The Value of Time Quantified: Services Worth Paying For

As a mom to five, I’m busy. So, it’s easy to think I understand the value of time. But, I also have a budget to stick to and sometimes that’s where my focus gets stuck. Yes, I could make my own bread and laundry soap, sew our kids’ clothes, and walk everywhere to save on gas. But, at some point, shouldn’t I realize the value of time?

And that’s the dilemma. What tasks do I keep for myself, and which ones do I pay to have done for me?

Value of time, services worth paying for

I’ve decided it depends heavily on what period of life you’re in. Rewind the clock about a dozen years and the question was much simpler. I was a stay-at-home mom to three young children. My husband was just a few years into his teaching career which, unfortunately, came with a teacher’s salary. To increase his pay he did what many teachers do–he enrolled in graduate school. That meant tuition. Needless to say, money was tight.

REALLY tight.

If the yard needed mowing either I would get out there or my husband would put the books down long enough to take care of it. We had no idea what a car wash was, oil changes happened in the driveway, and my kids suffered through my inexperience as a hairstylist. I was always stunned by how many neighbors had their pools professionally serviced or had weekly housekeepers. For us, Saturday was a day to get chores done that we couldn’t afford to outsource.

Thankfully, things have changed since then. My husband has a new, better-paying job and I work a few hours a week. We also have a rental property that is paid for. We no longer need to spend the weekend competing tasks that can be hired out. But, at the same time, we are not financially independent.

I still struggle to figure out how to put a price on the value of time and balance the budget.

Recently, I went on a quest to analytically determine which of our common Saturday chores would be the best to give up, and which are just too expensive to hand off to a professional.

Method: I typically spend Saturdays doing any number of six specific household tasks: yard work, pool cleaning, washing cars, cutting hair, cleaning house, or grooming the dog. I decided to calculate the hourly rate for each task. In other words, for every hour I spend doing a specific chore, how much money do I save?

In no particular order, here we go!

1. Lawn Service:

Cost: Lawn Service Professionals charge us $100/month (when we are out of town for the summer).
Tasks: We don’t have a huge lot, about 10,000 sq ft. with a 1600 sq ft home on it. A lawn service mows the front and back yards. As needed, they also clear the weeds on the side yard, in the concrete grooves in the other side yard, driveway, and the grooves on the side walks. They also edge grass and blow the dust off all the concrete.
Amount of Time Saved: It typically takes us about 1-1.5 hours each week, so I’d say about 5 hours a month. (The big problems come when we get busy and miss a week. Then the weeds start to come and weed mitigation in the long run takes more time.)
Cost of Materials/Equipment Saved: They will throw down fertilizer, but I kind of freak out about the back yard as I have kids and a dog, so I use organic in the back. I figure the fertilizer in the front is only worth about $30 a year. I wouldn’t have to buy a mower, blower, or weed wacker (honestly, I never bother edging). Nor would I have to charge them or buy gas. That’s a savings of maybe $5 a month. If each piece of equipment lasts 10 years, it would conservatively cost $350 after ten years to buy replacements.
Value of Time (Hourly Rate): Total material costs saved each year is $70, or $7 a month. If each month takes an average of 5 hours to complete the yard we save ($100-7)/5 hours = $18.60/hour doing the yard ourselves.

2. Housekeeper/Cleaner:

Cost: I have not done this–yet! But I must admit it sounds awesome. My friend has a cleaner who comes twice a month, stays 4 hours each time and charges $100 each time.
Tasks: The cleaner takes care of the deep cleaning in the bathrooms and does dusting, vacuuming, and mopping.
Amount of Time Saved: As the cleaner stays for four hours while my friend works from home, I think it’s safe to say it would probably save that amount of time.
Cost of Materials/Equipment Saved: I would still buy cleaning supplies, but would need less. I could ditch maybe half the toilet bowl cleaners, Windex, disinfecting cleaner, and skip some laundry with less rags and dusters. Maybe I’d save $5 a month, or $2.50 each time she came.
Value of Time (Hourly Rate): ($100-$2.5)/4 hours = $24.38/hour.

3. Automatic Car Wash:

Cost: $10 a wash.
Tasks: Cleans the exterior of the car with a prewash/rinse, wash, rinse, and dry.
Amount of Time Saved: I’m usually around an hour on the van to make sure I have wiped the whole car. The sedan takes a little less, maybe 45 mins. This includes clean up and throwing rags in the washer.
Cost of Materials/Equipment Saved: I have the brush, buckets, and microfiber rags. Ongoing costs include the wash/wax itself. It’s probably not enough to calculate.
Value of Time (Hourly Rate): This may depend on how far away the car wash is, as it takes time to drive there. But, I think most of us tack this onto another trip where we are already by the carwash. So, I’ll assume the time to drive through is negligible. $10/1 hour = $10/hour.

