. My 24 year old son who barely knows the difference between a phillips and a straight bladed screw driver can do his own...he doesn't because daddy will do it but he can. 90 minutes and about $200 in parts if I am replacing the rotors compared to a day of the thing being in the shop and $600 is a no brainer for me.

I am no mechanic. My issue is that no one at a dealership is a better mechanic and rarely is there one at a locally owned shop other than the owner and he ain't out wrenching on cars he has rummy's just like the ones at Tires Plus doing the work. None of them can do anything outside of replacing parts, I can do about 90% of that myself. They know nothing about troubleshooting...neither do I but I ain't making $100 bucks an hour to scratch my arse and stare at the damned thing. If you ain't able or willing to maintain them yourself you are going to have to buy them more often or be subjected to rolling the dice and taking your chances with a shop. I am too cheap to roll the dice...I will do what I can and have often bit off and completed much more than I should have simply because in my experience they know about what I know and that ain't much.