Concept of valuing your time and nuances

[hperry924]

@planetarylight Case in point for me. I have a small back garden, partly paved, and part for growing veg. For various reasons I really let it go for a couple of years, and it was a mess.

End of last year, I hired some guys to lay a new front lawn (a job I couldn't do), and I also had them clear down the back, weed, prune etc. My veg planters need repair and were weed filled, so I had them completely empty them for me.

They then asked about repairing the planters, filling them etc. I said no thanks, as that was something that I would enjoy doing; but I could also judge for each one if it was worth repairing or not - no point repairing, if there was rot in there, and it will give out again in a year's time.

Whereas if I paid them to repair all four, they would have simply repaired all four.

Also I wanted to do some work on the garden, just not the heavy stuff!

 

[latvdevelopment]

@marriedwoman The way I value my time and money is I think to myself, would I be happy earning that amount of money for the amount of time spent? If so, then I am better off doing the chore myself (within reason, assuming it's a job that I am able to do). If I don't feel that amount of money is worth my time spent, then paying someone else to do it is worthwhile.

I recently considered this whilst parking. I found parking 5 minutes away from a venue I was visiting, which cost me 10 pounds less. Would I be happy earning a tenner for 5 minutes of work? Absolutely! So I parked further away and walked it.

Cleaning my car costs 6 quid round the corner. It would take me an hour to clean it myself. Would I happily work for 6 quid an hour? Nope, so I'll take my car to get cleaned.

 

[kingdomcitizen74]

@latvdevelopment But would you be happy earning a tenner for TEN minutes work, that's the real question!

 

[latvdevelopment]

@kingdomcitizen74 True I have to go both ways lol. Either way a tenner for 10 minutes of work, tax free, hell yea!

 

[kallinyo]

@marriedwoman Basically you shouldn't be comparing this to your salary pro-rated per hour, but just to any other purchase of something you could make yourself.

People take taxis when they could take buses or walk, people buy coffees from cafes when they could make them at home and bring a thermos out, etc., it's just about whether you want to or can afford to.

Only if you could be using that extra time to work and earn more money directly, should you compare the hourly wage cost.

 

[resjudicata]

@marriedwoman I have been having a change of heart recently about paying for services more.

For example, I used to clean my car myself. I had buckets, pressure washer, lots of products, sponges, wipes ect.

Recently the hoover I use for the car broke, and I did not get a replacement straight away and tried the local hand car wash. Their 'special' is £20, and it really was the full works, had 3 people cleaning my car for 20 mins. It was spotless, inside and out.

I realised £20 every 8 weeks or so is nothing, after taking into account money saved from not now needing a new hoover, pressure washer, can get rid of all my products. I am saving a fair bit.

Also I now have more space in the garage, less 'stuff' is always a good thing.

saves me 2 hours each time, and they do a better job!

 

[gingerjess]

@resjudicata yess i think nowadays especially as more and more people are living in studio or one bed apartments instead of a full house, space is much more important and most people don’t have the storage for the car cleaning tools (or whatever tools they need). it’s cheaper to pay the £20 for the service than it is to keep your soap topped up, replace broken tools, find the space to store said tools, etc

 

[annafullofgrace]

@gingerjess Yeh I totally agree - if I have to buy and store tools for doing a job I definitely look at renting equipment or paying for someone else to do the service. The total cost of doing something myself is so much more complex than time + tools.

 

[resjudicata]

People clean their car?

 

[jesuswalkedthroughme]

@resjudicata LOL

I actually clean my car as a mild form of exercise. Yes I go to the gym and run as well. But a whiz around the car can be quite a workout.

Also… doing it myself I know it is done properly. My car has zero swirls and I want it to stay that’s way.

 

[daylightdreaming]

@resjudicata How do you think that car wash can charge so little?.. The labour is cheap because it almost certainly is not legal. Not all costs are immediately obvious.

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news...in-uk-employing-workers-illegally-study-finds

 

[resjudicata]

@daylightdreaming While illegal labour is a legitimate issue. You are projecting onto a business you know nothing about.
I live in a small Welsh town, the three boys who cleaned my car were born here ( I know one of their dads)

Considering they are easily smashing out 3 cars an hour (20mins x £20) and likely squeezing in more when busy.

£60 / hour for a business with minimal overheads means they are certainly making above minimum wage each.

 

[stfrancis]

@daylightdreaming This article is awful.

