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?

cleaner, gardener, car valet, seamstress and i have never painted a room in my life!

rolling my eyes isn’t getting my knickers in a twist! 😆

Posting about it disparagingly multiple times is, though.

I love how AI is now making the list! I am picturing the household robots I thought would be in my house when I grew up. I guess we’re not far off.

One work- related piece of outsourcing I need to look into for consulting is for report writing, as I have to produce fairly lengthy reports where I have to sit at the computer and reference multiple other documents. I am thinking about trying to dictate some of my reports. I have had mixed results with dictating to software but thought about asking someone to type it up for me. I have dictated some reports in a previous role and found it easier than sitting looking at a screen for hours. Had anyone done this?

We use as needed

Laundry- try Laundryheap if they are near you,collect one day and return the next ,can do dry cleaning too.

Gardener

Cleaners weekly

Car valeting service as needed

Ocado

Window cleaning service

Handy man/ woman locally

'Cook 'frozen meals in freezer for emergency food

Caterers for events at home

Home beautician and massage services- urban app

oh i found a IFA so helpful when it came to life, health and CI cover

Cleaner, click and collect shopping, not beating my self up about buying in help with horse when needed. Car valet clean, house painting.

Window cleaner

Oh and a really good one I've found is ordering lots of cards from Whistlefish when they have a sale on and then we're never short of a birthday,thank you card etc.
I'm amazed how helpful it is to always have a stock in .
Also I only send presents now from online companies directly to the recipient so no post office faff .
Alerts for a few days before each event and a couple of minutes online and so much time saved .

I thought everyone had a window cleaner!

I would love this person in my life. Sort of like a house partner or something! You’re really very lucky. 🥰

If it's not personal info (or that can be worked around, e.g. generic intro paragraphs or you can replace names/personal details) then AI will do that for you easily, even across multiple docs/sources. Dictating went out a long time ago.

There are various virtual PA services that will do your life admin for you, arrange workmen, manage your emails etc.

I would also consider trimming time off the weekly shop if it's done in person, as all that is a mega time killer. I have a weekly and monthly list so most of it is automatically delivered, especially non-perishables and household goods. And then we get a farm delivery box service (local one) for the good stuff, way better than supermarkets and no queuing.

Decluttering is also a huge timesaver as every single item in your home requires cleaning, maintenance, moving around etc.

I've always wanted a personal media assistant, so someone who has a list of all the books, actors, shows, types of entertainment etc I like and has the books and movies and shows and real-life performances lined up for me so I don't miss anything but don't have to look myself (and picks out more things they think I'd like). Like a personal shopper but for culture.

Things have probably moved on since I last did this. What specific AI tools do I need to look at? Thank you.

They’re called husbands!

If you earn more than what you'd pay people to do cleaning/decorating/gardening that it makes sense to get people in. Even if you earn similar to decorators, unless you are really good, get them in. You are providing work. The two older retired men, who I call, the gardeners, rely on the £100 a week extra they pull in, it's only April to October, but it means they heat their homes over winter and have a good Christmas.

Cleaning.

I wanted to outsource laundry and ironing but as it’s just the 3 of us it’s just as much faff sorting it as it is doing it myself so DH does it.

We eat out regularly at least once a week.

DH does the garden/bins/physical work like deep cleaning. I do the cooking/bed and bath times/ other life admin.

That’s a really good point about creating work for people and a great example where they can not worry about heating bills from your gardening work. Our previous cleaner left because she got a job and gave up cleaning but at the time it did feel like money well spent.

I use a personal shopper for clothes shopping - Circle of style - and they are on WhatsApp which makes it super easy

i use my kettler window cleaning machine and it’s amazing!!

Not necessarily, a quick google shows a number of businesses that provide the service virtually

In terms of clothes shopping, I definitely spend time shopping around for the right peice, trawling through sales etc, again a throwback to not having much money. Maybe I do need therapy! But I’m coming to realise that frugal living only takes you so far and it makes more sense for me to take on more consultancy and focus on earning more, which may also require me to spend more. So paying a cleaner, for ironing, buying the clothes I want at full price in one go, paying a bit more to just have things delivered etc. I am really seeing how much I need to change how I think about these things.

Highish earner now, but when I was earning a lot more and working away a lot I did the following:

Upped the hours I paid for cleaning, so that they could also change beds, do a bit more of the deeper cleaning on rotation (e.g. dusting on top of picture frames and wardrobes, cleaning windows, cleaning under the sofa etc.) and do a little ironing too (mostly bed linen).

Sent some laundry out - mostly work wear, such as shirts. The local dry cleaners would collect, launder, iron and return at a time that worked for us.

Gardening. I don't have a large garden so I really only needed the hedges and a bit of weeding/tidying/pruning. Think it was a monthly visit, but perhaps it was fortnightly.

Exterior house maintenance. I'm pretty handy and enjoy DIY but I just didn't have the time or the inclination to do the jobs I didn't enjoy. So a couple of times a year I had a maintenance person come and do outside jobs such as clearing the gutters, pressure washing the patio and paths, repainting lintels etc. Saved me time at the weekends.

Groceries: shopped online and arranged delivery. Ditto for milk, juice, eggs etc. from the local milkman. Got subscriptions for wine, cat food, and cleaning products.

Car washing and vaccing. Again, I'd usually do this myself (I do it myself now!) but I'd get mt car washed and vacced once a fortnight.

Beauty treatments: mani, pedi, brows, lashes, waxing. Basically allowed me to look put together without a lot of effort. I also find treatments relaxing so it was a a great way to wind down.

Cat sitting: if I knew no one would be home til very late (or at home at all) I have a wonderful cat sitter who'd pop in to feed the cats and clean their trays etc.

Remember that highly paid jobs can be stressful and involve stupid hours so some of this is as much about self care as it is caring for your home. Outsourcing some of this work was invaluable as it allowed me to spend my limited free time doing things I enjoyed rather than the things I don't. It's a privilege, and everyone is different, but just prioritise outsourcing the jobs you enjoy the least and/or which are the most time consuming.

My wishlist is:

Cleaner 3h PW
Housekeeper 2h PW (3 days after cleaner to do light touch up plus laundry, batch cooking and ironing etc)
Gardener 2h per fortnight
PA 2h per fortnight (one of those semi-virtual ones who can get authorised to do bill switching etc)
Handyman 2h per month

Oh, and I'd hire in staff to help me do things that I could do but find difficult. E.g. my cat was asthmatic and had to be taught to use an inhaler, so I could have paid a catsitter to come and teach her.

Or hire a childminder or babysitter purely to push the pram 2h. Or to teach the baby to take a bottle the way they do in nursery.

Basically things I CAN do with patience but they can do with ease.