I was taught good money management skills from a young age. My dad has always had a strong work ethic and throughout my life he has worked hard to provide for our family. I was taught to save money, not to borrow it, and not to waste money on meaningless junk.  My dad is a handyman and will never pay someone to do something that he can do himself. Growing up around this mindset, I never understood why people paid for gardeners, cleaners, handymen, car washes or removalists. Surely people who did this had more money than sense? Or maybe they were just too lazy to do it themselves?

My views were turned upside down after my daughter was born. I returned to work shortly after her birth and I very quickly resented that I was spending half of every Saturday morning cleaning the house. Within weeks we had hired a cleaner and for the first time in my life I was paying for a service that I was equally as qualified to provide myself. How did it feel?

Freeing!

Hiring a cleaner was one of the best decisions I have made.

I’d learnt the error of my ways and it all boiled down to a time vs money equation. Before I was a parent I was rich in time. The number of hours I had each day was the same, but I had far less to fill them with. I’d happily spend half a day cleaning (I actually quite enjoy it) and another half shopping and cooking meals for the week ahead. But after my daughter was born, cleaning wasn’t quite so fun any more. I much preferred to spend that time with her, walking the dog, reading a book or maybe even working.  Becoming a parent certainly didn’t make me rich in money. Like most families, our household income decreased as I worked fewer hours, but I realised that my time was now much more valuable to me than my money.

You see, ‘having it all’ does not mean doing it all. If we really want to make time in life for the things we love, we may just need to let go of some of the things we don’t love.  Gone are the days when I spent time researching almost every substantial purchase or service to make sure I was getting the best price. These days I am more than happy to find a product or service that looks reasonable and go with it. The time I would lose by researching is not worth the money I may save.

Do I feel guilty or lazy for outsourcing? Not in the slightest. For one, I don’t believe in mum guilt, but more importantly, paying for things such as cleaning is a much better use of my resources. Not only that, coming home from work to a clean house complete with folded towels on the edge of the bed and the toilet roll end turned into a fancy triangle is actually rather nice!

It’s not just cleaning that can be outsourced. You can find someone to provide almost any service. My advice is to identify the time consuming jobs that you don’t enjoy and outsource them. It may be cleaning, gardening, laundry, ironing, cooking, or planning a family holiday. It may not be as costly as you think!

the juggle