How much would it cost to outsource ALL housework?

[silvercuckoo]

Asking more out of curiosity, but still.

How much do you think it would cost to outsource all daily household chores (apart from those that are pleasurable / hobbies, like light gardening or walking the dog in good weather?)
Say two young children, single adult, 4 bed house. Cooking, cleaning and tidy-up, laundry / ironing, shopping, household admin etc.

How do you outsource paperwork, @thighofrelief?

What is the paperwork as well? Sorry for my ignorance.

A full time housekeeper (who, IMO, shoukdn’t be expected to look after pets or to work outdoors ie in the garden) with no childcare so basically does laundry, ironing, tidying, cleaning, shopping, cooking and errands, will not cost under £40k. A lot of my friends have housekeepers and tbh they do tend to get in the way of life!

What do you do? You say your kids are home half the day and you don't need childcare - not shaming having a cleaner to help but do you really need someone to do all of that if you are that bothered about the cost?

Can't you:
Walk the dogs with your kids?
Do your own household admin (don't even know what that is, surely it's just paying bills - in which case set up a direct debit and it's done!)
Do your own laundry (just chuck 1 load in per day and tumble dry straight after.
Tidy up as you go?

Do you just expect/want to do nothing other than play with your kids all day I'm just really confused as to why you need all of this?

What do you think us paupers do with 2 kids, a job and not enough money to outsource everything in the house

Who is looking after the children? Can’t they take them out? Tidy up after them?
Unfortunately not, it is a part-time nanny with a medical degree (my oldest needs special care), who signed up on a strict no tidy up no cleaning no cooking contract. She is relatively cheap as she is currently doing her overseas degree conversion and has somewhere to live / earn money while in the process. That's why I experimented with this cleaner arrangement.

Do you mean it’s S till five filthy Op? Or that it’s a bit untidy with toys etc by the time you get in?
Both really. Toys, playdough, spilled drinks, crumbs and bits of food, dogs being let out to the garden and back again, which theoretically should not happen but still somehow happens (i.e. muddy footprints and leaves / debris), paint splashes, pens and pencils strewn around, dirty wellies prints after the children came from their walk, dishes from lunch and dinner, cat sick. That's yesterday.

Hold on - are there cleaners who tidy as well??! Is this a thing?
Mine does (and the previous did), I did not even know it wasn't a thing.

What do you do?
Errr… I am a lady of leisure, of course, working 60 hours a week usually, sometimes more. But to be honest yes, my intention was just to spend time with my kids when I have time and not to bother about housework. Probably that does make me feel entitled.
I know a load of laundry a day or a dog walk does not seem like a lot, but realistically I have an hour in the evening and an hour in the morning on weekdays. I am also not the best organised person.

A full time housekeeper (who, IMO, shoukdn’t be expected to look after pets or to work outdoors ie in the garden) with no childcare so basically does laundry, ironing, tidying, cleaning, shopping, cooking and errands, will not cost under £40k.

Thanks. I probably need to be more realistic.

I think your child care provider should be cleaning up after herself. Not doing household cleaning but wiping the table after meals, making the children put their toys away as they go etc. Your children need to be encouraged to help, putting their cups in the dishwasher etc.

I don’t think it’s reasonable for the nanny to refuse to tidy up after the kids. If I were you I’d ask her to start doing that. Tidying up after the kids would really help you out, I think.

She doesn’t wipe up paint splashes? Not reasonable.

Sorry if it's already been asked but wtf is 'household admin'?
My direct debits go out, some places send me a paper copy of a statement/bill etc and I stuff that into the paperwork cupboard.... what have I missed?

Children need to eat at the table to avoid crumbs and spilled drinks - that includes snacks.

Activities have to be cleaned up afterwards - always.

Dogs - in and out of back door only - towel rubbed and feet wiped.

Your nanny's the problem.

I work 55/60 hours a week.

Up 6ish. Dishwasher emptied; laundry on. Out at 7.15. Often not home before 9pm - cook dinner, tidy kitchen, wipe table.

3500 sq feet. Cleaner comes Monday, Weds and Fri. 8 hours including ironing and a bit of hanging/folding. £96pw.

House is clean and very tidy. DC are grown and no dogs. I don't know how you work 60 hrs pw at your stage? But you must have someone with decent standards looking after the dc.

Sorry if it's already been asked but wtf is 'household admin'?
Bills, registering nanny's overtime and letting the payroll agency know, arranging / rearranging medical appointments. I don't know why it seems to take so much of my time.

I'd call household admin:
Checking statements and accounts
Household accounts
Keeping on top of service companies - windowcleaning, gardeners, pool cleaner, piano tuner
Odd jobs - noting and booking
Holiday arrangements
Family diary and appointments
Calls to book: hair, dr, dentist, etc

Takes me at least two hours a week.

