Outsourcing Cooking with Craigslist for $60/week | Hacker News Reader

Outsourcing Cooking with Craigslist for $60/week

sidsavara.com

135 pointscolinplamondon73 comments

About half the time I wish I could outsource my job to someone on Craig's list for $15/hr so that I could spend more time cooking.

There was an hilarious dilbert strip which I can not find which had Dilbert washing his cubicle with a spray bottle and rag, dancing about having a great time, and then Alice shows up and says, "Okay, you've had the bottle long enough. It's my turn to pretend to be a janitor."

It's not funny till you've been there: Mundane labor in the office [1] is strangely delightful compared to typing.

[1] Not just janitorial work, but office moves, decorating, carrying stuff, etc.

I hear that. I spent two weekends back in the day helping another department get through a backlog of envelope stuffing. That and the phone book ripping competition were two of the highlights in that office.

I'll third this as well, for some reason I enjoyed vacuuming before close at Radioshack when I worked there. Normally I absolutely hate it.

> 1. Cooking

Cooking dinner takes me about 20 minutes every day and I eat pretty healthy.

> 2. Washing dishes - especially pots, pans and knives that can’t go in the dishwasher

I must be doing it wrong because I put absolutely everything in the dishwasher. Seems to work well enough for me.

> 3. Shopping - especially for food!

I go shopping about every 5 days and that's about 1 hour round trip.

> 4. Driving out to get take out (just DRIVING!)

I almost never pick up take out. If I do it's to somewhere close and 20 minute round trip.

I live in a big building so by the time I go down the main elevator, walk through the lobby, take the parking elevator to my car, drive around 3 levels to find the exit since i park on the lowest floor and make it to the street, that's 15 minutes gone already. Therefore I really appreciate not having to leave unless I have to, or having a friend pick me up. I think I may try something like this..

As a kid, my dad always said "What? We've already got three dishwashers! Their names are James, Ashley, and Daniel!"

That was mostly in jest though. The other saying was "what use is a dishwasher if you have to wash the dishes before you wash the dishes?" when asked why we didn't scrub down plates before putting them in said machine...

Sounds like a brilliant idea to me, but I was confused by one point. He says she drops the food off twice a week. Is it only two days worth of food or is she batching up 3-4 days of food and delivering it all at once?

The latter - I have enough food for all my meals (lunches and dinners) each week. I often have more than enough, and share with my roommates and friends.

You're brilliant! I would have never thought of that, and yet I think that this is absolutely a trend we'll start seeing. Outsourcing is going to go to the neighborhood.

For example, you could hire your neighbor's kid to maw your lawn and stuff like that.

For some reason that typo gave me a rather amusing mental image of the neighbor's kid trying to eat your lawn ("shove it in his maw"). Yeah. Stupid brain making connections where they don't exist.

Isn't one of the main definitions of creativity the making of connections between hitherto unconnected things?

colinplamondon, thank you for submitting my site to HN. I was debating it but didn't want my first submission to be mistaken as self promotional blog spam. I'm glad you and others have enjoyed it =)

You bet :)

I've always wondered why laundry/maid service isn't more popular too. if your time is worth $30 an hour+ you lose money by doing menial chores such as laundry and cleaning.

I would like to point out that not all hours of the day are spent "generating value".

If your time is worth $30 per hour, but you enjoy cleaning enough that you aren't willing to pay $10 per hour for it, you're implying that you would sacrifice $20 per hour to clean. So when you retire, will you pay people that much for the chance to clean their house?

There is some inefficiency, for example, in paying someone to mow your lawn while you go to the gym, paying to walk on a treadmill. :)

I think you are misunderstanding me. Not every hour in the day is worth $30/hr. In fact, I am paid a salary and thus the more I work the less my hourly wage!

What I'm saying is that on the weekends for example, it is unlikely I would be able to make $30/hour. I might be able to do contract work... but then I'd have to hunt for work, so its difficult to really assign a dollar value to that.

Only worth $30 hr if you would have been working $30hr instead of cleaning.

When one does occasional menial-work oneself:

1. It is tax free, and therefore worth somewhat more.

2. It is supervision-cost free, and therefore worth somewhat more.

3. It is hiring-cost free, and therefore worth somewhat more.

4. It doesn't show up as a business expense, otherwise potentially costing thousands or millions of dollars at exit.

5. It is not necessarily done as slowly or as sloppily as by the typical $10/hr worker. It might very well be done four times as fast.

6. The security risk/cost of having a once-in-a-while worker (who could be casing the place, or spying, or actively stealing while there {a lot of thieves admit they get car-keys this way}) in one's home or business is avoided.

Possibly the stupidest non sequitur I have read here in a while. You're joking, right?

I don't really like people lurking around my house, so wasting $30 of my own time cleaning the toilet is well worth it.

Actually, my Roomba does most of my cleaning. Yay for robots.

Cooking a nice meal with my wife is one of the few sacred couples-time block we have every day.