Surprise inspections of carwashes in Leicester, Suffolk and Norfolk found only 7% had undertaken right-to-work checks, a legal obligation, or could prove that legal employment rights were being upheld.

This doesn't mean anyone is employed illegally or being taken advantage of, just that the employers haven't kept evidence of these checks.

Only 6% of the carwashes had written contracts with workers

This is not a requirement.

just 11% handed out payslips so that they could prove they were paying the legal minimum wage, holiday pay or sick pay

This is a requirement, but no payslips doesn't mean people are earning below minimum wage or not getting holiday pay, it just means no payslips.

Less than half (41%) were registered companies, indicating most are not registered with the tax authorities.

The most egregious of all, you might as well say "less than half of them were registered companies, indicating that they were intending to tie staff to a balloon and release them into space."

Tax compliance has nothing whatsoever to do with company registration, indeed if the intention was to work as a money laundering front, which is a far more likely criminal enterprise to be involved in this sector, operating as a limited company is more beneficial.

I'm not naïve, I'm quite sure many/most are under declaring income and pay their staff close to or below minimum wage, but the conclusions in this "study" are rubbish.

 

[joshgale123]

@daylightdreaming And someone had to make it political...

The responsibilities to these workers lies solely with their employer.

If I am the customer getting an excellent value for money service then of course i'm going to use it.

 

[revilo]

@marriedwoman The problem for me is when I'm not cleaning I'm probably spending money elsewhere. So by cleaning I'm saving that £15 oh by not paying for cleaning and I'm not spending another £30 because I got bored and started browsing HotUKDeals. That's of course somewhat jokingly, but I rarely do anything personally valuable with an extra 2 hours.

Tradesman work is of course a different story.

 

[rob1939946]

@revilo Ah HotUKDeals, that site is both a blessing and a curse

 

[mbcf]

@revilo This is the way for me too.
If I’m not busy cooking or cleaning I will end up spending or planning to spend.

 

[outofthedarkness]

@marriedwoman I think this concept works really well for people in medical professions. They can drop in and do locum or agency work on top of their day job, very easily. Demand is high and pay is often high.

My friend can go and do £600 pre-tax for a day of work as a locum, condensed into a single day (convenience), and then have that offset a weekly cleaner (£150), fortnightly gardener (£60), a car valeted (£40) and a nice meal out (£60) for the whole of the month. And some change to spare. Or better, do 5 shifts back to back, and have those costs covered off for the next 5-6 months.

As long as you don't detest the job!

The ability to flutter in and out of highly-paid work with no longer term commitments is where this concept it useful, IMO.

Other workers labelled highly-paid, such as those IT or digital, are usually in short term contracts, have to show up at normal office hours, day rate reflects ~7.5 hour days (so less condensing of hours) and run 4 week - 52 week contracts. There's no fluttering in and out here, not really.

A medical locum can do an extra shift on the weekend.

Are there any other professions where this fluttering can be done?

 

[joshgale123]

@outofthedarkness Professions healthcare not doctors - yes. Nurses can get stupid hourly rates for agency work. None traditional support worker roles for agency can as well. When I did LD agency work i could ger the odd £35/hr gig.

Labourers and tradesmen can get the odd adhoc day rate at nearlt double their normal day rate.

Health and Safety professionals can get contrsctor work for extremely good hourly and day rates.

But yes your point still stands.

The winners are Doctors and Nurses, especially nurses and doctors with niches skills and quals

 

[sharonkv777]

@marriedwoman I think valuing your time is a good idea but agree that it shouldn't be taken to silly lengths.

I mostly use it for examples where I shouldn't waste my time trying to save money.

There are bunches of life hacks where people say they can save money but it's at the cost of lots of their time.

I can't think of a good example but if someone said they would collect logs to save money on electricity.

You'd spend hours collecting logs, cutting them, stacking and drying them. All that to save even now, maybe £100 or something on heating a month. It's probably not worth it.

But it's only demonstrated as not worth it if you know a line. My line is like £5 an hour and it's pointless. So if I spent more than 20 hrs to save £100 it's definitely pointless.

If you don't have a line like this and are trying to save money you could be doing all sorts of daft stuff.

The line also goes the other way. If you are paying for a trades man when you could be doing it your self and it's 3 times your daily pay, depending on what it is, it's probably worth looking into. E.g don't pay £100 for a window cleaner, do it yourself.