Hun, I think someone’s stealing our trashcans.
Oh no, that’s just the guy from Curbit.com.
It’s an online service that rolls your cans to the curb on garbage day.
Only $14.99 a month!
That seems kinda pricey…
Babe, everyone knows that time is money.
So we’re actually saving money by not doing chores ourselves!
That’s why I’ve got Instacart delivering our groceries, Rover walking the dog, Washio
doing our laundry and Taskrabbit cleaning the gutters.
Well, I guess that’ll give us more time to write this episode.
No need!
I already hired Writey-O to finish the episode for us!
Wow… that’s really… meta.
The convenience economy is nothing new.
Ever since the industrial revolution, first-world families have been willing to cough up hard-earned
dough to spend less time on household chores.
"The confining hours around the washtub are a thing of the past."
Until recently, that meant gadgets and appliances, but the internet has ushered in a new kind
of convenience: “on-demand” services that quickly match clients with freelancers who
will do… just about anything.
The on-demand industry is one of the fastest growing in the world.
Transportation and food delivery are still the biggest sectors, but new services in areas
like home and pet care are popping up all the time.
There’s even a service that matches you with goats in your area who will come by and
trim your lawn!
Goats?
Oh, we’re totally doing that.
It’s an economy driven not just by technology, but changing social demographics.
Not too long ago, it was standard for every household to have one full-time employee who
took care of the vast majority of household chores, and all for free!
(Thanks, Mom.)
But unpaid work is still work, and since more women have entered the workforce, it makes
sense that we’re starting to assign dollar values to the tasks that most of us got to
take for granted.
So how do you know whether you can afford to outsource your chores?
When considering one of these on-demand services, the first question you need to ask is whether
this is leverage or luxury.
Leverage is more like an investment.
Let’s say that by hiring a lawn service, you save yourself two hours of yardwork, and
you invest that time into your side business screenprinting T-shirts to sell on Etsy.
Like the responsible side-hustler you are, you’ve already calculated that you make
about $25 profit for every hour you put in, and since the lawn service costs $40… congratulations!
You’ve successfully leveraged your money to make more money.
In other words, as long as you’re able to make MORE per hour than what you’re paying
someone else, you’re coming out ahead.
But let’s say that’s not an option for you.
Maybe you work 40 hours a week with no overtime and no side hustle.
Then you’re likely outsourcing chores for a different reason, to free up personal time
to do stuff you actually like.
That puts this service into the luxury category.
Luxuries are not necessarily bad things--but they are harder to judge economically, because
you can’t really put a dollar value on “me” time.
But one thing’s for sure: no luxury is worth going into debt over.
So that’s why you’ve got to “mind the gap!”.
If any outsourcing service pushes your monthly expenses above your monthly income, you’ll
either have to forego it, or find somewhere else to cut back.
That means you’ll need a clear idea of how much these services actually cost, and some
of them aren’t very transparent.
Grocery delivery services like Instacart are clear about their delivery fees, but they
also charge hidden markups on many items that are constantly fluctuating.
There’s no way to know how much extra you’re paying without going down to the store to
price check, but that kinda defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?
One instacart user actually did the math and posted his results on reddit: turns out he
paid an average 42.8% markup, including some items that cost well more than double their
in-store price.
When you factor in the service and delivery fees, he spent almost $70 to not have to go
to the supermarket.
That might be on the high end of the spectrum, but the point is: the easier these services
are to use, the less likely we are to keep track of the costs.
When you pay a cab driver in cash, you’re very aware of the value of that ride.
But with Uber, you just get out of the car and walk away.
Depending on how you approach it, the on-demand economy can be a solid investment, a path
to more freedom, or, if you’re not careful, a financial ball and chain that could drag
you deeper into debt.
We often recommend that saving for retirement should take priority over present comfort,
because there will come a day when you really won’t be able to mow your own lawn or shop
for your own groceries, and you’ll want to be able to afford those services then.
And that’s our two cents!