We have our house cleaner come every two weeks. We have a pool guy come come once a week. I get salads for lunch delivered from Thistle, meal kits from Blue Apron, and Whole Foods groceries through Amazon.
Probably the most time-saving thing I do is have a Shipt membership to have stuff from Target/other stores delivered within 2-3 hours (that's super helpful when the kids come home from school and need something for the next day, to not have to run out to get it). You can also use Shipt in other locations (like for groceries while on vacation) or to deliver things to other people using the same membership.
Pre-pandemic, we had out babysitter pick up the kids twice a week so we didn't have to rush home, especially when I was traveling and DH was on his own. Now we don't do this anymore because we're both WFH and I'm not traveling as much. Eventually we'll definitely need more help for driving the kids around to activities in the afternoons - that was my job in college for other families.
ETA - we also have a Peloton and elliptical.
I am going to check on Shipt. I feel like sometimes places like that don't service my area cause I am on an island but we have bridges so I don't see why!
Lawn (cutting, fertilizing) Windows (inside and out, once/twice per year) Carpets (once or twice a year)
Windows is a good idea. I wonder if our cleaners do that, maybe I should ask.
We've had to hire a dedicated window company. They have the ladders and all the right equipment and also the right technique. Maybe it's not necessary on a one store home, but we have a two story with some pretty tall windows.
The only thing we outsource, and you can pry it from my cold dead hands, is a personal chef. We email her every other week with enough meals to last two weeks, she makes everything fresh, and delivers it for us. I only have to reheat her food and cook maybe once or twice a week. It. Is. Amazing.
I've thought many times about outsourcing cleaning, but being a SAHM now with DD back in school I have more time. Mowing is "me time", just like most gardening, so I am happy to do those things.
The only thing we outsource, and you can pry it from my cold dead hands, is a personal chef. We email her every other week with enough meals to last two weeks, she makes everything fresh, and delivers it for us. I only have to reheat her food and cook maybe once or twice a week. It. Is. Amazing.
I've thought many times about outsourcing cleaning, but being a SAHM now with DD back in school I have more time. Mowing is "me time", just like most gardening, so I am happy to do those things.
This is my dream!!!!!! How did you find her? Do you care to share the cost? Do you prefer this to takeout?
Biweekly housekeeping Lawn care. They just blew all of our leaves in our acre lot and it was amazing not to stress. Grocery pickup.
We’ve done hello fresh and even that was difficult after a while. The recipes took too long to prep with a toddler around my ankles. Open to suggestions to make dinner easier.
The only thing we outsource, and you can pry it from my cold dead hands, is a personal chef. We email her every other week with enough meals to last two weeks, she makes everything fresh, and delivers it for us. I only have to reheat her food and cook maybe once or twice a week. It. Is. Amazing.
I've thought many times about outsourcing cleaning, but being a SAHM now with DD back in school I have more time. Mowing is "me time", just like most gardening, so I am happy to do those things.
Tell me more about this chef thing?! How did you find them? What is the cost to this??
zarapipe and preppy - We had tried Hello Fresh and Blue Apron and were never that impressed. We were spending SO MUCH on 3 meals a week, which didn't give us many leftovers and while the food was good, it just wasn't worth the money to me. So then I asked on my local board about something that would allow me to go and make a whole bunch of food at one time (think Let's Dish) but all of them were closed by us. And then someone chimed in about a woman that delivered homemade food and I got her info.
It's just one woman, but she is a workhorse and amazing. We used to do weekly deliveries but because she took on a lot of in-home clients so in an effort to keep her (lol) we worked out a plan to do bi-weekly and just freeze the second week worth of stuff. She had a set menu that we could choose from, but we've been using her for almost two years and now will make anything we want.
The price varies based on what we order. Examples that I have from this week's delivery: 10 servings of teriyaki salmon ($70), homemade gnocchi bolognese ($40- this is about 5-6 servings), beef handpies with homemade pastry ($3 each), meat and veggie frittata ($25 each and it's about 6 servings each).
We much much much prefer it to takeout, though we do that sometimes, too. On average we spend $150-170ish for every two weeks worth of food from her. There have been some misses that we ordered but it's only like 4 things over two years. She does things like clam chowder and all kinds of pasta (she's Italian and is AMAZING at pasta), stews, soups, Mexican, etc. It is worth every penny, and honestly, we *save* money by having her because our food budget is like $700 for the three of us now.
