I have to cut one dang cable to finish the basics on refurbishing an old bike. I had a hell of a time using a pair of pliers with a cable snipper when I was taking the old cable off, any advice on shortening the new cable?

Do I actually need to spend 20 bucks for a specialty tool that I'm going to use all of once in a blue moon? Any reasonable substitute? I guess I could just cartop the thing over the LBS and have them snip the brake cable, but it seems kind of absurd...