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The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Started by Sid Savara · 10 months ago

$60 Buys Ten Additional Hours a Week

That’s right - for just $60 a week, I’ve bought myself some time to chase after some dreams:  more time to workout, play guitar, and write in this blog.  For $60 I managed to free up 10 hours every week!

Some of you reading might be thinking, 10 hours isn’t [...] ... Continue reading »

58 comments

  • Paul Stamatiou

    9 months ago

    Great post man! I sit here reading this as I dont want to head out to find food at 9pm, knowing well that I have no food in my fridge.
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    9 months ago

    Thanks Paul. I have also been considering hiring someone to do my Costco
    (Sam's Club, whatever you like) runs for me. I think I would gladly pay 10
    bucks for someone to pick up my milk, cereal and zone bars - which is about
    all I need to buy anymore.

    Sidenote: I am a bit shell-shocked that the founder of Skribit and one of
    my favorite bloggers has just commented on my blog. And at one time THE
    #1 Paul.
    reply
  • Paul Stamatiou

    9 months ago

    :-)
    reply
  • judic

    11 months ago

    Brilliant. Simple and really brilliant.
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    10 months ago

    Thanks for the comment judic! I appreciate you reading my blog and providing feedback. I'll be writing 2-3 times a week, and if you enjoy this post, I hope you bookmark my site, or subscribe via RSS or email. I'm working on getting my email subscriptions set up this weekend.

    Thanks again!
    reply
  • Ned

    10 months ago

    I can't immediately think of anything I would out-source. What I did find interesting is the precision that you apply to time management. I often feel unprepared for my day and behind before I even get started. I appreciate the inspiration.
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    10 months ago

    Ned, thanks for the feedback, and good to hear from you! I'm a big believer in measuring and optimizing my time. I certainly hope it inspires you further!
    reply
  • Stephen Hopson

    10 months ago

    I absolutely loved this! What a fabulous story. It makes me think about the possibility of doing something like this down the road. You make for a very compelling case about what an extra 10 hours can do for you. Wow. You really laid it all out for someone like me who was joking around about the idea of getting a "butler" since I've taken up a new "lifestyle change" where I am cooking and cleaning more than ever due to this new diet I'm experimenting with.

    Thanks for sharing your experiences - it was excellent!
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    10 months ago

    Stephen,

    Thanks for your comments, I appreciate the support! I'm interested to hear how things continue with your lifestyle change, which I'm following on your blog =)

    One of the things that surprised me was how easy this change (having someone cook for me) was to make. I was afraid it would be a big ordeal and I would have trouble finding someone responsible enough, responsive enough, etc. Perhaps I have just been very fortunate, but as I discussed the person I found fit into my situation perfectly, and I genuinely feel good with this solution all around as I'm not taking advantage of anyone (she's very happy to do it), and I'm much better off than I was before!
    reply
  • Phoebe

    10 months ago

    Great post! The headline drew me in; the content kept me reading. I'm all about practical solutions. Very well done!
    reply
  • Laurie/Halo Secretarial

    10 months ago

    Great post, and your title definitely caught my attention (yep I found you from the problogger contest!!) Sounds like a good deal that you have arranged and a perfect example of outsourcing ala the 4 hour work week! Thanks for sharing!
    reply
  • debbiedoesraw

    10 months ago

    Ok I have to say while reading this, that my husband has it very good here! I do all those tasks you mentioned and do them for FREE! for a family of four, one dog and one hamster. It is sort of like you hired a wife, but without all the messy parts....now if I could only figure out how to convince my husband to pay someone to do what I do I will be golden. I am a raw foodist so my food is very easy, the family is not so I have to hit up Trader Joes and Whole foods each week, once or twice each.

    hats off to you, perhaps you can market this idea and get a crew of "food preparers/clean up" people?
    Debbie
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    10 months ago

    Debbie -

    Thanks for the comment! A family of four, a dog and a hamster sounds like quite an undertaking, especially given the different food choices everyone in your family has. I wouldn't say I've necessarily hired a wife, though you're right - it's like I've hired someone to handle some of the household "chores" I would rather avoid =)

    Sid
    reply
  • Sandra B Fan

    9 months ago

    Hey, Sid. Any comments on what to watch out for when putting up a craigslist ad like this? You talked about the one that worked out, what were the other responses to your ad like? Is it pretty obvious who will work out, or did you have to really sift through and decide?
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    9 months ago

    Hi Sandra,

    I think all the usual disclaimers about not trusting strangers applies here.
    I didn't get any responses that were obviously creepy. Some were less
    educated than others (poor grammar, understanding of the issue, etc), but
    everyone sounded genuine and like they wanted to work. Perhaps the
    "household services" section doesn't attract weirdos - I would be more
    concerned in posting in the personals section or something, or in "escort
    services."

