Best Money for Time Trades?

[Deleted]

Maid services are popular on here, so that is something to consider. Some other ideas.....

Errand services are popular among my coworkers (often called "personal concierge services") - for things like drycleaning, Target runs, buy gifts, car services, etc.

Grocery delivery.

Depending on your commute, drivers. I have a colleague who uses one and loves the time " back" in their schedule.

Dinner or meal services, where a chef pre-prepares your meals.

Decorator to do any home shopping or furniture selection

Event planners for birthdays, entertaining (and caterers, servers to feed guests and clean up.)

Good money people (accountant, financial advisor) to help automate your money.

[gogreengowhite]

Thanks to @shoegal I just asked my husband if I could get a driver. He said no.

We hired a cleaning service when I started my current job in April. It has been wonderful.

I think shoegal covered everything but I wanted to say congratulations on the new job. I hope you love it!

[Deleted]

Our best time for money trade is our house. It's 10 mins from our jobs in a pricey neighborhood. But it saves us so much commuting time. It's worth it.

With kids, our nanny, although we would see the benefit even more if we didn't do a share. Not having to get DS up and out the door is so great right now.

[gt7301b]

I love our cleaning lady. She currently comes every two weeks, if I got a big raise I might have her come every week. The other thing I'd love to outsource is lawn care. My husband is a teacher and has time in the summer to do the lawn mowing, but I'd love to outsource mulching and raking.

[imojoebunny]

I don't have a time problem, but there are task I no longer want to do, and my DH isn't available to help, so I hire them out.

1. House cleaners. I have them 2x a month and it makes a huge difference in my happy level.
2. Handyman. I have one who is a SAHD who has a kid in school, so a few hours a day to do things. I have him do everything from hang curtains to assemble Ikea to fix drainage problems to fix the toilet. He charges $35 an hour, which means for us that for $140, since he is faster than us, We get a Saturday back from doing those chores. I also trust him to meet other contractors when I am out of town, so I can pay him to meet the cable installer or the HVAC repair guy.
3. Uber. Taking our cars in for service used to be a huge pain, but now, we just take them and uber where else we need to go that day. Of course, we try to do it on a day that we don't need to drive much, but it is so much easier than having to find someone else to give you a ride.
4. We just started doing this this month, but my DH gets fresh made meals twice a week for lunch and dinner during the week. They are healthy, balanced meals from a nutritionist, made with "clean" ingredients. I have really enjoyed not having to cook for him (we like different foods), The food is pretty good. There are a number of different companies and plans to choose from around here. He doesn't want to do another month in a row, but would do it again in the summer when I am gone most of the time. We are going to try Blue Apron next week. I don't mind cooking, but the meal planning and shopping for healthy meals for a picky person takes a lot of time.
5. Lawn service.  This was the first thing I outsourced before I even could afford cable.  

[Deleted]

gogreengowhite, I was shocked at how many "regular" people use drivers in DC (at least at my firm)....I always thought it was only for people like Richie Rich!!!!!

[doobeedoo]

We outsource a lot, but not errands. I like doing my own shopping, and I refuse to outsource something I enjoy.

Here is what we do:
Maid-every other week, and I may increase this to every week because right now my OCD compels me to clean on the off week. My maid says we're the cleanest house she has ever cleaned, so...I need to back off.
Lawn-we have a person come and cut our lawn all summer and aerate/fertilize in the spring or fall
Food-we go out to eat a LOT
Childcare
I am with Shoegal in that I thought drivers were for the Richie Rich types, so that thought would never have occurred to me, though I have been toying with the idea of a car service for when I go on business trips because it is such a PIA to park at the airport lately

[iheartbanjos]

We have our housekeeper come weekly and she does the girls' laundry and our bedding and towels every other week in addition to cleaning.

We have a weekly lawn service in the summer.

We have a handyman that we pay $15/hr. He does all kinds of stuff-from big projects like putting in our wet bar to little things like painting, putting together our swing set, other small fix-it tasks.

We also have a middle school neighbor that we pay to rake our leaves in the fall and other little tasks like that.