s/o What % are you? How much do you outsource cleaning, yardwork, etc.?
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Anonymous
| 97% with two really little kids. DH does not want to do chores during his down time so we outsource cleaners ($100 b/c we also have a large dog) and yard work ($20 weekly.) |
Anonymous
| 93% and we don't outsource anything. It's definitely not in our budget at the moment, at least not until we are no longer paying daycare tuition for 2 kids. We live in a condo, so no yard, but I'd give anything to have help with cleaning. I feel like I can never keep our place looking even remotely tidy. I wish we could eat out more too, but as things stand I end up needing to make lots of foods like beans and soups that take a lot of prep work but are relatively cheap. |
Anonymous
| I think 97% and we have a weekly cleaner, someone to cut the lawn and eat out once or twice a week (usually weekends). |
Anonymous
|
95%
cleaner every other week Do own yard work, painting, plumbing, repairs, remodeling, etc. No babysitters or nannies (SAHM and trade off with friends for nights out) |
Anonymous
|
85% and we have a house cleaning service come once every 3 weeks or so (although it hasn't been as often over the past couple months). It was $75 when we were in the TH - haven't had her come regularly yet to the house. I am going to call tomorrow and probably just do once a month here, probably for $125 or so per visit.
We also have daycare a couple afternoons a week for afterschool, and order food in at least one night a week. We don't really go on dates all that often, so that is our weekly in-home date night. Thank goodness my husband is very handy - it has saved us thousands in renovations over the past 8 years. He did most of our kitchen renovations himself and installed all the hardwood on our first level. |
Anonymous
| 96% and weekly cleaners and outsource yard work. |
Anonymous
|
I don't think HHI tells you that much. We are 91% but have a reasonable mortgage, share one car, and have no student loans or credit card debt. So we are better off financially than someone making a lot more who has a huge mortgage, two car payments, student loans, etc.
Anyway, we have a once a month housecleaner, and we outsource yard work typically once a year - having a service come to take care of major things and then we just do upkeep. However, I admit my dad loves to come over a few times a year and tinker in our yard, and my mom stays with us a lot and ends up doing some cleaning (despite my protests) so we do have other help. We both work but our house is pretty small so keeping up after the once a month deep clean isn't that big of a deal. |
Anonymous
Did I miss something or did you meant to say it's a nosy question? I'll agree there... it is nosy, but you also don't have to respond. Anyways, i don't think my original post sounded resentful at all towards people who do outsource; I am really just curious how other families' budgets break down. FWIW, I can afford to outsource; I just don't. When I said I don't have extra dollars floating around for it, it's just b/c we prefer to save ~65% of our take-home on an annual basis and have the family spend a couple hours on Saturday picking/cleaning up around the house. It's all about priorities -- I'd rather spend the money on a fun and exciting activity for the family. Plus, I think learning to clean up after yourself is a valuable skill for our kids to have. |
Anonymous
I did not agree wth the poster, but now I do, your response is very revealing. i have had a cleaning service since my sinlgle days. My children pick up after themselves. However they do no scrub the tubs with Comet, nor are the doing the rest of the deep cleaning. Prior to the cleaners comming, we do A ton of picking up. The house appears clean when they arrive, they are just there to detail it. We manage to have a cleaner and instead of polishing floors we are busy doing fun and exciting things as a family. Nothing worse than being a dual income family and spending your weekends cleaning the toilet bowl and mowing the lawn. We als have house on Deep Creek, where we prefer to spend our weekends, so there really is no time for weekend chores. |
Anonymous
| We're not getting a new car-the $ we would be spending on a new payment, we have decided will be spent on using a cleaning service and outsourcing the yard work. Has definately improved our quality of life and family time in the week-end. |
Anonymous
| 95%. We have a cleaning lady every other week ($75) and we live in a condo so all maintenance is covered and there is a concierge, who helps us often. We have a dogfights that keeps our dog when we travel. We used to have a regular dogwalker and personal trainers but we lost those when we stopped working as much and our income decreased. |
Anonymous
| 93% and we have a housecleaner every other week. We do all the yard work ourselves. |
Anonymous
| Pet grooming every 3 months. |
Anonymous
| whatever. percentages. i outsource to calculate them. |
Anonymous
|
We outsource everything we can.
Biweekly cleaners - $200 a month Local teen to do lawn mowing and yardwork - $40 a visit Peapod for groceries - $5 or free Premade dinners half the time from Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, etc. - we spend $1,000 on food a month We're 98%, but we did this years ago. We're both out of the house 50+ hours a week, and want to spend our free time with the kids, not doing chores. It's really not all that expensive, compared to the value of our time. |