    I did do some due diligence by speaking on the phone, calling references,
    etc - but in the end I honestly just took a chance on her. I have had good
    luck with craig's list, and met good people from it. The glowing reference
    certainly didn't hurt =). When she first came to drop it off, I noticed she
    had a bumper sticker that said "exercise random acts of kindness" and she
    brought her husband along to make sure that I wasn't some creepy guy using
    my cooking ad as a ruse.
    reply
  • Gabe

    9 months ago

    Sid,

    How many meals do you get a week for the $60 of effort?

    Gabe
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    9 months ago

    Hi Gabe,

    It varies somewhat, but it is approximately 12-16 meals a week. Generally, it comfortably covers all of my lunches and dinners, and some snacks in between (cut fruits, vegetables, etc). I eat out a couple times a week. If I have leftovers the day before she is going to come, I let my roommates help themselves since I know I have a fresh drop off coming.
    reply
  • Nebula

    9 months ago

    This is an inspired idea! How many overworked mothers could take advantage of this deal and free up some of their time? I am going to suggest it to my senior-citizen mother--she hates to cook and could use a service like this.
    reply
  • Peter H

    9 months ago

    Could you add a copy of your CraigsList ad to this post? I'm really curious to see it. This seems like a keen idea.

    Do you also pay for food, or is that counted in the $60?
    reply
  • Paul Stamatiou

    9 months ago

    "We settled on $60 plus cost of ingredients"
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    9 months ago

    Peter, here is the post in it's entirety.

    ======================================
    Not sure what the appropriate description is, as it's not really a true housekeeper. I am trying to make some more time in my life, and I want someone to take care of some very specific tasks for me which are especially time consuming, preferably during the 4-7 p.m. time frame 2-3 times per week. What would be great is if you could come over and handle the tasks while I then try to catch up on business/reading or go work out.

    1) Cook a large amount of food that will last for 4-8 meals. Typically this should be some sort of meat based dish (chicken curry, baked salmon or chicken, some vegetables etc) and rice. I have a lot of tupperware/pyrex and the ideal situation would be for the food to be cooked and then individually packed (sans rice). Nothing too fancy, just plentiful and it should keep for a few days in the fridge.

    2) Unload/load the dishwasher, hand wash items that cannot go in the dishwasher (some of my knives and frying pans).

    3) Wash and fold/hang up laundry. I can throw the load of laundry in before you come over, the folding and especially the hanging is the tedious part.

    4) Purchase the food required for cooking. You will be compensated for time and of course reimbursed for the purchase.

    So I am looking for about 2 hours of work, 2-3 times a week. Does anyone out there offer these kinds of services? The time I have specified is flexible. One weekend day is possible though I prefer mostly weekdays.
    ========================
    Thank you also for visiting and your comments. I hope you enjoyed some of the other posts here!
    reply
  • dj xanatos

    9 months ago

    This is web 2.0
    reply
  • Matty

    9 months ago

    Sounds good except for the eating out of tupperware :-/
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    9 months ago

    Matty,

    You're right =). Personally, I eat 5 meals a week at work anyway, so those have to be out of tupperware. It doesn't bother me at all, but I could see some people thinking it's weird.
    reply
  • James Smith

    9 months ago

    This sounds like an interesting way to save time, great post.

    I wanted to ask though, although this saves you time, does it actually increase your productivity in any way (I notice the post is under personal productivity). In my experience, having a little more time does not equal getting more done.

    Thanks
    reply
  • mwinters58

    9 months ago

    Just added you to my feed reader based on this post.

    Brilliant! I want to try out my own lifehacking ideas now.
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    9 months ago

    Thanks! I'm humbled by the response. I am very happy that you guys enjoyed my post =).
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    9 months ago

    James,

    An excellent question. You are right - I may not necessarily spend all 10 hours every week being productive. The only way to know that for sure is to track a "control" week where I cook (which I already have) and compare that to a current week with this experiment.

    The short answer is: about 80-90% of the time is spent productively, and 10-20% of the time is spent relaxing with friends/roommates/family. I spend more time with my parents and my little brother than I did before, in part because I know I have the free time available.

    Also, I very specifically make it a point to spend a lot of time playing guitar, working out, and working on my blog every day (along with other productive pursuits), in part to justify the expense. It seems wasteful to be paying someone else to cook if I am going to sit around eating Cheetos and watching GIlligan's Island's reruns*

    *Not that there is anything wrong with that ;)
    reply
  • Char

    9 months ago

    Sid - I came to the same conclusion about housekeeping. It takes me 8 hours to clean my house top to bottom and I hate every minute of it. However, I pay a cleaning service to do the same job $100 every two weeks. They send two very professional ladies who take 90 minutes to do a great job.

