To look at using a virtual assistant for personal life

[Huffingood]

I am employed full time in a high earning, stressful job and have 2DC under 4. DH also has a very full on job. We have a cleaner, nanny and help with the garden maintenance. We also sometimes send out ironing.

We are obviously very privileged to be able to get this help in (much needed I might add and we are still run ragged!), however it comes with quite a lot of admin. I am beginning to realise / hear from friends that the already huge admin load is about to get bigger when school starts!

Has anyone used the services of a real life or virtual assistant for domestic type admin? Examples for me include doing the employer admin and payroll for our nanny, paying bills, scheduling and managing appointments, subscriptions, ordering things we need, processing personal expenses that I can charge to my employer…and the as yet unknown quantity that will be school admin?

You are right in that with school comes a lot of admin. If you’re already struggling and can afford it, why not. This is why in days gone by the men went to work and women managed the household. These days women are (generally) expected to “do it all”. Many women still do. You earn the money, if you want to outsource it then why would that be unreasonable?

Send it to Alex have always sounded very appealing!

School admin really isn’t a big deal as it is made out to be on MN

Depends on the school @drpet49 tbh. We have constant last minute requests to dress up, come in for special assemblies, Mother’s Day picnics

Thanks @Sacmagique75 - interesting perspective, as my DH thinks the idea is mad…guess who does all the admin? 🙄

If you can afford it do it

I’d love this so I’m following with interest to see if there are any interesting solutions/ agencies suggested.

if not- you could see if your nanny would do some ‘PAing’ for you. I once had one that did a bit

Sure, there are general organiser companies like Buy Time that do all sorts of organising. If you can find an individual VA it will be cheaper.

Nothing unusual about it, as you can tell your husband.

Yes I think 2 parents with full on, full time stressful jobs need to outsource as much as possible. Do not let your DH downplay the admin! If you can afford it do it - offload some of the mental load.

You will probably do this anyway but they get more effective the longer you know them and the more they do, so try and find a long term individual if you can.

@Puppyseahorse I hadn’t thought of that, that’s a good idea and would help in keeping the hours going when one of the children starts school. Although I don’t think I can ask her to do her own payroll 😂 I guess I could ask our accountants to help with some of that.

If you are keeping your nanny, they should be able to cover child/school admin. Some of my friends have an email address just for this and their nanny has access. I don’t think it’s wrong to put money towards making your life easier if you can, but I’m not sure how much it would help - we use virtual PAs at work and they aren’t that efficient

So you get a cleaner and a nanny so you have less work to do.

Then you get a VA to do the admin that the cleaner and nanny generate.

Who will you get to organise the VA? ;)

It's like the woman who swallowed a fly!

Ooh I should start offering this as a service, I've always been the one to do this type of tasks at work and need freelance work that fits around my other self-employed work. Would absolutely love it.

Presumably he can take it over then if this idea is mad?

@ILikePizzas Oh God!! 😂😂😂

@stripytees if you do and become self employed PM me!

@AlisonDonut indeed!

How many bills, subscriptions and appointments do you have that you need someone else to manage them?! It seems bonkers to me to pay someone when it's not exactly difficult or time consuming to sort these things out yourself.

If your dh thinks school admin won't be an issue, put him as the lead contact for calls and emails and hand him an in-tray for all school letters which the Nanny can put letters into for him to deal with.

He will sharp change his mind.

Have to say me and dh both work ft with two young kids, no nanny, gardener, cleaner or ironing service and still manage to sort all the school crap. But then we don't have the budget to buy in support so maybe it would be different if we could afford it. It's just normal to us to do all of that ourselves (had an after school childminder til the kids turned 8, now they just entertain themselves while I work in an adjacent room term time).

God I’d love someone to organise my personal and home life for me! And I only work 4 days a week 😆

If you can afford it, crack on, sounds like a dream!

Love this idea @BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz 😁

Appreciate it sounds a bit excessive, and other people are probably just better at managing everything, but DH job is pretty all consuming and unpredictable and mine is very full on and involves quite a bit of international travel. The wheels fall off pretty quickly without the outsourced help TBH, for me at least. I can get quite stressed and overwhelmed and my MH suffers. That’s a whole other thread!

@Huffingood I think it sounds like a great idea. I was a sahm so did all the home admin, car admin, school admin, organised play schemes for the children in the holidays if they wanted to do some sports or arty things, did all the dentist/GP appointments. It is a lot mentally if you are also working full time in a job that requires a lot of brain work.

I think if people had excess money they would pay for cleaners, gardeners and housekeepers and several people on here have done that. Some just want someone to come in for an hour in the morning to clean down the kitchen, pack the dishwasher, strip the beds and get a load of laundry on. There are personal chefs on YouTube who showcase their meal prep for clients too. Tell me if you had money to burn you wouldn't pay for a personal chef, I would.

It's a fantastic idea. My friend and I often talk about jacking it all in and starting a virtual PA business for life admin, we'd smash it!

If you can afford it and it will have a positive impact on your life, then do it.

This is 100% a thing I use a VA to organise personal stuff as well as business - family appointments, hospitals, dentist, hair, beauty etc and make sure they’re in my diary with travel time. I pay £25 an hour.

She also organises the gardener, tradesmen etc, reminds me on birthdays, presents etc if I need. Makes sure I get my contacts, make up etc before it runs out.

I’ve got someone who does all my travel business and personal (no charge) does all the check ins etc that is a game changer, recommend to everyone!

My housekeeper does the home admin like filing bills away, making sure things have been paid, can lay her hands on anything we need. She also does fridge admin, organises the cupboards and changes all the bedding and towels etc.

Everything we have regularly is on subscribe and save from Amazon - toiletries, sanitary products, cleaning products, kitchen and toilet roll etc.

Basically anything that doesn’t need me to do it I don’t do, and the headspace is freed up to make more money in my business and my time is freed up to spend more time with my 4 teenage kids and DH.

it’s a worthwhile investment - if you can afford it do it - and don’t feel guilty!