I never do!
I am curios and often I can repair the item.
Last week I repaired a water cooker.
Not worth to repair regarding the costs of a new one, but I really have to.
Growing up poor in the after war period it was a must to try to repair things.
We were not such a “throwaway society” those days.
And I am still acting this way.
The more you try the better you get.
The only thing I keep my hands off are mechanical wrist watches
(The parts are too small for my old eyes) 
I agree. I grew up one 7 kids. So I will tinker with stuff as I can. I will either to check it out, fix or have for parts.
My experience with fixing electronic things is this: trying to fix something = no success 
(waste of time) = trash can.
Once our washing machine broke. We gave it to people from Ukraine who knew electronics for free. They were very pleased. I was also very happy because I didn’t lose my time and nerves. And my wife was even happier because we bought a new washing machine 
. In this simple way, I made myself and many other people very happy 
.
Of course I understand you!
It depends on whats broken.
A broken pump can be swapped for example.
I did this with a dish washer.
Best are old washing machines like ours > 25 years old.
Working without any electronic elements.
My old story :
Your car doesn’t work.
You call the service.
A fellow with suit and tie shows up and plugs in his laptop.
After 20 seconds he tells you, you need a new car.
(Of course he is able to offer you a nice discount )
I will say I will that I will look for what wrong. If it seems easy, I will fix.
If I think it is harder or need more info , I will YouTube it. I will sometimes find it is a lot easier than what I thought
If cost gets too high, I will trash and buy another if needed.
I also understand you perfectly. Funny story with a car. Fortunately, in Poland we still have good mechanics who can repair a lot in the car.
In my experience, you save much more: don’t drink alcohol, don’t smoke, don’t eat too much. A lot of money is left in your wallet and you have additional savings: you do not spend on medicines and doctors.
But attention now, the most important thing!!!
The most important saving is: a wise and reasonable wife. This brings the most important financial benefits 
!!!
I keep extra parts as well. I’ll scrap old mowers and keep the useful parts that are universal, pull old hard drives and video cards if they are still goo enough to use as a back up, and I keep damaged electronics if I end up replacing them with the same item. My wife hates it but she’s ok with it if I limit the amount of junk I hang on to.
Same as it has to be limited junk. My dad is a little bit worse at times.
Pretty nifty!