sampshimi

About

Self-taught developer based in San Diego. I run a homelab on Unraid and a fleet of local AI models that I wire into tools replacing things I used to pay for.

The goal: Reduce my subscription costs, own my own data. The constraint: my wife and dog think there are better ways to spend my time.

Subscriptions I've Cut

Service	Replaced By	Before	Now
Google Gemini / ChatGPT	Open WebUI + OpenRouter	$19.99/mo	~$5/mo API
Google Drive	Nextcloud + Backblaze B2	~$25/mo	~$2/mo
Cloud Photo Backup	Immich (self-hosted)	~$10/mo	$0 (on Unraid)

Over a year that's a GPU upgrade. And the data stays mine.

Why Self-Host?

Data Ownership

My photos, documents, and chat logs live on my hardware — not getting analyzed by someone else's models. If a service goes under or changes its pricing, I don't lose access.

Privacy-First AI

Running local LLMs means I don't pay per-token or hand my queries to a third party.

It's Fun and It Saves Money

If you ignore the hardware cost, my time, and the loss of aura, it's pretty much breakeven. My wife and dog are less convinced.

📸 Beyond the Terminal

Corgi owner She runs the house. I just pay the server bills.

Marathon Finisher 26.2 miles. Once. (Maybe again.)

Sabre Fencer Fastest weapon. Best weapon.

Photographer Please maintain at least 1 telephoto lens distance from the photographer

Updates

June 2026

Building a public landing page — chat & photos behind 2FA

sampshimi.com is public-facing, but the AI chat and photo library sit behind Cloudflare Zero Trust with two-factor. How to split public vs. private content on the same domain. Read more →

May 2026

Killing my Google Drive bill with Nextcloud + Backblaze

120 GB off Google Drive, self-hosted on Unraid, now paying pennies for B2 cold storage. Read more →

April 2026

Replacing Gemini with local AI — the real cost comparison