    It takes less time to maintain it during the week and everyone loves a clean house. My biggest skeptic - my husband - is now the biggest fan of the plan.

    I could outsource cooking next and that would be fine with me too.
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    9 months ago

    Excellent point Char! =)

    My father had the same discussion with me - my parents own The Maids franchise in Honolulu, and he says they emphasize to new clients not just that the level of cleaning is better than if they did it themselves (which it most likely is, as The Maids have stronger vacuums, etc), but that it frees up time in your life to spend with family.

    I think he said many people put off cleaning to the weekend, when you can allocate large blocks of time to it - so by having someone come clean for you, you're paying not for them to clean: you're paying so you can have your weekend back!
    reply
  • steveplace

    9 months ago

    I've always wondered about doing this. If I were to ever get around to it, I would divesrify and get a bunch of ethnic cooks so I could have a variety of tastes.
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    9 months ago

    Interesting idea Steve. You're right - she's not a professional chef, but she IS a very nice person, and cooks very well. She also is willing to try out new dishes now both for me and her family, so I have had some Thai food, some Indian food, Greek food this week, etc - but of course you can't compare that to professional chefs who specialize in their cuisine. It definitely tastes better than my cooking though!
    reply
  • rjleaman

    9 months ago

    Brilliant.

    Whenever a productivity guru says "outsource," I've always tended to drift off -- Realistically, in my freelance work, there's really very little that could be done by a third party... Ah, but in the other areas of life? Sid, you've opened my eyes to the possibilities!

    Would you say that the key lies in taking the trouble to log those activity hours, first, as you did, rather than make assumptions about where our time is going?
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    9 months ago

    I absolutely agree with that sentiment. I am working on blog post about that right now. In software development, we have a term for it - "premature optimization." It's basically when you optimize some part of a software program to be really efficient or very fast, but you have no idea how it is going to be used. As a result, many developer recommend getting the bugs out and getting everything working, and then "profiling" your software. This profiling finds where the bottle necks are, and you can then go optimize those areas of your software.

    I guess I would call this "life profiling" and once I learned that food preparation was a bottle neck, I optimized it - by outsourcing it =)
    reply
  • rjleaman

    9 months ago

    That's a helpful analogy - thank you!
    reply
  • Gastronaut

    9 months ago

    I really enjoy cooking: it's a good break from computers, but still plenty nerdy if you want it to be. Rolling out my own pasta is great therapy after a day working for idiotic PHBs. :-)
    reply
  • Hotdog

    9 months ago

    I like the concept, except... I enjoy cooking.
    reply
  • Michael Martine

    9 months ago

    Makes a lot of sense the way you break it down. Very smart! Now you got me thinking... :)
    reply
  • gav

    9 months ago

    sensational. great idea dude.
    reply
  • Mary Ann

    9 months ago

    Hi SId,
    Great article! I too have considered the time that cooking and shopping take as well and came up with a mobile app that helps you save some of this time and infuse a little fun into cooking as well. I thought you might be interested: http://www.cookingcapsules.com
    Unfortunately, I haven't come up with a way for the phone to help you with your dishes yet.. ;-)
    Mary Ann
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    9 months ago

    Hi Mary Ann,

    Thanks for your feedback and stopping by! I took a quick look at Cooking
    Capsules, and then remembered I had seen it in Wired before as well. Very
    cool! Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it =)
    reply
  • jokeyxero

    9 months ago

    Quiet elegant. I love it.
    reply
  • Covert Hypnosis

    9 months ago

    Sid - this is bloody genius. I love the idea and will be considering something similar to allow my wife and I to free up more time with our kids. We figure that we spend $900/month at Costco and the grocery store right now. Your price is about $250 per month and you may even spend LESS on food because she buys it and probably pays bulk.

    How do you figure out what to pay her for her cost of food?
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    9 months ago

    Thanks very much for your comment, I appreciate it a lot =)

    You are right - I spend less on food than if I was buying it myself, because she is awesome. She goes to the farmer's market and finds good deals for her family as well as for me, and likely is also buying in bulk from Costco.

    This is a long reply, partly because it is something I wished I had addressed in the article, but I cut it because my article was so long.

    I thought a lot about how to figure out what to pay her for food. Should I give her a weekly budget? Should I require receipts?

    In the end, I decided I would just trust her. I believe people are about as trustworthy as you give them credit for. I told her, I expect it to be 20-60 a week, about 40 a week on average, and if it's not then we can talk about it. Food prices have shot up in Hawaii as well due to increases in fuel costs.

