Outsourcing Cooking with Craigslist for $60/week

http://sidsavara.com/personal-productivity/the-price-of-my-dreams-60-a-week

by colinplamondon • 18 years ago

135 73 18 years ago

cperciva• 18 years ago

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?

tesseract• 18 years ago

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

kingkongrevenge2• 18 years ago

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.

colinplamondon3• 18 years ago

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.

kingkongrevenge2• 18 years ago

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.

menloparkbum2• 18 years ago

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.

mynameishere• 18 years ago

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.

delano4• 18 years ago

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.

nick5768• 18 years ago

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.

staunch• 18 years ago

> 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.

PStamatiou• 18 years ago

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..

LogicHoleFlaw2• 18 years ago

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...

modoc2• 18 years ago

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

eru4• 18 years ago

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

Xichekolas• 18 years ago

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?

sidsavara8• 18 years ago

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.

david927• 18 years ago

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.

acgourley• 18 years ago

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.

sobriquet• 18 years ago

>>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 :)

sidsavara8• 18 years ago

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 =)

timcederman• 18 years ago

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

sidsavara8• 18 years ago

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

nazgulnarsil• 18 years ago

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.

litewulf2• 18 years ago

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

byrneseyeview• 18 years ago

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?

jrockway2• 18 years ago

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.

Psyonic• 18 years ago

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

modoc2• 18 years ago

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?

Timothee2• 18 years ago

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.

colinplamondon3• 18 years ago

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

Timothee2• 18 years ago

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.

llimllib• 18 years ago

Why does it disturb you?

icey• 18 years ago

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.

netcan3• 18 years ago

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.

sidsavara8• 18 years ago

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 =)

colinplamondon3• 18 years ago

You bet :)

revorad2• 18 years ago

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

revorad2• 18 years ago

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

sfk• 18 years ago

Tichy• 18 years ago

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.

eru4• 18 years ago

I could turn this into a company.

delano4• 18 years ago

Food is not as simple as it seems.

eru4• 18 years ago

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

thomasmallen• 18 years ago

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...

khangtoh• 18 years ago

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.

sidsavara8• 18 years ago

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!

biohacker423• 18 years ago

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.

LogicHoleFlaw2• 18 years ago

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.

khafra• 18 years ago

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.

menloparkbum2• 18 years ago

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...

biohacker423• 18 years ago

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.

jrockway2• 18 years ago

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.

racecar789• 18 years ago

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.

jonknee• 18 years ago

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

jackzombie• 18 years ago

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

Outsourcing Cooking with Craigslist for $60/week

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