And now you can do it for other people, too. ;)

What's so interesting about this is that for $60 a week you can get a LOT of calories from fast food. But then you could be dead soon.

In Europe you could east pretty healthy delicious food for about $60 a week easily.

But America seems to lack a cheap + good + won't kill you food option. Like a whole market segment is not served.

And Americans in general don't go out to eat like Europeans do. Either it's (to go) fast food, or an expensive sit down meal.

When I was a starving student, I was flummoxed by the market. Meat? Expensive. Vegetables? Expensive. Fruit? Expensive, and doesn't keep. Fast food? Expensive. What could I afford? Complex carbs and terrible mega-preserved food. Ramen, cup-o-noodles, and mac'n'cheese were my staples.

I didn't know it was different in Europe. Here in America, you can have tasty food, cheap food, or healthy food--pick up to two options. There's a few hole-in-the-wall places with good food and single-digit entrees, but the 2/3 rule works in general.

I've only spent about 3 months total in Europe, but I thought food was much more expensive. Also, the less-expensive prepared food didn't seem very healthy - kebabs, frites, crepes, etc. If I wanted to save money I'd just get some bread and cheese from a market. Good fruits and vegetables seemed to be conspicuously absent, at least when compared to California.

The conclusion I came to was that people in Europe tend to be thinner than Americans because they can't afford to eat very often...

I have to admit there's healthy and European healthy. Fruits and veggies are healthy, crepes are European healthy, fast food is not anyone's healthy.

Good fruits and vegetables are only seasonally present in the central and norther European countries, where the local climate is too cold to grow a decent tomato.

Southern Europe on the other hand has you covered, the climate is a lot like California.

I think the difference is in exactly those hole-in-the-wall places which give you the 3 out of 3.

Europe, partly due to population density, partly due to a different farm lobby, and partly due to I-don't-know-what just seems to have a lot more of them per kilometer.

But America seems to lack a cheap + good + won't kill you food option. Either it's (to go) fast food, or an expensive sit down meal.

I live in America and regularly eat to-go sushi. Usually ends up at about $4.

I think the best part of the this experiment is you get to be surprised every week. Being someone who cooks and prepares meals for myself, I constantly struggle with coming up with something new. I find myself repeating the menu over and over again. So having the joy of sitting back and not knowing what's next is absolutely wonderful.

Yes, that's one of the unintended consequences of this experiment =). Originally, my plan was to tell them what to make - but she took the initiative in suggesting meal plans to lay out her skillset, and wanted to save time by cooking the same food for her family. I definitely look forward to my drop off days for just that reason!

If I was less of a germo, I'd be totally down for this. :)

I have had friends tell me what I should watch out or I'm going to get poisoned =P

Sounds pretty cool. After ingredients he is probably paying 100 dollars. That's between 2 and 3 dollars a meal, which is about right for something made from farmers market grade ingredients.

However, for 100 dollars I could probably order out to a set of restaurants to eat for a week. (5 orders of 2 dishes each, should be 20 per an order. That leaves me with 10 restaurant meals which would be about as much food as 12-15 meals from his cook, I suspect). Still, deciding what I want each time, calling, paying the delivery guy... that takes more time.

>>After ingredients he is probably paying 100 dollars. That's between 2 and 3 dollars a meal,

Uh, fuzzy math? He's paying $60/week + food, so $100/week would be more like $7/meal (assuming breakfast isn't a fully cooked meal since eggs/pancakes don't cook so well). Would be $15/meal if he's only talking dinners.

Still seems like a good deal considering the time he saves, and I'd like to have a mother's cooking rather than my own feeble attempts :)

I think you are both right - it is a few bucks a meal for food, but when you factor in the labor costs into the total of what I actually end up paying, it is in the range of 5-10 a meal based on the week - some weeks I get shrimp, some weeks it's turkey!

This week (first batch), it's Greek food! Kabobs and some salad. No idea what's coming Friday =)

Does anyone else find this whole "outsource your life" movement a little disturbing?

When taken too far, sure. But honestly if you can't use your money to spend more time doing things you love, and less time doing things you hate, then what's the point?

In a way, I think I would feel uncomfortable because having people doing your menial tasks sounds a little like having servants.

However, I think it can make sense. If it makes you happier, more relaxed, or gives you more time to work on something you enjoy... the money spent can be worth it (or even more).

As far as I'm concerned, I know that I'm wasting too much time in general to be able to say that I need to outsource parts of my life because I don't have enough time for myself.

What's wrong with having servants as long as you can afford it and are paying a living wage?

In a way, I think I would feel uncomfortable because having people doing your menial tasks sounds a little like having servants.

However, I think it can make sense. If it makes you happier, more relaxed, or gives you more time to work on something you enjoy... the money spent can be worth it (or even more).

As far as I'm concerned, I know that I'm wasting too much time in general to be able to say that I need to outsource parts of my life because I don't have enough time for myself.

Why does it disturb you?

