During the Depression era, people wouldn’t have paid someone $25 to $40 and up to have a pizza delivered to their home. People didn’t have that kind of money to waste on something that cost extra money. They had to pay the basics first and oftentimes that meant doing without any luxuries and cooking meals from basic foods.
These days companies make thousands of dollars from consumers who want to pay someone else to do things for them, also know as convenience.
Many people pay to have other people or companies mow their yards, wash their cars, clean their house, or any other number of jobs that need doing at home.
One way to save money is to do these things for yourself unless your are physically unable to do them for yourself.
Wash your own car, clean your own clothes, take care of your own yard, cook your own meals. You will even get some good exercise doing these things yourself as well.
You will take greater pride in a job you do yourself, and save so much money in the process
We maintain our own pool, my husband does almost all of our car maintenance & repairs, and I typically clean our house. When I'm traveling a lot, we do splurge on an occasional cleaning service.
However, we pay for yard service. The people who lived here before us have SO MANY plants of all different varieties. They require quite a bit of regular maintenance. It's on our to do list to update our yard & make it significantly more drought resistant. As part of that, we will pull out all of the high maintenance & varied plants, and go with things we can maintain ourselves. Until then, we pay for a service. I'll be very happy when we can change that.
Oh, maintaining your own pool is a great addition to the list! And car maintenance is another great one. My BIL will change outs for $20 for supplies, which I consider well worth it.
Sounds like you have a lot of plants and yard work. I hope you can get it to the way you want it soon.
Amen sister. I am 66 and still doing almost everything myself - at least what I know how to do or can learn how to do. Makes one proud to accomplish things.
My own time is worth more than the time to cut the lawn...so it would be foolish to do these tasks versus make more money. It's not just about if you are physically able or not, the cost benefit should always be factored.
I totally agree with you. My husband and I do everything ourselves. The only thing that's difficult now that we are getting up there in years is mowing the lawn in the summer. When it's so hot here we just can't do it, but our son comes and takes care of it for us all summer thankfully.
I agree with Jean, since both DH & I are self employed. We do most things ourselves but when DH gets too busy, we hire a landscaping company to cut the grass. We have 2 acres, so there's lots of cutting to be done. It would take an hour or 2 out of DH's day just to do that. The cost of the service is way less than he would make working those 2 hours instead.
We do our own yard work, pressure washing house, driveway etc. But we do have a pool service. I suppose one of us could figure it out... But for now its worth it.
I have laid sod, done ceramic tile work, and painted several houses over the years.I have no housekeeper but I do have a guy who cuts my grass and now hire someone to do the heavy pruning. I am not painting again___ever. I am older and am not going to spend my time painting when I can hire some young painters and it will be done in record time. Some things are worth paying for.
I agree but am in the process of looking for someone to help with the house. I used to have someone when I worked full time, but have been trying to do it myself for the past five years. It’s getting to be more than what I want to do my whole retirement... lol. I can’t work as fast as they can!
Good advice! We can do a lot of things ourselves. Dh has fixed our cars, finished our basement into a family room, tiled, put in flooring, fixed so many things and saved us so much money through the years. But since he turned 50, he doesn't enjoy working on cars anymore, so we pay for oil changes and repairs. We paid for someone to put on a new roof since I didn't want to risk him falling off. And I think we are going to buy a shed when lumber prices come down instead of building one ourselves. With age, comes more aches and pains. :D
I know what you mean about the aches and pains, Kathy. Your dh sounds like my Dad. He could do just about anything he set his mind too. It sure did save us a lot of money over the years. I can see paying someone to do these things for us as we age. I would rather be safe than sorry when it comes to things like putting a roof on your home. I would definitely pay someone else to do that.
I am just not capable of doing things like I could even ten years ago. Approaching 75 in a few months means I do even less with back and other problems. Of course, I cannot afford to pay for all the help I need.
DH & I pride ourselves on being DIY. We are looking for somebody to mow our yard. DH is still doing it because the Delta variant is ravaging our city. Even though we are fully vaccinated we are still being super careful. When things get better we are getting somebody to mow our yard! We love our yard, hate to mow it. Poor DH is allergic to grass. I am not capable of doing it. I admit I felt guilty having somebody mow our yard. I realized it is frugal to have somebody to mow. Back in the days when people couldn't afford luxuries and did everything themselves, when they couldn't they had a community who could help. Need help mowing- somebody from your church would offer to help for a batch of cookies or a nice homemade meal. Nowadays it's just harder for that type of community. DH & I don't mind hiring a lawn care company because we are giving back to our local community in a different way by supporting local businesses.
We maintain our own pool, my husband does almost all of our car maintenance & repairs, and I typically clean our house. When I'm traveling a lot, we do splurge on an occasional cleaning service.