Post by ellipses84 on Oct 15, 2021 18:54:27 GMT -5
Cleaning and lawn care are the two biggest things for us. DH does a lot of the grocery shopping and cooking, and we are very 50-50 on parenting but I’m still the default parent when it comes to things like school, paperwork or appts. Now that I WFH if I need to go to an in-person meeting I’ll try to add an errand afterwards like a grocery run or car maintenance. Doing those things mid-day on a weekday take so much less time than trying to deal with it on the weekends with kids.
I limit kids to one extracurricular at a time, unless it’s at school during their aftercare hours. DH works more evenings / weekends so it’s hard enough with 2 kids in activities and only one parent to be there.
Post by UMaineTeach on Oct 15, 2021 19:45:35 GMT -5
lawn mowing and string trimming, basic $40/trip deal. He gives us a $5 discount for having a tiny yard. Visits are random. 7-10 days. The only thing is that he’s bad at billing, so we end up needing to pay 300-400 all at once. Makes it seem expensive when it’s half a summer build up.
Trash pick up, $7/wk on an as needed basis. They drive by no matter what, but you don’t have to pay unless you have trash out. It would be free to take it ourselves.
We have our house cleaner come every two weeks. We have a pool guy come come once a week. I get salads for lunch delivered from Thistle, meal kits from Blue Apron, and Whole Foods groceries through Amazon.
Probably the most time-saving thing I do is have a Shipt membership to have stuff from Target/other stores delivered within 2-3 hours (that's super helpful when the kids come home from school and need something for the next day, to not have to run out to get it). You can also use Shipt in other locations (like for groceries while on vacation) or to deliver things to other people using the same membership.
Pre-pandemic, we had out babysitter pick up the kids twice a week so we didn't have to rush home, especially when I was traveling and DH was on his own. Now we don't do this anymore because we're both WFH and I'm not traveling as much. Eventually we'll definitely need more help for driving the kids around to activities in the afternoons - that was my job in college for other families.
ETA - we also have a Peloton and elliptical.
I am going to check on Shipt. I feel like sometimes places like that don't service my area cause I am on an island but we have bridges so I don't see why!
- bi-weekly cleaning - leaf cleaning (we have a laughable sized lawn and turf in our side yard so we do mow ourselves) - drizzly for alcohol delivery - snow removal -Peloton makes working out at home so easy
Food is our biggest issue. I WISH we had someone to cook 😀. We don’t love takeout, but don’t have time for home cooked meals.
Full house cleaning every 2 weeks, on the off weeks - main level and bathrooms (minus the shower/tub) only
Weekly lawn mowing
Lawn fertilizer services
Snowplowing
Mulching the flowerbeds every 2 years
We used to get our windows done inside and out, but haven't since Covid.
Sometimes grocery pickup but after a few bad experiences with produce selections, I still like to shop for produce myself.
I would love to have a chef- I would trade having a house cleaner for having a chef if I could. I hate meal planning, prepping, cooking...all of it lol.
Weekly housecleaning is about it. We had turf installed and it has been the best thing. My dh is a perfectionist and would mow 2 times a week. It’s been a huge timesaver. I guess we pay to have the window washed and Christmas light installed but that only happens once a year.
Someone posted a while ago about hiring a personal assistant type person that makes appointments (dentist, pets, cars, lawn care, etc.), meal plans/shops/preps food, buys gifts for birthday parties, etc. Someone that just takes over the mental load and keeps the household running.
I don't have big house or busy schedule, but I really want one of these people.
These threads always make me feel poor haha. I guess I sort of outsource yard and windows due to living in a strata and paying those fees.
I am interested in the meal prep boxes and am trying to work out whether they would be more cost effective or equal to buying groceries for meals. Groceries in my area are pretty expensive compared to the US so we might break even on something like that.
We’ve got a cleaning service every other week now that I’m back to work full time - that’s the big one. We are also using our neighbor to watch the kids (mostly the younger one), even for 75 minutes between school ending, and when I switch gears and start doing the evening activities. That definitely helps. I’m also still running, or on the board, for four different nonprofits/committees, so I am trying to delegate tasks to others in those as much as possible.
We have a cleaning person who comes every two weeks. I really would like to have her stay an extra hour and put my laundry away, but I need to purge more items to make this even work.
We are also planning on outsourcing winter leaf clean up and mulching in the spring. We end up spending a good portion of several weekends on these tasks and I want to be able to spend that time together as a family.
We also have bi-weekly cleaning service. Last month, we also signed up for a local food prep service. We get 5 pre-cooked meals/week, so there is no more arguments about who’s cooking and what and no more fast food runs.