How is this any different than hiring a personal chef? Or a housekeeper? I mean; people have been doing this for centuries, it's just becoming more accessible now.

Is it?

A full time servant is common in poorer parts of the world. I assume that accessibility has to do with wage differences. If you make 5X ph what a maid charges, you can afford it easily & it makes good sense. If you make 1.5X, not so easily.

Wage inequality will make this accessible.

I think part of it is not just wage inequality, it's efficiency: I estimate she is actually making $30-40 an hour by batching it, and because she is likely faster than I am (since I am relatively poor at cooking). On my end, it's costing me relatively little per hour for how much time I am saving

I would classify it more as recognizing the comparative advantage she has.

Even though I cost a lot to hire for a web project, even someone earning less than me would be better off hiring me than trying to build their own plugins for their CMS - it might take me an hour, and they can pay me with lets say 2 hours of their work. Or, they can struggle and spend 20 hours of their time trying to get it working. This is a real life example - they hired me for their second project, and were very happy based on the time they saved versus having their inexperienced guy do it. Of course, there is an argument to be made that having their inexperienced guy do the work builds knowledge capital, but I'm talking about strict efficiency here.

That is true. You also claimed to be saving 10 hours per week while paying for only four. I think that'd be an expected gain.

but all that's very theoretical..

In reality, you're not taking out time from web designing to cook, are you?

This kind of resource allocation exists in B2B, no brainer. You get hired for web design. You hire a bookkeeper. But in our personal lives, it doesn't happen as often. You get to spend more time watching TV or painting in exchange for money. You will rarely find someone willing to pay their hourly wage to save an hour of non-work chores. People are willing to pay for time but only at a much discounted rate.

Take yourself as an example. Assuming you earn $45ph web designing. You are 'saving' $450 (10 hrs) by not cooking. You are paying $60 for this - bargain. Would you pay $449 for this service? How about $225.

Generally speaking businesses would probably say yes while individuals would say no.

You bring up an interesting point about individuals versus businesses. I think one of the key differences here is that I don't want to work lots of overtime in order to make up the monetary difference to pay for food being delivered to my house - it comes out of the same bucket that eating out, movies etc would come out of. So in the end, it's true, I would have net more money if I cooked at home - but ~10 hours less time, regardless of hourly rate

I remember a friend of mine who would wash her car herself to save money. I know some people care for cars a lot and wash their car themselves because they enjoy it and they take pride in it - that's a whole separate class of utility and enjoyment. She was just washing it to keep it clean. She made well over 6 figures, and she could have driven it through a car wash for 7 bucks and have it done in 5 minutes. I remember reading an article that basically said we get attached to things we have - including money, and we value it more because it is ours. Perhaps that also partially accounts for the psychological disconnect between the way businesses act (when it's the company's money, and not their own) versus individuals.

I buy TV dinners for every day of the week (single guy). It saves a lot of time and prep only takes 5:28 minutes. Cost is $3.33 per dinner ($23.31wk).

To drive costs down further I am saving the plastic trays from the packages and plan on making my own TV dinners in batches (30 at a time).

I used to eat them with disposable silverware, plates and cups to save time dish washing but found this to be a little too costly (compared to washing for free).

There are healthy packages out there to choose from.

I chuckle at guys like you at the grocery checkout. Eat fresh food, it beats any "healthy packages" you can find.

I find it odd that the options he considered were restaurants, take out, and hiring a personal chef. Don't the pizza shops in his area deliver?

It sounds like he values variety and healthfulness in his food.

He never says what he's getting. I would lay money Casey is a fat, typical, American mother and he's getting loads of starch, cheap meat, and a low variety of vegetables.

Yes he does say what he's getting - read all the way to the end.

"She asks for my input, but I for the most part ask her to make any healthy food she wants (high in fiber and protein, lots of fresh vegetables/fruits, lean meats etc etc)."

What I like about what he's doing is that he's able to get good, healthy food for relatively quite cheap- it's a great way to save time and still live well.

It's not really that cheap. $60 PLUS ingredients. You're going to do as well as that with "by the pound" grocery store buffets, which can be quite healthy.

the funniest thing is that someone in the comments says, "this is web 2.0".

I admit that cooking sometimes takes too much time, but on the other hand, one is also supposed to take breaks now and then. For example going shopping is really just gong for a walk, which is healthy. Frozen food all the time also does not sound very pleasant.

Having servants must be neat for those who can afford it. Every night I cook dinner with about $3 of ingredients, so I doubt paying almost $9/day on top of that would be a good investment. And I love to cook...

Find yourself a spouse who is not only a good cook, but enjoys it too.

I could turn this into a company.

Food is not as simple as it seems.

Sure. My company would reduce the transaction costs and help find people who prepare food for you.

I was thinking about making a business out of it, but then I was worried about potentials for freaks and lawsuits. It's ok if it's just me vetting people for me personally (and I know I'M not a freak as a customer, so that's half the battle =P)

Liability is one problem. Another is that labor costs will go up as the business develops.