I've looked at having someone pack us, drive it down, unload it. I've looked at packing it some myself, having movers do some, them drive it down, and us unload it. I've looked at renting a simple U-Haul and doing all the work ourselves. You just won't believe this, but packing and moving ourselves with a U-Haul was not just cheaper. It was cheaper by several thousand dollars. That is NOT what I wanted to find out.
A couple hundred and even I might have splurged to have someone else pack my house. Six thousand more dollars? Even my scrawny arms can get to packing on that note.
So I did some research on hiring out help and what the ratio should be. I found a really good measuring tool. If you get paid hourly, you get to skip a step. If you are on salary, divide that number by half. For example, if you make $50,000/year you would be at 25,000 now. Put that in dollars (not thousands), and that is about your hourly pay. So a $50,000/year salary would be about $25.00/hour.
Considering your hourly pay, then you can decide if hiring out help is worth the price for you. Want someone to mow your lawn? I suggest doing it yourself if your hourly pay is LESS than what you are paying someone to do the work. If you make $50,000/year and it takes someone 1 hour to mow your entire lawn, I say go for it if you're paying $20-25. If you're paying $50-75, that's probably a waste of your money. But if you make $100,000/year, then by all means pay someone $50/hour. Make sense?
This simple plan goes for anything you can hire out: cutting wood, house cleaning, manicures (guilty!), honey do chores, and even moving fees (and so so so many more). I think we'd be super hard pressed to justify paying about $7,000 for a moving company; those numbers don't really add up according to this schedule. Guess I better roll the ol' sleeves up and get those cardboard boxes out...and maybe even the lawn mower and dusting cloths.
Stay smart. Be savvy. Save money...
Avery Jane
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