Hi everyone! Hopefully, you’ve been having a wonderful week. I have been super busy at work. I’ve also been doing some renovations at my house, so it feels like a new one.
They finished painting and then they came on Monday and cleaned the carpet. So now trying to get the baby’s room set up because I have been sleep-deprived for over a year, and it’s now time for me to sleep finally. So he is going to have his room, and I’ll have my room. And in that way, we both could have a better, a good night’s sleep. So I wanted to talk about outsourcing. It made me think about it because I had been doing so much work around the house. And I realized that if I were the one doing that, I wouldn’t be able to get a thousand things that I have on my to-do list done. So let’s go ahead and talk about outsourcing, which I’ve been doing for years, and I’ll continue doing it for more years to come.
Outsourcing is good because people always think about money, how much money you’re spending on this, and how much money you’re spending on that. But one thing that you also have to consider is that time is money you’re spending, let’s say two, three hours on a task that you hate. You have to think about the fact that you are spending that amount of money doing that task, that you can let someone else do it, and you can focus on something else that you’re better at doing or something that you’re more passionate about. That’s why it’s always good to think about outsourcing what you can delegate to other people because then it lets them do what they like doing and go ahead and start talking about the tasks that I’ve delegated.
1. Grocery Shopping
I have delegated grocery shopping. I do the online groceries, and then I go pick them up at Harris Teeter. Or sometimes I go to Wegmans, which, if you’re not on the east coast, it’s a grocery store chain around here. And I have been doing this. Since I can’t even remember, it’s been like since the 2010s. I am someone I wouldn’t say I like crowds. I’m not someone who’s a fan of crowds. I’m also not too fond of grocery shopping.
I can’t be around a lot of people. It’s just like, it just gets me very anxious and tenses me up since the 2010s. And especially with young kids, because when you go grocery shopping with young kids, they’ll ask for this, and they’ll ask for that. Even if you have a list, you’re still going to go and buy stuff that you shouldn’t be buying for your kids. It’s always better for me not to grocery shop with kids. So that is one of the things that I outsource. I order my groceries online, and then I pick them up whenever I go during my scheduled time. And that saves so much time because, for some reason, like when I’m in the grocery store, I spend way too much time. That has saved me time. You’re able to go and order your groceries online and then go pick them up.
If you have Instacart, Peapod, or any other grocery delivery services, you consider doing that. Usually, the fee is pretty minor. And I know, like with Harris Teeter, they have now changed the fee structure. So if you spend over a hundred dollars, it’s free to use the pickup service. If you spend 50, it is $2, which is nice. And if you have a prescription, cause I use them for my prescriptions and you pick them up, it’s free. So there are ways to offset that delivery fee. Now, if you do like to have the groceries coming to your house, you’re going to spend more money. But I know that it depends. Um, it’s not that drastic for me. I still prefer to pick them up because it’s a little cheaper, but you should look into outsourcing your groceries and not having to worry about spending all that time at the grocery store.
2. Cooking
Another area to consider outsourcing is actual cooking. Meal delivery kits and also like prepared meals can help you not worry about that. Giovanni goes to daycare. And one of the things that I get for him is Little Spoons. He is getting healthy food that has already come prepared and doesn’t have those heavy metals that some of the baby foods at the stores have. And I, when I heard about that, I don’t get that for him anymore. That has helped me a lot in the morning getting things done.
For me, I subscribe to BistroMD, and that’s because I’m trying to lose weight, and the meals are already prepared. So that was one of the things that were stressing me out as I was doing all this stuff for work. And then I had to rush to get the baby. And then, on top of that, I had to cook. And even though I was trying to do meal prep is still, it was so hard. So I subscribed to like that meal delivery service. And that is one option to outsource as well as finding meal delivery kits. There’s a bunch of them and or meals that are already prepared. Those are a little bit more expensive. And as well as for babies, you can consider that too, especially with all those heavy metals that the stores have.
3. House Cleaning
Another place that you can outsource is cleaning your house. So my kids can tell you, I am a clean freak, and they hate that about me. And before, when I was younger, I had more time because I didn’t have that many responsibilities at work as I do now. So I was able to clean constantly. Like I know that this is going to sound silly, but cleaning is kind of like something that helps me relax. I don’t know why. I guess it’s not something that you have to think about because I don’t have to cook. I’m an over-analyzer and over-thinker, and that’s something that I am always working on. And for some reason, when I clean, I shut off my mind, and I get to work. Now that my life is the way it is, I have no time to clean.
I have a cleaner, I did have her coming every other week, but now I have her coming just every week because I have no time just having her clean the house and not have to worry about doing all those deep cleanings. All I have to do is spend 15 minutes picking up here or there or wiping counters and stuff. And that has saved me time. And then it also has alleviated stress because I don’t have to worry about my house being dirty. After all, when my house is a mess, I can’t think of anything. For some reason, it just weighs heavy on my mind. That is something great is just having someone come every week and clean my house. If you have, uh, have kids, you can delegate to them and start having them help you clean around the house.
If you have a partner or roommate, you guys can go ahead and think of what each one likes to do and which one and what you hate. And if you all can sit there and compromise, that’s another good way of trying to make sure that you’re not focused on cleaning all the time. And you’re outsourcing to someone in your family, in your household, to do the chores that you don’t like to do during this time.
