To ask if you’re a higher earner, what do you outsource to give you more time?

[butterpears]

I have the opportunity to take on more consultancy work, which is quite lucrative as I am in a very specific field. I have done a smaller amount of this in the past. If I do it I will realistically need to outsource as much as possible to free up time. The costs of this would be more than worth it in terms of what I can earn.

My thoughts so far are to get a cleaner (we had one in the past but not recently), get my hair blowdried once a week (I have difficult hair that takes ages). My DH does most of the cooking and food shopping, I do most of the laundry and life admin. I’m struggling to think of more that I could outsource because I tend to have a fairly frugal mindset.

What do you outsource if you can use the freed up time to bring in more money?

Laundry. You'll probably find you have a local service that collects and delivers for less cost than you'd expect. Failing that, find a laundrette that does service washes for your sheets & towels, etc, and have your clothes dry cleaned.

Food shopping - do it online, obviously, and have it delivered.

Set up Amazon subscriptions for anything else you need regularly.

gardener
cleaner
dog walker 2x a week
valet car clean

and someone who sewed on all school labels!

My cleaner comes for 2 hours a week but saves me far far more than that in time. Plus the weekly pre-clean tidy up is far more effective than a monthly massive blitz. Definitely get a cleaner.

Can your DH sort meal subscriptions for a bit to remove some mental load from your DH and free him up to do some more of the life admin?

Ironing. Cleaner. Groceries delivered.

no children?

Cleaner
Food delivery or something like hello fresh

I have a cleaner for three hours a week. Window cleaner, car valeted on a monthly contract, gardener one morning a month.

I buy things like household cleaning products, loo rolls etc on subscription so I don’t have to think about them.

I like cooking and find it relaxing so don’t mind shopping in person most of the time but I do order from Ocado once a month for store cupboard stuff.

I work ft over four days and have a consultancy firm which I work ten hours a week on average for.

Me and late teen DC at home.

I do very few chores at home. I just keep the kitchen and my bathroom clean, DC keep their own clean. We all pitch in with laundry.

best thing to do….
deactivate your mumsnet account!

Let me live through you for a moment!

How about asking a local food business how much it would be to prep you a few meals per week? Some catering companies near me offer stuff like this, so you get the benefit of amazing food, like homemade/restaurant comfort food like lasagne etc that you just bung in the oven.

We have a nanny housekeeper for 3 days a week. The kids are at school and during the day and she does the laundry and cleaning while we’re at work.

I’m not particularly a high earner but I do work a lot.
I have a cleaner, window cleaner (I think most people do?), have someone who helps with pets when required if I need to go away for work etc and also somebody who will help as hoc with most things (including, embarrassingly, things such as present wrapping on the 23rd December when I’m doing 14/15 hour days trying to be able to have some proper time off over Christmas and realise it’s just not going to happen in the time I have left).

My cleaner also changes bedclothes, does and puts away a load of washing, waits in for and unpacks the Sainsbury’s delivery, and will also run local errands like picking something up from the dry cleaners. She also uses her initiative - so I might come home and find the fridge has been cleaned and tidied.

She comes twice a week, and she is the person who enables me to work the hours I do.

I have a cleaner for 10 hours a week. I'm a sahm too. Those 10 hours are deep cleaning and ironing.
Do you have children? If so get a nanny or someone to help specifically with the children.

Thanks so much for the replies so far. My DH does basically all of the cooking and so tends to also do the food shop. He likes cooking so outsourcing that wouldn’t make much difference to me. He isn’t great at life admin and that seems harder to outsource.

I could get the cleaner to change bedding, that’s something I’ve never done. I have never outsourced laundry so need to look into that.

Is there anything else?!

And yes deactivating mumsnet would help as I certainly waste a lot of time!

I have teen DC so past the nanny stage. They let themselves in from school and DH wfh a lot.

Gardener
Online food shop

Its best to outsource the things you don’t like doing (hence my list)

I love walking my dog, so that would never make my list.

So probably best for you and DH to have an honest chat about the things you want to continue with, and the things you would happily see the back of. That’s going to be very subjective.

I don’t iron a huge amount but again I could also ask the cleaner to do some of that. It seems like a cleaner for more hours than we previously had would be helpful.

I agree with a housekeeper type role or a cleaner who is happy to take on other tasks. Ours would change the sheets and do washing if we wanted. She'll also do deep cleans and sort out all the kitchen cupboards or something like that if we want her to. I love her.

do you have a garden?
do you have a car?

Window cleaner and food delivery

That’s a really good point. I would be glad to see the back of cleaning, doing my hair (total pain), driving!! But I don’t think I can stretch to a driver. I still feel I must be missing lots of ideas though because I was a student at one point for many years and had less earning capacity earlier in my career.

I do spend time on the garden but it’s something I mostly enjoy.

My husband is the high earner, I do t work so do most of the household stuff. The kids have left home but with a large, family house and gardens to maintain there’s not a lot of spare cash.

But (never begin a sentence with but, I know 😁) we’re currently downsizing, have bought our flat and selling large house. This will free up funds to allow for a cleaner. We’re also going to buy lots of nice, new bed linens and will have it professionally laundered. We want to enjoy our free time together.

Get your cleaner to tidy, clean and Iron. Get a gardener if you have a garden.
The main thing is then you can get people to help on other stuff eg go to a nice high end travel agent to get a holiday rather than worrying about shopping around. Or if you need a new outfit then go to a department store with a personal shopper that sort of thing

What do you mean by "life admin", exactly?

The reason I ask is that often there are things you can do to automate bill paying, prescriptions, insurances, etc., if that's the sort of thing you're getting tied up with.