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We're having our 3rd but can't really afford to outsource much

If money was no object, I would
- Cleaning crew weekly
- Grocery delivery
- Subscribe & save on everything
- Professional organizer coming in bi-annually
- Outsource all house maintenance (lawn/snow)
- Order way more prepared foods/meals (healthy), and/or do more Home Chef type things

- Grocery pick-up (this actually save me a ton of money by cutting down on impulse shopping and training me to know good prices, and I have 5 years of data to prove it)

- Subscribe & save on everything

- We have some friends with teenagers and we pay them for biannual yardwork

- We have some good places here for drop-off occasional childcare (https://www.kidspark.com/locations/) and in my area is $9 per hour for 1 kid, $13 per 2 kids, and that means they are out of the house so we COULD use that time if we want

- Some churches in our area offer "Parent's Night Out" events occasionally and VBS camp in the summer, and typically those events are extremely low-cost..... but that's only if you're ok with your kid learning the Christian faith

There's also a bunch of things that we just don't do or care about. Like pajamas (kids just wear comfy clothes 24/7) and matching socks (each kid has 2 solid colors of socks and that's it) and we don't really care if we miss dress up days, etc. My kids shower with me up through age 2-3, so, we don't really do bathtime much either.

Our #3 is due end of June and #1 & 2 will both be elementary (K and 2nd) in August. We don’t have much wiggle room in the budget but:

-We have a cleaning crew once per week. Would happily up this to twice per week if we could afford it. Might do this just for the month after the new baby comes.

-Considering an au pair to help around the house and do drop off/pick up some. I work PT so considering this as child care for #3.

-I occasionally give myself grace to do wash and fold at our local dry cleaner. I try to stay on top of the laundry but if it gets to a point where I’m really behind and stressed I drop off a few loads and pick them up folded the next day. Super nice. Our area also had pickup available.

-I order groceries off amazon now. Not exclusively but pretty consistently.

Cleaning ever other week, outsource all lawn care, groceries curbside pick-up, Amazon for most other shopping needs. I WFH and keep up with laundry that way but my friend with #3 on the way sends out all her laundry and loves it.

@SweetCaroline: the biggest life saver for us this year with 2 was hiring a part time nanny/babysitter to come in the morning and feed/clothe my kids and drop them at school so DH and I can get of to work at a decent hour and skip the morning insanity. She unloads the dishwasher, cleans up all the breakfast dishes, and occasionally will do some simple dinner prep/shopping if she has time. It's about 2 hours/day so not a huge expense and SOOOO worth it. Family dinner is a huge priority to us so we opted to focus on getting home at a decent hour (before 6) and spend time all together. Without that help in the AM we'd both be up working late at night and that just doesn't work for our sanity.

@muffinsmuffins: Same! I only go to a store to pick up or return lol! Target pick up/drive up is a life-saver.

So I only have 1 kid but grocery delivery is a lifesaver for us. We do PrimeNow from Whole Foods once a week and it’s amazing. Admittedly, we also get takeout at least once a week and have a meal delivery service (not a cooking kit, an actual hot meal) once a week. But we don’t really like cooking!

@periwinklebee: I need that! I hate meal planning and prepping with a passion now that I have two picky kids and a milk allergy to deal with. And it is usually just me and the kids for dinner, so I really hate cooking just one adult meal. How did you find her?

We rent in an HOA community. There's a teeny backyard that I mow in the summer every other week while the kids play. But everything else outside is taken care of. We wouldn't survive without that.

For a brief period of time my college student SIL would come over a clean for extra cash, but she hasn't done that for a while now and we've been encouraging her to get a real job. Between over 2 months of morning/all-day sickness and her not coming over, my house is a true disaster zone right now. We haven't even unboxed all the Christmas presents yet!

The only things I haven't seen listed here is dog walkers and personal assistants. Some folks in another mom group have a personal assistant and they schedule all appts, kid activity signups, do product research, bill pay, manage/schedule home maintenance, etc. I'd say that's a very niche outsourcing role though.

