are you self-sufficient?
- Thread starter gaseousclay
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My graduation present from High School was a suitcase and a cookbook....you learn fast when you have to.
I don't hire out for anything that I can learn to do or already know how to do myself. Extreme auto, home, or appliance repairs are outsourced. General home upkeep, dish washing, clothes washing and ironing (except dry clean only), yard work, and basic auto, appliance, and power tool upkeep are done in-house. Single income family of 4 with stay at home mom(works 1 day per week as a nurse at local hospital and 7 days a week as mom and housewife) makes us self sufficient on a need to basis. It is also a sense of pride that I can do it right on my own.
I should amend to say that I am not to proud to hire out if I know I can't handle it and would end up spending more to fix what I broke.
I should amend to say that I am not to proud to hire out if I know I can't handle it and would end up spending more to fix what I broke.
I do all that stuff myself, except for clothes that have to be dry cleaned. I do agree with other posters who have said that is isn't cost effective for most working people to iron.
Also, even if I wanted to get my shoes shined, I have no idea where I could get that done. The only place I have seen shoe shiners recently is Union Station in DC. I will feel really weird having my shoes shined by somebody else.
Also, even if I wanted to get my shoes shined, I have no idea where I could get that done. The only place I have seen shoe shiners recently is Union Station in DC. I will feel really weird having my shoes shined by somebody else.
Henry:
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I prefer to polish my own shoes, as I know I do a good job on them. I also just like the way shoe polish smells, it's a clean smell to me. I iron my shirts and slacks too, the only time when I don't is when they REALLY need a go-round with the dry cleaners.
Wow. I don't know what to say. One of us has some very unrealistic notions about how "most working people" live.
The minimum wage in France is about 9.5 euros. The place down the street from where I live charges 2 euros per shirt. I can do about 5 shirts per hour. 5*2=10. Assuming I make the minimum wage, does it make sense for me to iron? Not necessarily.
I am a student. Tuition at my school costs more than the average income in this country. I get financial aid from school and have a student loan. I give English lessons to high school students to help pay for school. I would rather spend one hour teaching English than one hour ironing. I am more productive at teaching English than ironing shirts. My dry cleaner is more productive at ironing than teaching English. Econ 101 tells me that I am better off teaching English and taking my stuff to the store to get ironed.
Assuming most working people make at least the minimum wage (which is a fair assumption in my view), and assuming I iron shirts at an average speed, it is indeed not cost effective for most working people in France to iron their own shirts.
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If I were going to spend every waking hour working at a paid job, then any time spent ironing shirts would be money lost, and it'd make sense for me to have them ironed by someone else.
One third of my time is spent sleeping.
One third is spent at work, earning money.
One third is spent doing other stuff, for free. (A lot of that time is spent watching television. I can watch tv sitting down, or ironing shirts, or polishing shoes ... tomayto tomahto. Anything that I could do myself in this third of my time, but choose to pay someone else to do instead, is money out of my pocket. It'd better be worth it.
One third of my time is spent sleeping.
One third is spent at work, earning money.
One third is spent doing other stuff, for free. (A lot of that time is spent watching television. I can watch tv sitting down, or ironing shirts, or polishing shoes ... tomayto tomahto. Anything that I could do myself in this third of my time, but choose to pay someone else to do instead, is money out of my pocket. It'd better be worth it.
I tend to side with Scottish Steve on this but when demands at work require additional effort I'll drop off a weeks worth of shirts at the cleaner's. Sometimes I wish there were other services such as shoeshine but I live in the burbs where there is not enough demand to support such services. I also wish there was a laundry around rather than dry cleaning the shirts at $3 a pop.
I don't know too many people who have eight hours of free time per day. But OK, maybe I should not have generalized.
Don't forget all those getting by on low wages or with rising mortgages/personal debt and families or other commitments.
I believe many many people would consider this kind of service a luxury. Don't get me wrong, getting something back from a good dry-cleaners, all perfect in it's plastic sleeve, is a very nice feeling, but several posters seem to be giving/under the impression that it's part and parcel of everyone's daily routine tospend cash on getting someone else do the most basic things for you. I seriously doubt this is the case. There are millions of us struggling to simply keep our heads above water at the moment, worrying all the time about bills and job security. Let's not forget that
I believe many many people would consider this kind of service a luxury. Don't get me wrong, getting something back from a good dry-cleaners, all perfect in it's plastic sleeve, is a very nice feeling, but several posters seem to be giving/under the impression that it's part and parcel of everyone's daily routine tospend cash on getting someone else do the most basic things for you. I seriously doubt this is the case. There are millions of us struggling to simply keep our heads above water at the moment, worrying all the time about bills and job security. Let's not forget that
That is out of order, Blue Raccoon.
Tell me, are you heartless or simply ignorant?
My casual shirts I will iron myself. My dress shirts go to our dry cleaners. As far as shoes, I enjoy polishing them myself.
I totally agree. I do think it is a fair assumption that most of the people on this forum have a little extra cash to spend on all the expensive things we talk about here, or at least decide to invest in things that are considered luxuries by most. My mistake was to generalize my argument to the entire population. I do think it still holds for the majority of people here. The "millions of us struggling" probably have neither the time nor the desire to come here and read posts about expensive briefcases, watches and clothing. I did not want to offend anyone.
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Very nicely put. ;-)
I have a dry cleaner and a shoe repair store both within two hundred yards of my front door. While I don't send basic laundry out for wash & fold, I do have my shirts and anything that needs to be dry cleaned done. I can polish my own shoes (even have the stuff) but choose not to. I get them polished at T&H either while I'm getting my hair cut or just stop in in the morning and read the paper and have a complimentary cup of tea--best seven clams that I spend.
I generally do this all myself because I'm at the point in my life where 15 dollars for a week of shirts is actually worth more than the hour it would take me to do them myself. Shoe shines I'm picky about and auto repair I just don't have the cash to pay someone 100 bucks an hour to do something I could do.
Having said that - when I lived in India I had someone to do my laundry and someone to cook - on a budget of 20 USD dollars a day including food and rent. The US is weird because we don't have a huge servant class the way much of the rest of the world does. When I first started doing my fieldwork in India I was told by a consultant that it would simply be appropriate for me to pay someone to do these things for me, this coming from a low level bureaucrat who also had servants to take care of his home. There might be an argument to be had about income inequality and the indignities of global capitalism here (and by "here" i mean - not here) - but I don't know that there is particular virtue in ironing your own shirts if you can pay someone else to do it for less than your time is worth - that is why economies tend toward specialization.
Having said that - when I lived in India I had someone to do my laundry and someone to cook - on a budget of 20 USD dollars a day including food and rent. The US is weird because we don't have a huge servant class the way much of the rest of the world does. When I first started doing my fieldwork in India I was told by a consultant that it would simply be appropriate for me to pay someone to do these things for me, this coming from a low level bureaucrat who also had servants to take care of his home. There might be an argument to be had about income inequality and the indignities of global capitalism here (and by "here" i mean - not here) - but I don't know that there is particular virtue in ironing your own shirts if you can pay someone else to do it for less than your time is worth - that is why economies tend toward specialization.
1/3 working, 1/3 sleeping? Can we switch lives please???? That sounds like heaven to me right now.
