What to outsource??

[Abneyandteal19]

Looking for a bit of advice...at home there is me DH and 3 DS ages 3, 5, and 7.

For first time in our lives husband has got a new amazing job- doubled his salary, we aren't talking 6 figures but not far off. I work PT 2 days per week.

We have a cleaner once a fortnight for 3 hrs.

Husband new job means more time out of the house, longer days, less work from home and some UK travel.

I appreciate lots of people are struggling right now and believe me we have been there!! But husband has worked really hard to get where he is and that's ultimately the nice situation we find ourselves in.

No credit card debt or loans, just mortgage. Have about £400 credit on energy bills.

What else would you outsource to make life easier? What should I do/get? I hate housework with a passion, but like a tidy house!! aim is to prioritise my days off spending time with my little one who missed out on a lot of 1:1 time with me due to being born just before Covid/ having a 2/4 year old brother at the time!! Also making the hell time that is post school pick up- tea time as easy as possible!!

Please give me your tips!!

I would Defn increase the cleaners hours, ideally to two days a week and include laundry in what she does.
Do you use meal prep services like hello fresh etc?

More cleaner hours

Get the cleaner to change the beds if they don't already (mine does this and I bloody love it!)

Ironing

Gardening in spring / summer

Babysitter once a month for an evening off with your DH to catch up - time like this will be at a premium with his new job!

I'm a single parent with a full on FT job so outsource a lot!

• cleaner weekly for 3 hours
• window cleaner (will do inside if I ask)
• Gardener (mows lawn in summer and will do one off tree/bush trimming when asked)
• painting when needed

I would outsource ironing if I thought this was necessary and am looking in to someone coming in to clean my oven

I'd get a weekly cleaner but increase their hours so they could also do the washing and ironing. That's the stuff that dreams are made of

More cleaning hours to 3/4 hours once a week and get them to do bed changes, towels etc.

Outsource your ironing or include in cleaning (I hate ironing).

Find a catering company near you and order in some freshly made family meals for your freezer/evenings when your tight on time.
Or
Hire a chef for meal prep once a month.

Get a gardener (I'd love a gardener).

Flower delivery every fortnight or source your own from florists while out with DC.

Window cleaner.

Build up your savings buffer first before outsourcing any domestic chores and spending madly. Presumably he's on a probation period so he's not permanent just yet. I'd look to save the difference between his current salary and his new one for 6 months. If he isn't made permanent after the probation period at least you have savings to tide you go over while he job hunts.

I’d save up and go on more expensive holidays 🤩

While this is sensible, doubling your cleaners hours so you get 3hours a week isn't going to break the bank. so I'd start there.

Depending on how much you have to spend you could employ a house keeper to do all the above and more for 2/3hours a day or a couple days a week.

House keepers would also arrange your diary for you. Do your food shop. Do all laundry. Get workmen in to fix/decorate etc and do besic gardening when needed (cut lawns etc) and babysit one night a month.

Don’t make any major financial commitments for a year after a big salary increase was some of the best advice I was given,

That said, I would consider more cleaner hours and a gardener as those generally aren’t long term commitments. I’d also prioritise house improvements to make it easier to live in- better storage furniture and suchlike.

If you only work two days a week, I wouldn't be spending the extra money on a cleaner, but paying off mortgage/building up savings or buying experiences such as mini breaks and holidays. That said, I think it's money well spent to pay someone for their skill in doing a job better than you or faster. I'm pretty good at decorating, but it takes ages and now I would rather pay to have a professional job done in half the time I'd take.

You could have your cleaner weekly - but that's about a clean house rather than a tidy one. If you have too much stuff, maybe pay someone to help you declutter. If not, maybe pay someone to build some effective storage. Definitely get all of the house maintenance/repairs/decorating done while you can afford it.

Save first, make sure things like pensions are fully topped up & you have all emergency funds fully able to cover your entire costs of living if you both lost your jobs for a minimum of 6 months.

The money isn't going anywhere if you hang on to it for a bit & great new jobs may turn out to be hell after a few months.
What if something happens in the next year that means your husbands wages return to their previous level?

