While saving money is a top priority for many people, saving time might prove to be even more valuable. Time is a precious commodity. If you are overworked and can never seem to have enough hours in the day, consider hiring out some of the below tasks:
1. Yard Work
It’s seems to be an American weekend ritual (at least in the suburbs) to spend hours and hours maintaining your lawn. From mowing the lawn, to gardening, to fertilizing, Americans spend tons of time maintaining their property.
To some people yard work is relaxing and a way to unwind. For others who feel like they never have time to relax and enjoy themselves, it’s a burden. Hiring out the work can be a way to free up your time.
Of course, if you have kids, you can always save some money and just have them do most of the yard work. I know when I was younger it was me and my brother who were out mowing the lawn, not my Dad. $20 to a kid is a lot more than $20 to a lawn care company ;)
2. Auto Repair and Maintenance
I know some people who save money by doing their own oil changes and making repairs to their vehicles. They already have an interest in cars, so it doesn’t seem like quite as much a time-suck as it would to other people.
Personally, I have a mechanic perform all repairs and maintenance. It’s not something that I want to spend time on. I would rather spend it working on this blog, reading, improving programming skills, or just relaxing.
I have also seen some people who know a decent amount about cars try to DIY auto repairs and sometimes the result isn’t what they expected.
3. Cleaning
While house cleaning services typically do not deep clean, having them come once or twice a week can save time on vacuuming, dusting, and other basic cleaning.
When I was younger, my parents tried this for a brief time, but then decided the money was more important to them than the time savings. They also had three kids to help out…let’s just say I was a fan of the cleaning service ;)
4. Painting and Maintenance
If you are lucky enough to have maintenance-free siding/windows/etc., count yourself lucky. If not, you likely spend many hours of maintenance on your house. There are plenty of businesses that would be happy to take this off your plate…for a price.
There are some companies that do painting at a cheaper cost. College Pro Painters come to mind.
5. Laundry and ironing
One thing I really dislike doing but am forced to do is ironing my work clothes. Each week I spend probably one or two hours ironing my clothes, and each week I think about how great it would be if I could hire some personal assistant to clean and iron them all for me!
There is the alternative of bringing everything to the dry cleaners, but I don’t like this idea because it’s obviously more expensive and they use harsh chemicals.
I’m not sure how wealthy you have to be to justify this, but it would be pretty awesome to never have to worry about laundry and ironing!
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If you are over worked and feel like there is no free time to enjoy yourself, consider using one or more of the five ideas listed above. Of course, if saving money is a higher priority for you at this time, it would be smart to stick to doing these things yourself instead of hiring them out. Use the thought of hiring our tasks as motivation to earn/save more money…I know I do!
What do you do to free up time?
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Photo by Bill McChesney
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I agree about yard work! We hate doing it! Greg is mostly doing it all right now, but I could see us paying someone to take care of it in the future.
@Holly at ClubThrifty We are getting our fist house in October, so I essentially miss most of the work until next summer (except snow removal…which will be a huge pain but oh well). Never had my own yard so I’m at least a little excited about DIY landscaping at this point. A few years down the road? We’ll see haha
I have never hired anyone to work on our lawn, but that’s because I find it relaxing to be out in the fresh air and it’s definitely a change of pace from my normal work schedule. I try to fix most of our vehicle problems myself. Oil changes and stuff like brakes are easy and quick to do, anything harder than that though it will be in the shop with a professional doing the work. The other stuff we normally do ourselves also, although I don’t think I’ve used the ironing board and iron in years.
@DebtnTaxes The ironing adds up when you wear (at minimum) five dress shirts and five dress pants a week…add in any button ups I wear outside of work and it’s a real pain.
I plan on doing pretty much everything DIY at the house I’m buying, mainly because I want to have a basic knowledge of things (and I’m actually excited about having my own yard to landscape. so might as well feed off it).
6. Blogging
Kidding! DO NOT hire out your blogging. lol. But seriously, I like doing laundry just not ironing.
@VeronicaHill79 Haha.. I actually do hire out some of my blogging! It helps cut down on the burnout rate!
@moneymatters As guest posting right? I meant as the main source of content :) but yeah you’re doing it right by allowing some guest posts. Everyone deserves a break once in a while!
@VeronicaHill79 No, not guest posts, as in I actually pay people to write for my site. My posts are still the main source of content, but having 1-2 posts a week from others means i have more time for other things. :)
@moneymatters @VeronicaHill79 I actually would love to hire out some of the blogging on here. That is down the road, though. First I would actually have to be making money ;)
@DC @ Young Adult Money @VeronicaHill79 Yeah, I didn’t start paying writers until my site was about 2 years old, and I was making enough to justify it.. At that point I’d been writing 4-5 posts a week every week for almost 2 years, so having a little bit of help was nice.
@moneymatters @DC @ Young Adult Money I’ll gladly write a guest post for both of you if you’d like. Just let me know :)
I would feel so weird hiring someone to clean our house. Not that its very dirty, I just don’t want other people touching my things. I’m all for hiring out lawn care and car maintenance. Our car is actually getting an oil change right now
@Em23 I think that’s the biggest reason people don’t hire out. I don’t know personally, but it has to be very difficult to find someone who you trust.
I always pay for oil changes for my car… I’m beginning to consider having someone clean our house because we hate doing it so much… the PF community would glare at me with evil eyes though.
@Money Life and More That’s unfortunate that the PF community would glare at you with evil eyes if you paid someone to clean your house. To me money is supposed to improve your life. If someone’s advice is to “continue doing something you hate instead of utilizing money to outsource things you hate” all I can say is “YIKES!” and shake my head at the PF community.
I’ll admit. I DIG ironing. My wife loves the fact that I always want to iron everything….no clue why. Maybe I’ve found my retirement job when I’m ready to stop working!
@AverageJoeMoney Haha can I start shipping my clothes over to you? : P
I can’t justify hiring out cleaning or ironing while we still have credit card debt, but those would be my first priorities if I could. I try to get my husband to wear those no wrinkle polyester shirts to work, but no luck on that one!
That’s a lot of ironing, DC!!! I would lovelovelove to have someone come over and help me with the cleaning 1-2 times a week. It’s funny….I told Jeff that a cleaning service would do all the things I never even do when I DO clean my house; wipe down the baseboards, dust the lampshades, wipe the doors, etc. I do clean my house, don’t worry! I just don’t do the detailing like that as often as I should. Oh to have more hours in a day! My house would sparkle.
-M
When I had my first internship a few years ago I woke up every morning, turned on CNBC, and ironed my clothes for the day while watching. Man, that was a pain. Now, I just buy non-iron, wrinkle free shirts. Usually I pick them up at Costco. Now my shirts come out of the dryer wrinkle-free and I just hang them up! I definitely recommend that you pick some up. Best clothing decision I ever made.