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Ask HN: What do you outsource for your personal life?

by TbobbyZ on 11/14/22, 6:43 PM with 24 comments

Auto shipping household essentials via Amazon has been a big time saver. Getting groceries delivered is another.

I wish there was a way to outsource managing my money and dealing with bills.

  • by mikewarot on 11/14/22, 9:07 PM

    My neighbor graciously is handling my lawn for me since long covid.

    Getting some things delivered by Amazon is nice. I leave the house as little as possible these days, as it's so taxing.

    Here's my first instinct (snark) answer, which I'd normally repress here on HN: Electrical generation, natural gas supply, potable water, sewage handling, refuse and recycling, law enforcement, fire protection, ambulance service, food inspection, Civil and Criminal Justice, Public Works, infrastructure maintenance and regulation in general.

  • by tra3 on 11/14/22, 7:16 PM

    Cleaning. I hate paying for work that I can do myself, but I simply can't clean as well as professional cleaners. Even I spend more time than they do.

    Same with washing/detailing my car, especially if there's a team working on it. 20 minutes x 3 people does not compare favourably to me doing 4 hours on Sunday afternoon.

  • by kylehotchkiss on 11/15/22, 1:40 AM

    Mail (virtualpostmail.com). I like getting an email with a PDF scan of letters. Then I save the PDF to my documents folder if it matters or never touch the actual paper or PDF again if it doesn’t. Due to some weird USPS policy, virtual mailboxes can’t be stuffed with junk or periodicals so I never have to waste time reading emails involving those
  • by djangpy on 11/14/22, 11:01 PM

    I outsource as much as possible, I have a maid clean our house twice a week (+ laundry, dishes, etc), a concierge service for all of our grocery shopping. An accountant and personal assistant which work together for all of the households and my businesses administrative tasks. The only shore I spend time on weekly is cooking. Living in south east Asia, I am paying around 500$ per month for the entire convenience. It buys me a full workday per week of time I can spend on leisure, working out or being more productive.
  • by midislack on 11/14/22, 9:01 PM

    I hire people to annoy celebrities I don’t care for on Twitter. It got to be too much of a chore to torture such a long and ever growing list of people by myself.
  • by notesinthefield on 11/15/22, 5:07 AM

    Haircuts - did my own for 11 years, recently found a barber that does privates in his small shop, my style is easy for him and a good price for me.

    Grocery shopping - Shipt is wonderful paired with a fruit and veg coop. Trade Coffee drops off three bags every few weeks.

    House cleaning - Im a tidy person but am home less and less, a family member wanted to get their cleaning business off the ground so now they deep clean once a month.

  • by giantg2 on 11/15/22, 7:11 PM

    "I wish there was a way to outsource managing my money and dealing with bills."

    This does exist under various names for various parts. Stuff like personal accountant, financial advisor, etc.

  • by mattw2121 on 11/14/22, 7:02 PM

    You can pay someone to manage your finances and bills: https://secure.aadmm.com/
  • by lukasmalkmus on 11/15/22, 1:25 AM

    As a software engineer myself I used to self host a lot. Nowadays I outsource email, backups, (remote)storage, etc.
  • by zxienin on 11/15/22, 5:15 AM

    Taking care of day-to-day meals for myself and family. It breaks my routine of what I actually want to do throughout the day. Takeout food is not a real alternative to home cooked meal.
  • by pcdoodle on 11/14/22, 6:45 PM

    Subscribe and save toilet paper. It just shows up.

    Bills are annoying. Need account for autopay, their website sucks and crashes (Talking to centerpoint energy).

  • by derwiki on 11/15/22, 4:18 PM

    > managing money

    Many fiduciary financial advisors will manage your portfolio on your behalf. Or do you mean like, day to day budget?

  • by stonecharioteer on 11/16/22, 2:20 AM

    Driving. Cleaning. Filing my taxes. For now.