No No No.. You're doing this wrong. How the bloody hell did your nanny get you to agree to absolutely no tidying up behind themselves? It is common sense.. a standard part of the job.. of life! Your kids will learn that they needn't take any responsibility because someone else will do it.

Get a better nanny, and a cleaner at a hundred odd or so a month to help do actual cleaning.

I hate house hold admin but realistically do hardly any. It’s just when it comes, it seems to come at once and all at the wrong time ie my car insurances come in January, we bought our house in March and the broker arranged all the other protection and insurance at the same time as the mortgage so all those renewals come up at once. Ball ache! I always waste money because it’s to rushed to find the best deal

Anyway I think the answer is housekeeper who preps an evening meal for you. I much prefer childcare to take place off the premises to prevent the chaos of which you speak but understand it’s not always possible for older children

1k??? If I had paid someone a grand to look after my house for a month I would expect it to be spotless!

My cleaner charges 13£ per hour. She does 3 hours per week and cleans my 5-bed beautifully.

I have an ironing lady who picks up once per fortnight and charges £25 per load.

No dogs to walk!

Our Nanny does 3 days per week and keeps on top of kids' laundry, batch cooks for the kids and keeps their rooms tidy. She costs us £1k per month.

So for about 1.2k per month we get pretty much everything done. Including 3 full days of childcare !

Look a no cleaning nanny I get. But no tidy up? And leaves a mess instead? No no no. I would say a few more things:

1. Boring as it is, smaller and more frequent loads of laundry are easier to do. I put on a podcast and sort it out. Gives me 10 mins of ‘me’ time and a chore is done. And I hate laundry.
2. I would really investigate a new nanny. Really. You need someone who will make sure your house is clean- crumbs and juice everywhere after the Cleaner has cleaned is unacceptable.
3. Ruthless organisation is unfortunately key with a working parent if you want to spend time with them after work. So I do 20-30 mins of chores and 30 mins of emails/follow up after the kids are in bed. There are lists and set days for everything.

I would say get into a ruthless routine now because once they start school the ‘admin’ gets harder. If you had a half decent nanny, a Cleaner who worked the same hours they do, you might find she had more time to do other chores in that 10 hours- so maybe some ironing etc.

OPs child has Medical needs though, she may not have much choice in nanny

Dog walking is normally about £18 an hours isn't it?

A dog walker local to me charges £13 per half-hour, per dog. And she charges that for everything.

When I was on a course that meant I'd be out of the house for 9-10 hours, I enquired how much she'd charge to pop round and let the dogs out for a wee in the middle of the day - £26 each time (and this was a few years ago). She didn't have to travel far, either, her house backs on to mine.

My lovely neighbour did it for free. I bought her a nice gift though.

DP used to work for a company that provides payroll services for people who have domestic staff and he was gobsmacked at how much some of them earn. It's commonplace for them to be on net pay contracts, too, where the take-home salary is guaranteed. This means that the employer foots the bill for things like student loan repayments or CM deducted from salary.

When he came across a couple (housekeeper and handyman) who were on a combined salary of £80k AND got a free house to live in, we seriously considered a change of career!

I know about the nanny- (also have had a child with some medical needs for a year)- but that doesn’t excuse leaving the house in such a filthy state. If the OP is looking to spend more time on house admin, I would suggest that the same money would be better redirected at a better nanny.

Thank you all for your opinions. I feel a bit like inviting someone with a properly run house for an audit and let them swear at me Gordon Ramsay style. I am clearly spending money, so why isn't it working?
The medical needs are not extremely severe as in needing round the clock care, but the nanny needs 1) to know what to do in an emergency, and react swiftly, calmly and without panic 2) being able to administer medication regularly and track some parameters. Think diabetes, epilepsy, severe asthma (I don't want to give the exact diagnosis). I am not restricted in the choice of candidates to make it unrealistic, but every new nanny will have to have either long training / supervision, or be already experienced with the condition.
I agreed the no tidy up without thinking about it really, did not think it would turn into such issue. Definitely a mistake on my part.

Ah, so filthy doesn't mean what you think it means.

I was very recently a SAHM to 2 pre schoolers and there’s no way they made the house ‘filthy’ in an afternoon... a bit messy with toys but that’s it (which they then put away before bed). Are you sure it’s filthy?

I was asked upthread how i outsourced paperwork. I have a friend in the same line of work as me who is retired. She's not a very close friend but i trust her as i know her and how she works and behaves. Anyway I gather all snail mail and some signed cheques and shove it in a Tesco bag and give it to her once a week. If it's more urgent i WhatsApp her a photo of a letter and she responds as me. It only works because she has worked at what i do and we trust each other.