    She has offered to show me receipts a few times, but I just told her I trust her. I believe that if I made her show me receipts, it would add unecessary friction to the smooth process we have. Especially since she is buying food for me and her family at the same time - I don't want her to have to separate out like, half the spinach was for you, half for me, etc.

    Also, I think when she has offered to show me receipts, it has made her uncomfortable as well - after all, she wouldn't know how I would react. Suppose I questioned it, or grilled her, or told her why didn't you go to Safeway, they have a sale this week, etc?

    So far, it has never been more than 50 a week, and has been as low as 25 some weeks: right in the 30-40 a week range on average. I am only one person though, and I realize I have been extremely fortunate with the person I picked. She is smart, a great cook, responsible and honest.

    I am glad you enjoyed the article, and please, come back and tell me if you do try something similar. I love hearing other people's stories, and would love to write a followup if you do try something similar (in cooking or otherwise)
    reply
  • asoom

    9 months ago

    Genious idea!!!
    reply
  • asoom

    9 months ago

    One more thought. If you make more money per hour than it would cost you to hire someone to cook and do some household chores for you than it just makes more sense to do so!
    reply
  • gentleJuggernaut

    9 months ago

    Brilliant idea, if we all sat back and focused on areas we excel, what a different place this would be.
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    9 months ago

    Thanks for your feedback! I think there's definitely a place for hobbies
    and the like, but I agree - let's try and focus on what we're best at. Few
    of us build our own houses or design our own cars, but we do other things
    ourselves, just because we always have. Of course, if you spend money
    freeing up some time - make sure you do something valuable with it, that
    extra time isn't free - it's been paid for by other time you've spent
    working =)
    reply
  • randomwalker

    9 months ago

    This is brilliant. My time is very valuable to me, and this is something I'm going to look into. For now, I've figured out how to make healthy food in just 3-5 minutes. And I save on grocery shopping time by stocking my fridge once in two weeks. And I make a trip to the sandwich shop down the street once a day. The down side is that it doesn't taste that great and I don't get as much vegetables as I should.
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    9 months ago

    Hey Random Walker,

    Nice work. If you've got it down to 3-5 minutes, that's very efficient and
    fast - I'm not sure that mine is much faster since I have to take food out
    of the fridge, heat it up, etc.

    I also like how you've batched your shopping - I think that's one of the
    hidden time sinks, I had no idea I was spending so much time shopping.
    People say it doesn't take a long time to cook, but you've got to look at
    the whole picture: ingredients don't just magically appear in the kitchen =)

    Finally - eat your vegetables!
    reply
  • Amit Hirani

    7 months ago

    Sid,

    I wish I had read this blog during my single days. This would have really saved me time to do other stuff that I wanted. You have mastered the art of outsourcing and proved this can even be applied in day to day life.
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    7 months ago

    Thanks for your comment Amit! I am glad you enjoyed my article, and I
    hope you continue to come back as I post new articles often. I'll be
    posting a followup to this article shortly, probably in the next few
    weeks, so keep an eye out for that =)
    reply
  • Happiness Is Better

    5 months ago

    Hmmmm. This looks very tempting to do. I'm not a great cook, but my wife is a good cook. The problem is that after working all day, neither of us feel like preparing a meal.
    Great post!
    reply
  • Sid Savara

    5 months ago

    Thanks! I am a decent cook, but I definitely don't like cooking after a day
    of work either ;)
    reply
  • Carrie Tucker

    4 months ago

    You are a genius! Bless you, and thanks for the idea!
    reply
  • Nomi

    1 month ago

    Just found this, linked from one of your other posts. I am going to do this immediately. I am a wage-slave working mother who makes an excellent salary but hates to cook and loathes grocery stores. I have two overscheduled teenagers. When I get home from work I am exhausted. We eat supper at restaurants 3 or 4 days a week, for an average of $60 each time! Thank you for changing my life (I hope).
    reply
  • Will_L

    1 month ago

    Sid, this is awesome! I read 4HWW for the second time around to get an idea to automate my business, soak up the psychology of a person who lives the 4HWW.

    I found your site through Hugo @ streamlinedmind.

    Awesome post! I def gotta track how I spend my time.. it'll yield some crazy insights!

    Thanks for writing this!

    - Will
    reply
  • Dean

    4 weeks ago

    Hi Sid, just stumbled on your awesome blog. I live in Honolulu, HI am a big Tim Ferris follower. I actually tried this but didn't get the results I wanted. I'm curious if you are still using this service. Also if your cook is available I would be interested. Thanks, keep up the awesome content. I'm a RSS subscriber now.
    reply

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