4. Child Care
A lot of us are taking care of our children and working and doing all the other stuff that we have to do. But yeah, if you now feel a little bit more comfortable having your kids being watched by someone so you can focus on work or whatever you need to do, that is something that I finally just decided I needed to do.
When the baby started being more active, I found a daycare, and they were open the entire time because they had medical staff, police officers, and firefighters that were using them. And so it made me feel a little safer to that being that as well, they had a nurse on staff, and so it’s something that I did. I just put the baby in daycare because I needed to work. And the other thing too is if you’re not comfortable doing that, or you can watch your kids during the week, consider just having a babysitter. Even if it’s a babysitter that comes for like an hour or two, you need to take care of yourself because when you’re stressed and tired, you’re not going to do the most excellent job taking care of someone else. You can find a way to outsource that responsibility of taking care of your kids for an hour or two, do that.
There’s also even, um, share babysitting duties with another family. So if there’s another family that you live nearby and you guys are pretty close, and your kids get along, then consider doing that. Like maybe one family takes care of the kids on a Friday night, the other parent or parents can do something once a month. Or, and then the next time, it’s the other family that takes care of the kids, maybe a Saturday. And you can have someone take care of your kids for an hour or two or even longer. And then you do not have to worry about the money. And that’s one thing that I’m trying to do is give people different options. Because I think when people think about outsourcing, they’re always like, I make no money. How the hell am I going to outsource? And so that’s why I’m trying to give you different options because you can outsource without spending a buttload of money.
5. Virtual Assistant
I don’t have my own business. I have a side hustle, but if I did, I’d get a virtual assistant. If you are starting your own business or you’re pretty busy. So if you’re starting your own business, consider getting a virtual assistant, um, from what I’ve seen, some are pretty good value, and you’re not spending tons of money on them. And so, even if it’s someone that helps you out, like once or twice a week, that is also an excellent way to offset some of those tasks that you don’t want to do, like a meeting. I’m not too fond of scheduling and trying to find people’s calendars and what makes sense for all of us. I hate that crap. So if I had a virtual assistant, that would probably be one of the things that I give to him or her.
If you do have teenagers or you like young adults, or even like, um, your neighbors, like if you’re able to have them be your virtual assistants, that will probably be like a little bit more budget-friendly than someone a little bit older, mature, probably in their twenties who wants to be a virtual assistant. The only thing about that is, so you have to remember that this person probably doesn’t have that much work experience. So you’re going to have to mentor them a little bit more, but you can have teenagers or like someone in their early twenties, who’s home for college for the summer, have them be your virtual assistants for like one or two days a week. And that will make your life even better. So this one is definitely for someone like me, who hates doing things around the house, in the sense of anything having to do with the house.
5. House Repairs
I said that to my kids. I was like, man, if I could start my life again, I would have learned how to house renovations. That is a area where you can make so much money, especially if you like, you start getting into real estate. But for some reason, I guess, I don’t know. It’s just like goes over my head, like having to do anything, having to do with the h5. ouse. So that’s something that I always outsource is I find people who can do things for me because I can’t do it. The other thing that I do is, um, if they see this, they’ll probably roll their eyes, but I do have me, my dad, and my sister. They helped me out a lot.
And then my son now he’s at the point that he can do things around the house. So, man, I have them do it. I’ll go ahead and buy whatever things. I need to buy that for, to fix something or to improve something. And then they do it for me because, as I said, it goes over my head. There are other things that I help them with. Like my dad is constantly bugging me to help him with his tech and stuff like that. So it’s not like I’m just sitting here freeloading off of them. And then I’m not doing anything. It’s kind of like a barter system. So yeah, that’s something. If someone in your family is super handy barter with them, there’s something that you’re good at that they suck at offer those services to them, and then they’ll offer their services to you.
6. Curbside Pickup
And then you guys can both be happy without spending tons of money, going to different companies, trying to do what you don’t want to do or can’t do. And yeah, I mean, the other thing is like, hi, I’m a huge online shopper. I don’t know if any of you ever saw that Sandra Bullock movie, the net, but I remember my, um, my brother-in-law used to make fun of me. And he was like, you are going to be like Sandra Bullock on the mat. Yeah. I think that would, if I didn’t have kids and I had to leave the house, I would be like some trouble, like, like I do so much online shopping. And that helps because I can do price comparisons and things. The only thing that I won’t online shop for, or like clothes, because I don’t know, it depends on the brand and things fit and stuff.
But other than that, I’ve asked another thing that I do so that instead of going somewhere and buying, I buy it online. Well, one of the good things about this time is that now there’s curbside pickup. So, especially when I have the baby in the car, I can order that stuff online. They send me a text being like, Hey, it’s ready. And then it’s just like the groceries. I go pick it up, open the trunk. And I’m good to go. That is something good too. It’s like, you don’t have to constantly go and run errands and stuff like that. Think about the places to have per-site pick up and use those places to do your shopping. And then you save the time that you would be going and walking around and standing in line, waiting to checkout.
You’re just able to get it done. That’s another place to find a way to save time and outsource having to go and pick up all those items for yourself. Those are the areas where I think that people should consider outsourcing. You don’t have to do everything yourself; find people to delegate to. I’m telling you it will make your life so much easier. Let me know what areas you’ve outsourced or what services you’re using. I would love to know, and I will talk to you next week and have a happy Memorial Day. Bye.
