SidSavara.com - Latest Comments in The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Sid Savara — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 03:40:23 -0000

Hey Jonathan!

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it =)

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Jonathan — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 03:03:36 -0000

This is AWESOME.

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Farnoosh — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:23:41 -0000

I have heard about the Roomba......I think it might be in competition with my Cleo and I may not even be allowed to get one ;)! Living in organized and clean space does wonders for creativity and happiness, though....!

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Sid Savara — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:32:39 -0000

Hey Dandv,

I think that's a good point - you can definitely eat healthy without really
cooking if you plan around it. I have a lot of backup meals in my freezer
(mostly Amy's organic stuff) but now I mostly eat out ;). I tend to go to
places that make stuff with lots of lean meats and fresh vegetables

Thanks for the tips! =)

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Sid Savara — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:31:17 -0000

Hey Candice,

After I moved and started working from home I've been eating out a lot more,
so I stopped having my chef come =(. I enjoyed it, but I like getting out of
the house for lunch and dinner now since I'm working from home all day, so
it was too much food being delivered. First I reduced it to once a week, but
then I decided I would rather just eat out all the time ;)

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Sid Savara — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:30:02 -0000

Hey there,

Cleaning bathrooms for me is probably the worst! It's not that bad once I
actually do it, I just don't really like doing it - and I keep putting it
off. I'd much rather hire someone to clean it for me =)

You know I wonder if safeway delivers in my area now. I think when I looked
it up they didn't offer it, but I'll keep checking. That's a great idea and
a huge timesaver - and probably a money saver too so I'm not tempted to buy
stuff I don't need! =)

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Sid Savara — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:28:20 -0000

Hey there!

Sorry for the late response - I got behind on my comments and well...so far
I haven't caught up ;)

I'm guessing you've picked someone by now, so my tips may be too late. And
honestly I kind of just winged it =). I had a rough idea that I wanted it to
be less than $100 total for the whole week all inclusive. I pretty much got
a bunch of responses, filtererd out junk ones (too expensive, too
inexperienced, etc) and then left it really open ended - my whole idea was I
wanted someone else to do all the work for me, so I wanted to see what they
came up with. Could they work without supervision? Would they take
initiative in suggesting sample menus, drop off times, etc?

And then I basically picked someone who knew what she was talking about,
sounded confident and had a plan for how to give me a menu with a variety of
food - and honesty, I got really lucky! People can say anything online and
in email, but I happened to get a really quality person to help me out =)

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Sid Savara — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:25:25 -0000

Hey Farnoosh,

Thanks so much for your comment =). I wish I had a butler as well, but
having a chef was quite an experience ;). I love having other people clean
for me as well - although I keep the place pretty organized, I don't really
like vacuuming etc. I love my Roomba though ;)

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

hemant dalvi — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:57:37 -0000

Dude, that is so Sid like!! i mean that in a good way. you were always a sucker for creating system and sutomating stuff. you definitely have reached new heights and i should say, this is definitely motivational ... Enjoy your new meals!! - HD

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Dan Dascalescu — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:38:09 -0000

I also find cooking somewhat pointless (certainly not one of my core businesses), but I also found that I manage to eat very healthily without cooking (from Trader Joe's and Whole Foods), and have been doing this for 5 years. I even followed a strict exercise diet (P90X), with very good results. I only buy products that don't need cooking, or can be microwaved or heated up in the oven. That way, I spend effectively no more than a few minutes preparing a meal (microwaves and ovens work happily unattended), and I use paper plates (made from recyclable paper) to avoid washing dishes.

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Candice Dayoan — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:32:59 -0000

So i was thinking about this blog today...wondering how it's going for you a year later?

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

somebody — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 02:26:34 -0000

i had a cleaning lady for a while to clean my kitchen, bathrooms, and wash my bed and clean the laundry. It was around $70 every other week. Now looking back, I should have had her make all kinds of food as well. It was nice because she worked in a hotel previously so the toilet paper was folded nice, and the place was very clean.

Well its kind of weird after a while having some outsider come by and wash your drawers or knowing about all your stuff. Also its even weirder to be home when all this is going on. Like what if I had a party the night before. Sure its nice to get the place clean by somebody, but its a little too intimate for me.

After reading your article I'm inspired to try it again. I think it would be nice if an assistant would handle dropping my laundry off to the laundromat and have the laundromat fold it, organize a chef to drop off meals like you have done, organize my bills and paying those on time, and deal with having a cleaning service come by as needed.

One thing that has been AWESOME is that safeway delivers food to my door for like $7. All I have to do is go to shop.safeway.com and pay online and next day its at my door. amazing...

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Guest — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:37:24 -0000

Hey Sid, this post about outsourcing cooking is awesome, one of the best outsourcing experimentation stories I've read! Outsourcing food crossed my mind but I never seriously considered it until I realized it wasn't really that expensive especially considering I eat out for lunch at work which really adds up. Also turns out I'm on crutches for a while which is making me very eager to try this (getting tired of the tv dinners).

I've posted my Craigslist ad, similar to the one you posted, and some replies are starting to come in. I'd appreciate any tips and details about the back and forth correspondence you had with the prospective cooks who replied to your post. I've never been in a situation where I've hired/interviewed/vetted/negotiated rates with applicants. Did you have a standard set of response questions you sent everyone? And how did your price negotiation work? Did you reply to them with a rate in mind or just ask them to throw out a price? Any tips or even example correspondence would be a huge help! Thanks.

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Farnoosh — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:42:46 -0000

My husband mentioned this idea (hire someone to cook for us) once and I suddenly had an image of living in a palace, with butlers, servants, and chefs in the massive kitchens cooking up menus of delightful dishes. We didn't do it and he cooks for us now. But I can't believe someone actually does that :) ! Very unique. I couldn't live without my cleaning lady Cleo though!!! Those are hours of PEACE and PRODUCTIVITY ;)

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Sid Savara — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:47:28 -0000

Hi there,

Thanks for the comment!

Craig's list has been fantastic for me. I've outsourced moving bulky items,
cooking, laundry, cleaning - and given away and sold a number of things as
well to clear space in my house.

I met someone in Los Angeles who claimed that with craig's list they had
hopped from apartment to apartment, not paying rent - just agreeing to help
with chores, clean, paint, etc in exchange for room and board. Not the life
for me, but definitely shows the potential for life changing decisions =)

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

coldcash57 — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 07:55:37 -0000

Interesting article. I am in my 50's, and time is getting more valuable to me with each passing year.
I wonder if one could outsource other things like that via Craig's list?

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Sid Savara — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:04:54 -0000

Hi Lauren,

I think it's a great win-win situation. I would say personal cook,
personal/private chef or prepared meals would be the best way to present
yourself =)

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

laurenrizzuto — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:48:39 -0000

Can you tell me how it is working out for you? I am interested on what the job title is that she has? Personal cook? I am on the other end of the story here I want to cook for someone. So I was cuorius to see what her job title was and how it is working out for you.

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Sid Savara — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 05:20:10 -0000

Hi Dean,

Thanks! I am actually no longer doing this, because I work from home now so
I prefer to use my lunch breaks going out and meeting friends. I'll shoot
you an email though with my cook's info privately.

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Dean — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:54:59 -0000

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.

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Will — Fri, 08 May 2009 10:26:12 -0000

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

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Nomi — Thu, 07 May 2009 09:41:05 -0000

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).

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Carrie Tucker — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:44:14 -0000

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

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Sid Savara — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:31:20 -0000

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

Re: The Price of my Dreams - $60 a Week

Happiness Is Better — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:02:15 -0000

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!