My senior year of college my roommates and I emerged from finals week and realized we had to get right on to moving out of our apartment. Because we lived in University-owned student housing, that meant a thorough cleaning which would be verified by a member of the housing staff. Any violations would result in a fine and we were staring a whole apartment worth of fines straight in the face. After surveying the considerable damage, one of my roommates and closest friends turns to me and with a completely straight face suggested we hire a maid service. I emphatically rejected this proposition based on the fact that a.) we had absolutely no money to pay a maid, certainly not enough to pay a maid to clean this disaster and b.) I swore I wouldn't pay someone to do a job I'm more than capable of doing myself. We ended up cleaning the apartment ourselves, much to the chagrin of my friend, who complained the whole time.
I was reminded of this story the other day when I realized I was overdue for a trip to Jiffy Lube to get my oil changed. I hate going to some place to get my oil changed for the same reason I didn't want to hire a maid to clean my senior year apartment. I may not be the most capable auto mechanic but given the right tools I can do the basic jobs: rotate tires, change the air filter, check the spark plugs, refill fluids, change the battery, replace fuses and lights and change the oil. Unfortunately my apartment complex does not allow me to make auto repairs, to the point where they have in the past indicated that they would fine people caught taking up space to perform auto maintenance. So, begrudgingly, I take my car to the local Jiffy Lube, sit in an uncomfortable chair in a smelly room for a half an hour until the job is done. But it makes me think about the cost comparison between doing it myself and going to Jiffy Lube (or some other similar place). To do it myself, I need the following equipment:
* Ratchet - $15
* Wrench for the Oil Filter - Wrench sets usually run around $25
* Oil Pan - $10
* Funnel - $2
* Oil Filter - $5 to $10
* Oil - Let's assume four quarts at about $5 a quart, so around $20 (just like oil filters, this can be cheaper if bought in bulk)
* Rag - Negligible
Of course those are all rough estimates for the sake of argument. That's a total cost of $77-$82, but only $25-$30 of that are recurring costs. Compared with around $35 for a oil change at Jiffy Lube, it would take about a year to make your money back, quicker if you already have the necessary tools.
That isn't a lot of savings, but over the lifetime of your car, you could save a decent amount of money. Either way, I'd still rather do the work myself, on my own time, but I can certainly understand why some would choose to let someone else do it and save the hassle. Ultimately with these types of services (housekeeping comes to mind as well), what you're really paying for is the time you save. For me, a guy who sits at a computer all day, it's kind of nice to do something productive with my hands, but the time and hassle you can (potentially) save by going to a service station would certainly be nice.
What about you readers? What services are you willing to pay for, and which would you rather do yourself and why?
Check out other great savings posts at the 5th annual Saving with Sadie Carnival.
-Michael
Twitter: @michael_dink
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11 comments
I spent a semester in London while in college, worked my tail off that prior summer to get there. While in England I paid the laundromat down the street to have my laundry done. Knowing that I didn't have all that much time there made the decision easy - pay to have it done and go out to see as many free things as possible.
Not since then have I paid for my laundry to be done.
My husband and I recently hired a housekeeper to clean our home every other week. It's the best $65 I have ever spent. She cleans, does some laundry and puts dishes away, etc. We could do the cleaning, however we would do the in depth job that she does every time she comes. We decided to sacrifice two nice dinners out a month in order to pay for her, the best money I have ever spent.
It's worth doing things yourself, as long as you're not giving up more profitable dollars somewhere else.
For me, it's as much about interest as ability. I'll do most electrical things, change or run an outlet switch, dimmer. Plumbing, it depends on the exact issue.
I don't mow my lawn. I didn't paint the outside of my house, but a room here and there on inside, I'll do.
I outsource laundry; hire a housekeeper; eat out 8-10 times per week; and hire research assistants for mundane look-up work.
I also outsource all transportation needs, which is to say I take public transportation or a taxi rather than bear the responsibility for car maintenance, insurance, gasoline purchases, etc.
As for the outside of our property, we *have* to pay someone else to tend to this because we live in a high rise; so gardening, cleaning, etc., are simply factored in to the monthly management fee.
On the other hand, I don't pay anyone to manage my money. I have roughly 30 stocks as well as CDs in several different currencies, and have no desire to pay mutual fund fees and ETF fees.
I guess all this goes to say I'm on the same page as JoeTaxpayer: it boils down to what I'm interested in.
The thing you have to ask yourself when considering paying someone to do something is what will you be doing with the time saved and what value does that have to you.