I'm surprised so few people out source laundry. We just got a cleaning service, but the #2 thing I'd want to out source is laundry. And then healthy pre-made meals.

@JennyPenny: True, I have never priced it out to see if it would be worth it. But wash-dry-fold delivered to my door sounds heavenly.

I'd also want to trust that they are using good products and that the machines themselves are clean. And now that I think about I'd feel weird about having someone handle my dirty underwear. So this is a half baked idea.

@JennyPenny: @Litebrite: I think it's because it doesn't seem like a real timesaver.

Putting clothes in the wash takes 5 min max. Switching them to the dryer takes 5 min max. Taking them out takes 5 min max. That's 15 min a day, MAX, which would be the same amount of time as dropping them off at a place and picking them up. I also don't have room in my car for multiple loads of laundry.

It only really saves time on folding. I don't fold baby/kid clothes, I just throw them in the drawer. So again, that doesn't save time.

Laundry service also wouldn't put clothes away for me , sadly!

@DesertDreams88: my first thought was: if they put it away for me, I would pay!

We outsource:
-cleaning crew every other week
- lawn mowing
- snow removal

I wish I could somewhat outsource cooking - have someone come over weekly to help with meal prep/clean up after

We have 4 kiddos and we both WOTH we outsource:
- Cleaning twice a week; we do our main areas twice a week and the upstairs sleeping area every two weeks
- Laundry, I am very particular about how I wash things so that I still do myself but all the folding and putting away is outsourced. That easily saves us 4+ hours a week

@JennyPenny: @Foodnerd81: @Litebrite: outsourcing laundry was a game changer for us. Our cleaning lady does it. We have her come once/week which is a lot, but such a blessing. Even outsourcing laundry once or twice/week when cleaners come may be worth it for some to consider. (she folds all the clothes and puts away the kids clothes. she leaves our clothes folded in a basket and we put our own away. totally fine with me)

My MIL never ceases to tell me i should find a cleaning lady who will do laundry, but I'm not sure how the logistics of this would work. Our cleaning service sends two people (now we only have them come every other week) and they get the job done pretty quickly. It actually creates laundry for me, as they leave all their rags for me to wash (DH wanted to get a new cleaning service b/c of this, but I didn't have the energy to find one I would trust and otherwise they do a good job). Laundry is always multiple loads per week with kids stuff, towels, linens, our clothes, etc, so I feel like they would have to be here all day to do it.

@graceandjoy: @DesertDreams88: @SweetCaroline: what do you get on subscribe and save? I tried it a few years ago for toiletries and dog food, but found it was a hassle to get the timing right and they kept changing what products were available so I stopped. But maybe I should give it another go.

As to the laundry discussion - I think having someone fold, sort, and put away would be amazing. I guess the actual washer and dryer part isn't terrible. Part of the burden of laundry is that we need to stick to the schedule or my kids end up wearing dirty clothes to school. So we are often scrambling and I would love it if someone just took it all off our plate.

@Litebrite: I price-matched all of mine, and a lot of them arrive only every 3-6 months. My items don't go out of stock that much or change prices significantly.

toothpaste, sunscreen, deodorant, contact solution, conditioner, tampons, eczema lotion

swiffer things, lysol wipes, batteries, dishwasher tabs

concealer, face powder, razor blades, eyebrow pencil, chapstick, tinted lip balm, fake nails

kids meds: tylenol, benadryl, decongestant, sore throat pops, melatonin, etc

kids & my vitamins, diapers, diaper pail bags, wipes

tennis balls, color-changing bath tabs

fruit leather, nutrigrain bars, applesauce, veggie straws, yogurt melts

Basically anytime I order something on Amazon, if I see a "subscribe and save," I will usually do that. Sometimes even if it's a RARE item, I'll just set it to every 6 months, like tennis balls.