Post by pinkdutchtulips on Oct 17, 2021 17:33:24 GMT -5
I’d love to outsource cleaning but I have an 800 sf apartment - no reason I can’t handle that one myself. What I do outsource is handyman type stuff - assemble furniture beyond a simple coffee table or bookshelves and I’m calling my handyman to assemble. He’s quick and inexpensive saving me HOURS of frustration.
I’d love to outsource cleaning but I have an 800 sf apartment - no reason I can’t handle that one myself. What I do outsource is handyman type stuff - assemble furniture beyond a simple coffee table or bookshelves and I’m calling my handyman to assemble. He’s quick and inexpensive saving me HOURS of frustration.
Outsource the cleaning, seriously! There is plenty of things we could do ourselves, sure, but that doesn’t mean you have to.
Post by turkletsmom on Oct 17, 2021 18:12:48 GMT -5
I thought of another one-- we outsource our taxes. Every year DH complains that we could do it ourselves since we are easy with a one W2 household but I don't care. Our tax lady gets them done in about 30 minutes and then calls us with a quick review. Probably the best money I spend all year.
Post by notsopicky on Oct 17, 2021 19:43:39 GMT -5
Housecleaning: every other week. Lawn care (mowing and edging): every week Mar-Oct (every other week at the beach house). Taxes. I have an Instacart membership, I use it about once a month. I need to find a pool maintenance company for the beach house.
preppy , When I've outsourced laundry during crazy times, I just bring a few loads to the laundromat for their wash/dry/fold service. You pay by the pound. I don't use it frequently, but it's been a game changer during especially busy seasons of life.
I hadn't thought of it until seeing this post, but I even wonder if it would even be worth it to take all of the laundry to a laundromat to get it all done in one fell swoop when I get behind (like right now). Then you're stuck at the laundromat instead of at home, but now I'm sort of dreaming of stripping all of my beds and taking every dirty piece of laundry and getting it all done at once.
The problem I see here is at the end of the wash dry you will have like 10 loads of laundry to fold which is the biggest time suck
Curious about how much full service laundry costs, I know it's by pound but have no concept of who much clothes weigh
I paid for a one off junk removal company at the start of the summer and that was well worth it. They took yard waste, recycling, actual garbage/junk, and things that could be donated. It was well worth the $200 to not borrow/rent a truck and spend a Saturday driving to all the obscure places to properly dispose of these random items. A lot of it was stuff left in our garage when we bought last fall, but the convenience to just have it all gone at once was so worth the money.
I hadn't thought of it until seeing this post, but I even wonder if it would even be worth it to take all of the laundry to a laundromat to get it all done in one fell swoop when I get behind (like right now). Then you're stuck at the laundromat instead of at home, but now I'm sort of dreaming of stripping all of my beds and taking every dirty piece of laundry and getting it all done at once.
The problem I see here is at the end of the wash dry you will have like 10 loads of laundry to fold which is the biggest time suck
Curious about how much full service laundry costs, I know it's by pound but have no concept of who much clothes weigh
I think it cost me about $75 to get 3 laundry standard laundry baskets done - wash/dry/fold. I made sure to only bring clothes - no towels, no sheets since those take up so much more space/weight. It's not something I could afford to do regularly, but once in a while when life gets overwhelming, getting the laundry caught up makes me feel like I can breathe again.
The problem I see here is at the end of the wash dry you will have like 10 loads of laundry to fold which is the biggest time suck
Curious about how much full service laundry costs, I know it's by pound but have no concept of who much clothes weigh
I think it cost me about $75 to get 3 laundry standard laundry baskets done - wash/dry/fold. I made sure to only bring clothes - no towels, no sheets since those take up so much more space/weight. It's not something I could afford to do regularly, but once in a while when life gets overwhelming, getting the laundry caught up makes me feel like I can breathe again.
I think that's totally worth it! especially for the reasons you named
Nothing :/ MH tackles the stuff I don’t have the time or desire to do (yard work, painting, most of the house cleaning, etc) so I don’t press for outsourcing. I actually enjoy grocery shopping and cooking so I don’t really want to outsource that, and I WFH so that allows me time to catch up on the laundry.
I *would* like a local, reliable babysitter once in a while. My mom and sister can sit when we need it but it requires a lot of advance notice and we usually have to go to them. I also would like to hire a closet organizer, but our closets are small and so I feel that it wouldn’t be worth it.
If I had a lot more money I would absolutely love to hire a personal dresser. Someone to go clothes shopping for me, find outfits that work for my body and are stylish and comfortable, tailor them so they fit properly, and clean/ maintain/ store them.
We also didn’t hire professional movers when we moved into our current home, so I absolutely want to do that if/when we sell this house someday. Plus a deep cleaning of both the old and new homes.