You forgot to account for time. Changing my oil would take a solid 4 hours, and that's if I got it right the first time. Plus I have to figure out what to do with the old oil (I guess it's not supposed to go down the toilet right?)
Or I can pay someone to do it in an hour. And more than likely it's done right.
As an enterprising (self-proclaimed haha) college student I have NO problem paying for an oil change. It only costs about $30, and they check out the rest of the car as well to make sure nothing is drastically wrong (they try to get you with the little things like air filters and such, but it's easy to consult a friend on tthat). I know little about cars and I have no time to learn right now. Plus I go to a place that has a nice waiting area because it's a car dealership. I get homework or other work done while they do it.
It basically comes down to how much I value my time. I don't have a lot of cash, but I have even less time to throw around. I have school, work, and various side projects going on. I have to make sure I have enough time for all that, and outsourcing is the best way to go. I am launching a new website that will require a lot of work with graphics, but for the sake of time and efficiency I hired a friend to do all the graphics work. I can use my time for more productive work.
Like the second commenter, when I do have a house and a family and hopefully a schedule packed full of either a job or money-producing projects, I fully expect myself to outsource something like cleaning if it means freeing up a few extra hours with my wife or to research investments a little more thoroughly. It's all about using your time in a way that is most profitable...or valued.
"You forgot to account for time. Changing my oil would take a solid 4 hours, and that's if I got it right the first time. Plus I have to figure out what to do with the old oil (I guess it's not supposed to go down the toilet right?)"
__________
Well, I'm the same anon who already confessed to outsourcing my transportation needs and thus not having a car of my own (I "pay someone else" to do my driving). But I used to have a car-- I gave it away in 2006-- and I'd like to take issue with your 4-hour claim!
It takes a few seconds to open the oil pan and a few seconds to close it back. It takes a few seconds to remove the oil filter and a few seconds to put on the new one (making sure to lubricate it carefully so that you will be able to remove it next time). So far we're up to 2 minutes, tops.
To those 2 minutes, I'd add about 20 to let the oil drain thoroughly-- which, by the way, is a step the Jiffy places often skip, in my experience. Then you add maybe 3-5 minutes to put in the new oil. Because I was cautious, I always ran the car for a couple of minutes after I put in the new oil, and then monitored to see if I had any leaks.
Okay, conservatively I'm up to 30-something minutes... let's call it 40 minutes. Certainly not 4 hours! And keep in mind that during the 20-minute drain period, you can do other things-- I used to tidy up the yard or make a phone call during that time.
What else... well, you have to buy your oil and your oil filter (assuming you already have your wrenches on hand from last time). Personally, I always bought my oil and oil filter at Walmart when I was already buying other things, so that didn't add more than a minute or two to a trip I was already making.
And as for disposal, I always put the used oil in a used milk jug, and wrapped it carefully in a plastic grocery bag, and put it in my trunk. This adds about 5 minutes. Then, sometime in the next week when I passed by an auto supply store, I took 3-4 minutes to run it in and drop it off so they could recycle it.
So we're talking MAYBE an hour, including disposal time. Certainly not four.
Why did I do this? Certainly not just to save the money, which wasn't all that much a savings if my time is worth anything. But rather because I was driving a 15 year old Camry, and doing things like changing the oil, flushing the radiator, and changing power steering fluid-- all easy jobs-- gave me a sense of connection to the car's continuing good performance. I didn't have to do these things-- it was, you might say, for personal reasons.
But the real savings came simply from driving a car that, for tax purposes, the government valued at $400; one that required very little expense on maintenance; one that no sane person would insure since the deductible would be higher than the car's value (obviously I had liability insurance-- $400 per year); and that was unlikely to be stolen. And yet one that was extremely reliable, both in town and on the open highway.
Forgive my nostalgia... on balance, I wouldn't go back to car ownership days for anything-- it's FAR better to "pay someone else" for my transportation needs-- but I do have fond memories... :)
Anyway, changing the oil is not for everyone, but it's also not a four hour job. Admittedly, some cars are more complicated than others, but if it's taking the mechanic only an hour, it's not a four hour job.
We pay for housekeeping every other week as well. Part of it is actually a mind trick: if someone's going to vacuum the bedroom on Wednesday, then I have reason to pick up dirty clothes Tuesday night. Whereas, if I did the vacuuming myself, I'd just put off both tasks for far too long.
Part of it is also for household harmony -- no more debates about whether a chore's done often or thoroughly enough.
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