When Spending More Means Spending Less.

For the past couple weeks I have had a leak in my basement. I figured it was due to insufficient slope at the side of my house. Being as it was cold and topsoil was hard to come by this time of year, I put it off until the spring.
This week I discovered that I in fact had a leak in one of my pipes. It was dripping directly into my insulation and appeared to be coming from outside. The leak appeared to be at a tough to reach point where the pipe reached an elbow and went up through the floor. I felt this fix was best left to the professionals.

A plumber was at my house the next afternoon to surmise the damage. Turns out the leak was under my sink at a T where the main hot water line split off to the dishwasher. The previous owner had apparently used a cheap plastic T when remodelling the kitchen. The plumber informed me that when it came to these plastic parts it wasn't "if" they would leak, but when.
After about an hour of work, a new copper T was installed. Total bill: $300! OUCH.

Moral of the story, spend the extra $5 when choosing plumbing supplies.

If anybody out there has any tips on how I could have had this done cheaper (other than doing it myself) I would love to hear it.