It's always much easier to increase your spending than to decrease it, so take some time to enjoy having more money in the bank/invested before you think about increasing your living costs.

The reason lots of people on big wages aren't really well off is because they spend every pay rise so they never really get ahead, just increase their costs.

In a year, with extra money behind you (& it may be that your husband ends up spending a fair bit of it on his new travel etc..) you'll be much more financially secure, used to the income & able to make clearer decisions about what would really make a difference that's worth spending money on, rather than feeling like a kid who has been given £20 to spend in a sweet shop looking for things to splash out on.

Thanks all some wise advice there!!

We will definitely be saving each month as people say. Our kids have never been abroad so might look to do that in 2024. Need to get them all passports first!!

Upping the cleaner seems to be the way forward and isn't a huge financial commitment.

That's also a good point about storage. We've been making do with plastic drawers that are falling to bits and 10yr old IKEA stuff. That's going to top of list. We don't have clutter as I hate it but with 3 young boys we do have a lot of stuff!

I do get what people are saying about don't spend it all and I agree! I want to be sensible. Want to look at overpaying the mortgage- although it is pretty big now at £1200 a month but I've heard this is a really good thing so will look into that.

We both have good pensions we pay each month.

Gardener isn't necessary- we live in a smallish new build terrace with astroturf garden

DH got first pay check end of Nov so we basically had a nice Christmas and treated the kids and our parents who help us a lot and we normally struggle to buy them anything decent. Also decorated our living room ourselves while husband had a week in between jobs - just ourselves and no new furniture just painting wallpaper and new carpet so we paid that off. Next pay check will def start saving.

Also understand about probation etc but it's only 3 months and he's already done 1.5 and loves it!! Came from civil service where everything got blocked with red tape- so he's loving actually making thing happen. So don't think he'll hate it anytime soon!

Any more advice welcomed- do you have an account for bills and one for spending?? We've worked out what all our bills cost per month and thought about putting that amount in one account so it's easy to track everyday spending?? All our money is shared always has been so everything in joint accounts.

He might not hate the job and love it but the employer might decide that he’s not a good fit. Probation works both ways and employers can let go staff within two years with minimal notice. So it’s worth bearing this in mind.

Reducing your mortgage is a good idea because you’ll build up more equity & borrow less when you come to remortgage.

Open saving accounts for different things like holidays, Christmas and the children.

What jobs do you find most annoying? I get bored of meal planning and making packed lunches so I'd like to try something like Gousto, or kids having school dinners more often, especially in winter. I hate vacuuming so maybe a robot vacuum cleaner. But absolutely save first.

Cleaner Monday and Friday 2 hours each time. Ironing service, some kind of food thing like hello fresh.

When my DC were that age I had a housekeeper to do the laundry and cleaning and help with the DC a bit (did the occasional school run for me) . I asked that they did the ironing in the family room when I got back from school so that if I needed to I could send one child in to read/watch TV and the housekeeper could keep an eye on them whilst I supervised homework/music practice with the other. Worked really well as she loved children and would babysit as and when.

Congratulations. It sounds like a great position your DH has. Like other posters say, I'd be wary about upping costs. Could you not save the additional money your DH is making now to make life easier in the future? Your children are still quite young but the cost of helping them get established in their later years like college or buying a house/car could be a lot more in the future. Also how long does your DH want such a role? He may wish to step back before retirement age or work longer. I only say this because your asking us for tips on outsourcing but I think if you really hate doing something or it is quicker for someone else to do it or you need the time you'd know. Also in my experience finding good people to outsource to is another thing to consider otherwise it can become more stressful than doing it yourself.

That said, if money were no object I'd probably have a mother's help and use a meal prep service 😋

If I had loads of extra money I’d have a housekeeper - no question. I would LOVE someone to be a general help - a bit of housework, a bit of childcare, running some errands…

In a more realistic world (because housekeepers are £££), I’d have a weekly cleaner, a babysitter once a fortnight so I could have some me time/DH and I could go out by ourselves, and possibly outsource the ironing.

I’d get a housekeeper who could do errands etc not just cleaning

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