Waste not, want not.
One of the easiest things to DIY is vinegar. Here’s what you need:
A vinaigrier, or vinegar crock, with a spout and a lid. Vinegar likes to live in the dark.
Une mère–a mother–the starter.
Wine. Yes. It’s clearer in French. Vinegar is vinaigre, or vin aigre–sour wine.
Long before we met, the wise Carnivore had acquired a vinaigrier and a mother (of the vinegar variety). Whenever we have a bad bottle–whether it’s corked or past its prime or left over from a party and not sealed up–we dump it into the vinaigrier. The resulting vinegar mostly goes on salads. 
It’s possible to make your own starter. Plenty of foods rely on starter cultures–sourdough bread and yogurt, for example. You can buy a mother of vinegar or you can make one. I don’t have a photo because you can’t tell what it is–just a blob of slime.
You put the mother and the wine into the crock and wait a few months. It takes us that long to go through a bottle of vinegar–and to round up enough wine to add to the crock. Red ferments faster than white.
- Many choices at the vide-grenier.
You can get a vintage vinaigrier around here for between €10 and €50. Pretty and useful!
Taste of France 