ReplyDeleteHowever, we pay for yard service. The people who lived here before us have SO MANY plants of all different varieties. They require quite a bit of regular maintenance. It's on our to do list to update our yard & make it significantly more drought resistant. As part of that, we will pull out all of the high maintenance & varied plants, and go with things we can maintain ourselves. Until then, we pay for a service. I'll be very happy when we can change that.
Oh, maintaining your own pool is a great addition to the list! And car maintenance is another great one. My BIL will change outs for $20 for supplies, which I consider well worth it.
DeleteSounds like you have a lot of plants and yard work. I hope you can get it to the way you want it soon.
Amen. I have had a housekeeper paid for by my daughter when my arthritis was flaring so bad and it was nice, but with the smaller house i can do it!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely, Kim. That was very nice of your daughter to do that for you when you had the bigger house.
DeleteAmen sister. I am 66 and still doing almost everything myself - at least what I know how to do or can learn how to do. Makes one proud to accomplish things.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely makes one proud, Cheryl. You are always working around your yard too, which is great physical exercise too.
DeleteMy own time is worth more than the time to cut the lawn...so it would be foolish to do these tasks versus make more money. It's not just about if you are physically able or not, the cost benefit should always be factored.
ReplyDeleteAnother point of view. Such a great point. Thank you for sharing, Jean.
DeleteI totally agree with you. My husband and I do everything ourselves. The only thing that's difficult now that we are getting up there in years is mowing the lawn in the summer. When it's so hot here we just can't do it, but our son comes and takes care of it for us all summer thankfully.
ReplyDeleteOh that’s great that your son mows the lawn for you during the summer. You must haves raised him right!
DeleteI agree with Jean, since both DH & I are self employed. We do most things ourselves but when DH gets too busy, we hire a landscaping company to cut the grass. We have 2 acres, so there's lots of cutting to be done. It would take an hour or 2 out of DH's day just to do that. The cost of the service is way less than he would make working those 2 hours instead.
ReplyDeleteThat makes so much sense, Ms. Goose. I love these different points of view. Thank you.
DeleteWe do our own yard work, pressure washing house, driveway etc. But we do have a pool service. I suppose one of us could figure it out... But for now its worth it.
ReplyDeleteMakes perfect sense, Lisa. My BIL always tried to do his own pool maintenance and it is a learning curve.
DeleteI have laid sod, done ceramic tile work, and painted several houses over the years.I have no housekeeper but I do have a guy who cuts my grass and now hire someone to do the heavy pruning.
ReplyDeleteI am not painting again___ever. I am older and am not going to spend my time painting when I can hire some young painters and it will be done in record time. Some things are worth paying for.
I agree with you, Anne. I would definitely pay someone to paint for me, especially the outside if needed.
DeleteI agree but am in the process of looking for someone to help with the house. I used to have someone when I worked full time, but have been trying to do it myself for the past five years. It’s getting to be more than what I want to do my whole retirement... lol. I can’t work as fast as they can!
ReplyDeleteYes, those are the times when it is beneficial to hire someone to do those jobs for you. A
DeleteThank you.
Good advice! We can do a lot of things ourselves. Dh has fixed our cars, finished our basement into a family room, tiled, put in flooring, fixed so many things and saved us so much money through the years. But since he turned 50, he doesn't enjoy working on cars anymore, so we pay for oil changes and repairs. We paid for someone to put on a new roof since I didn't want to risk him falling off. And I think we are going to buy a shed when lumber prices come down instead of building one ourselves. With age, comes more aches and pains. :D
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the aches and pains, Kathy. Your dh sounds like my Dad. He could do just about anything he set his mind too. It sure did save us a lot of money over the years. I can see paying someone to do these things for us as we age. I would rather be safe than sorry when it comes to things like putting a roof on your home. I would definitely pay someone else to do that.
DeleteI am just not capable of doing things like I could even ten years ago. Approaching 75 in a few months means I do even less with back and other problems. Of course, I cannot afford to pay for all the help I need.
ReplyDeleteDH & I pride ourselves on being DIY. We are looking for somebody to mow our yard. DH is still doing it because the Delta variant is ravaging our city. Even though we are fully vaccinated we are still being super careful. When things get better we are getting somebody to mow our yard! We love our yard, hate to mow it. Poor DH is allergic to grass. I am not capable of doing it.
ReplyDeleteI admit I felt guilty having somebody mow our yard. I realized it is frugal to have somebody to mow.
Back in the days when people couldn't afford luxuries and did everything themselves, when they couldn't they had a community who could help. Need help mowing- somebody from your church would offer to help for a batch of cookies or a nice homemade meal. Nowadays it's just harder for that type of community. DH & I don't mind hiring a lawn care company because we are giving back to our local community in a different way by supporting local businesses.