In the rare occurrence that someone may share my gift of ignorance here.

So, I'm prepping the exterior of my house for paint (joy), and during a break I'm thinking, "I really should use primer first". But the house is a bluish color, and if I paint it with the white primer, I'm looking at 2-3 coats MORE after the primer (nobody seriously believes that 'one coat' paint they yap about, I hope). I could probably get away with just one coat if I just use the same color...but would it stick?

Now, I know the vast majority of the lounge has a jeeves-type on staff that could do the work for them, so who cares? But I still have to gut things out, and other than roofing, I can't think of a job that I want to do less.

So, I take a bit of time...do some thinking...I may or may not have a beer in my hand...and I get this "feed the mayo directly to the fish" moment.

I go inside, talk to the google, and THERE IT IS!!! :

"When painting, it's a good idea to tint the primer the color of the finished paint to reduce the number of coats needed. While a paint store can add colorant to the primer, you can also tint the primer yourself by adding some of the colored paint to it."

I know they came out with paint with primer already added years ago, but I didn't trust that. But this idea...is so money...and I had to finally come up with it in the twilight of my life. Big D'oh.