Maybe you don't believe that opportunity cost is a real thing, or that it applies to real life. Or maybe you simply don't fully understand what it means. Therefore, I refer you to an article describing what it is, and it's utility when figuring out whether you should hire a housekeeper (and other similar decisions).
Cue all my readers who don't know anything about economics singing in unison about:
- How I am wrong.
- How only rich assholes hire people to do their grocery shopping
- How only a bourgeois jerk would think this is a concept worth considering (the rest of us have to WORK for a living, dammit!)
- How economic theory has no application to real life
- How I make a salary therefore this does not apply to me
Hahaha, I'm so glad I have an Econ degree.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I might be a single first year student who gets a stipend, but I have someone come and clean my place once a month. Why? I know it'll be done well and it saves me the headache.
Cleaning service = an investment.
Deletei love that you posted this. i've been thinking a lot about this lately. i haven't discussed it on my blog yet, but {spoiler alert!} I GOT A JOB. yay! and it's full time. i may have had the opportunity to try to make it part time, but at this time am choosing not to attempt it. one of the reasons why is because i realized that if i was part time, i'd probably end up spending my time doing housework. spending those hours being a physician, however, means that i could use that extra $ to pay someone to do that housework and STILL have more leftover. in addition, i would probably do more good in the world this way (for pts i treat and those i hire, provided i treat them well which i intend to!) AND would likely be happier. everyone wins!
ReplyDeleteWOOOOOO!!!! Congratulations! That is so awesome.
DeletePlease do write a post about this. I also feel like I contribute more to society and am happier if I work full time as a dr/researcher. That may change, but for now I'm happy with the balance of baby-time / work.
The article has also made me consider outsourcing my grocery shopping. Something to think about!
Hiring cleaners is one of the best things e've done for our marriage since having a kid. We have limited time and I don't want our family time to be us cleaning while baby crawls around in his cage. Money can buy happiness. Sometimes.
ReplyDeleteA-freaking-men.
Delete(Also, I hate cleaning.)
I only know what it is because I took econ 101 last year. I loved taking that class because it applied so much logic to applicable things of everyday life and not a lot of people know about them. I wish my time was worth more in monetary value, then I would hire a cleaner for my apartment, but it would be just so I could do school work and watch bad reality netflix tv without feeling guilty about dirty dishes or laundry.
ReplyDeleteI love econ for that reason. I get that people aren't 100% rational all the time (in fact you can show experimentally how we are not rational in predictable ways -- which is also kind of awesome), but for me also, the cool part of economics was the logic and how it made me see more clearly why the world works the way it does.
DeleteThe Lawyer has a cleaning lady and we both agree that it's some of the best money ever spent! Have you ever tried Peapod for the grocery shopping? Apparently you order online,then the groceries get delivered. I would have gladly done it, but you have to order 2 weeks ahead of time for this area, and I'm not quite *that* organized. But anyway, all of that to say, I don't think any busy person (medical or otherwise) would question or judge you about these things. Seriously...do it!
ReplyDeletePeapod doesn't deliver to my ZIP code.
DeleteJust wanted to say I get it - and I'm jealous of places which have grocery delivery services!
ReplyDeleteMe too!
DeleteThe reasons I've gone periods without a house cleaner was never about money or opportunity cost, but rather weighing the hassle of dealing with another person over the hassle of doing it myself (or more likely, letting my house be dirty). Even now that I have a cleaning guy I like, I still dread cleaning days because I have to pre-clean everything and then after, search for items that he put away. I once nearly cried because I couldn't figure out where he put the high chair tray. And I've written before how my last cleaning person used to leave me these stressful notes.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned outsourcing grocery shopping... I feel like if I did something like that, they'd get the wrong brands, or food that's damaged in some way, or just do something wrong. Maybe I'm more anal than I thought I was though.
"Hassle" has a cost. In your case the "hassle" (perceived or real) was greater than the benefit of hiring a cleaner, which is why you opted to clean for yourself. Another way of putting it is that (for instance), you value having your apt cleaned at $50, but you anticipate the "hassle" minus any benefit of not having to do it yourself is $55 dollars. Because the (perceived or real) costs exceed the benefits, you choose not to hire a cleaning person.
DeleteTime, Energy, Money - my decisions seem to all be based on which I have more of at any given time. But I am thinking grocery delivery should be on my list of services to subscribe to when the balance shifts.
ReplyDeleteIt never occurred to me before, but I think the next time we move, one of my criteria will be to live in a ZIP code that has grocery delivery!
DeleteMy husband and I have agreed that certain services are worth the money. We pay our cleaner the "going-rate" for our area; it is still less than either of us makes per hour. Therefore, since we both value our time immensely, we've agreed to keep this in our budget, whenever possible. We have a busy 7 month old (what 7 month old isn't busy?) and we'd rather spend our time off together and with him. The people who seem to have a problem with this are the same ones who (loudly) complain they are "so busy" and don't have any free time....
ReplyDeleteAh, martyrdom. Sometimes it's fun to complain, though I agree that when people refuse to solve the problem listening to them can get old. I know I can be guilty of this sometimes myself! Haha.
DeleteWhy is it that people are so determined to criticize the decisions of others, particularly when it comes to spending money? I'm a single, childless woman who is going through one of the easiest phases of my residency at the moment, and I still love my housekeeper and would give up many other things to keep her. No one judges people who spend money in restaurants or buy pre-packaged meals because they don't want to cook, so why is cleaning any different?
ReplyDeleteSD -- I'm sorry to say that people do judge one another for how much they spend on food. I've been criticized in the past more than once for buying my lunch rather than making it myself every day.
DeleteOn my own end, I've looked down upon people who eat out at restaurants all the time, but in all fairness these same people complained that they could not "afford" $15 a month for birth control (complaining as they sipped a $15 appletini), so I felt that was somewhat justified at the time to at least roll my eyes a little.
Yay economics!
ReplyDelete