4. Pool Professional:

Cost: Ours (when we are out of town for the summer) is $130/month.
Tasks: They take care of balancing chemicals, vacuuming, and generally keeping everything clean and the algae at bay.
Amount of Time Saved: The weekly maintenance is the only thing included in the service, so it doesn’t save us from having to clean filters. It usually only takes 20 minutes, but sometimes a little more, so I’ll use 30 mins a week as the time saved.
Cost of Materials/Equipment Saved: We use chlorine pucks, a copper ionizer, and the occasional liquid chlorine for shock. We replace the vacuum every three years or so. We also need chemical testing materials. I would say the pucks, ionizer bars, shock, and testers cost us about $350 each year. The vacuum is generic at about $150 every three years. So, a grand total of $400 each year in materials is saved. That’s about $33 each month.
Value of Time (Hourly Rate): It saves 2 hours each month. ($130-$33)/2 hours = $48.50/ hour.

5. Dog Grooming:

Cost: $75 including tip.
Tasks: Clip coat and nails, clean ears, express glands, shampoo, and dry.
Amount of Time Saved: Wow! I’ve tried this several times. It always takes what seems like forever! In reality, it’s only about 3 hours. But, I’m never as good as a groomer. I keep trying though.
Cost of Materials/Equipment Saved: I bought dog clippers for $40 on amazon which have already gone through 10 grooms and going strong. I also need dog shampoo. Maybe $3 a groom in costs.
Value of Time (Hourly Rate): ($75-$3)/3 hours = $24/hr.

6. Hair Stylist:

Cost: $25-$30 including tip IF I go to a cheap place, like Great Clips.
Tasks: Cheap means just a cut, no shampoo or style.
Amount of Time Saved: I do my boys’ hair in about 40 minutes each and my girls’ in 15 minutes each. However, I don’t save this time when I take them somewhere. I drive them there and sit until they are done. Because of this, I would say time saved is ZERO. If it’s one of my girls, I probably SAVE time by doing it at home.
Cost of Materials/Equipment Saved: Professional stylists will probably cringe and disagree, but I buy a pair of Goody shears once every other year and use the squirt bottle from the laundry room for water. We have combs already. The costs of materials is negligible.
Value of Time (Hourly Rate): UNDEFINED, seriously. This doesn’t save me any time, it only costs money. The only reason to use this service is if you don’t want to learn or can’t do your own. I pay for the service for myself because doing my own is too difficult, if not impossible. Otherwise, I do our family’s hair and have for over 20 years now. Admittedly, the kids didn’t look too great when I first started, but it was a financial necessity. Now that I can afford to take them somewhere, I find it easier to do myself.

That’s the breakdown!

When you look at the list from a purely financial perspective, here are the tasks listed in order with the cheapest to outsource appearing first:

#1: Car Wash, $10/hour: Looking at this list, the car wash is the best deal and the first one that should be hired out. When I do it myself, I only save $10 for each hour of work. That’s not a whole lot. We have recently decided that my time is worth more than $10. Besides, my younger kids think the car wash is the greatest place! It has become a treat we look forward to.

#2: Lawn Service, $18.60/hour: Another good one is the lawn service. For every hour of work we would spend on our lawn, we would pay $18.60 to have someone else do it. For me, this seems like a pretty good deal unless I have a teenager in need of a job or spending money. Our former lawn guy was our eldest. He recently left home so this service has just been added to our outsourcing list. Yay!

#3 (tie): Next up is the Dog Groomer, $24.00/hour: For $24 an hour, if you don’t mind dealing with your uncooperative dog you can listen to a podcast and save your budget. This one is also not needed (no more than once every 6 weeks) as frequently as the next on the list. I’m going to keep trying…

#3 (tie): The Housekeeper, $24.38/hour, follows closely enough behind for me to call it a tie.. Very few things soothe my nerves as well as a clean house. However, for a housekeeper to be effective, I’d have to make sure the clutter is gone and things picked up before the cleaner arrives. I’m just not ready to spend $200 a month no matter how appealing it sounds. Still, the hourly rate isn’t too bad considering the next on the list.

#5: A Pool Professional, $48.50/hour, will cost you. However, unlike the lawn service or housekeeper, this one takes a whole new level of knowledge. There are plenty of sites that offer advice, but my overall favorite is https://www.troublefreepool.com/blog/. They’ll walk you through everything, from being new to pools to troubleshooting algae growth. I can’t say I value my time more than almost $50 an hour, so we’ll keep this chore in-house for a while.

#6: A Hairstylist is the most expensive option (it doesn’t buy me any time), but also the most common to outsource. That probably comes from the steep learning curve and the threat of having to go get a bad cut fixed or face embarrassment. It’s easier to start with little kids or girls with long hair and no layers. YouTube is full of tutorials for the brave!

Which Chores to Keep?

Ultimately, my husband is much more willing than I to pay someone else to take over certain tasks.

In other words, I struggle to understand the value of time.

But, putting a price on these services has allowed me to think more logically about my time. Would I go wash a car if someone offered my $10 an hour to do it? NO WAY! I do value my time more than that. Then why do I insist on washing my own car? Isn’t it basically the same thing?

For now, I will continue to cut my family’s hair and clean the pool. Considering the cost, those are easy choices to make.

I have given up washing the cars by hand. The carwash can do that unless the kids want the spending money. Likewise, our gardener is busy blowing the dead leaves off our lawn as I type. Knowing how much an hour it costs us to not take care of our lawn helps me keep the guilt at bay. However, I’m not quite ready to give up cleaning my house or grooming our dog. But, if I ever start working full-time I know those are the two chores next in line to outsource.