If you make "only" $90,000 a year, can you afford to hire someone to stain the deck?

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Depends. Salaried positions you don't get paid when on the weekend. Makes the argument eating out is cheaper because you could spend the time from cooking working, if you are hourly or own your own business.

DH and I make more and we still seal our own deck. Although we are going to pay someone to paint our hallway when we've painted pretty much every other room in the house.

Why pay $2k to paint a hallway? Well it's dangerous with the high ceilings, stairs, and ladders needed on our crazy stairs. I won't let my DH do it. And because it's dangerous, 3 stories, it costs more. So normally we'd do it ourselves, but stupidity and danger to our health is worth the money.

[segmond]

long winded post. the rule goes like this. if you can do it yourself and do it RIGHT and have the time to do it, do it!

Said woman, can she afford doing her plumbing to save $2000? well, what if she does it wrong and the pipe bursts and floods her house and destorys her belonging when she is gone? can you afford to fix your brakes when you don't know much about cars and risk getting into accident because you don't know how to bleed em?

gotta think about the cost of redoing it by a professional. it's common sense.

[wincrasher]

I think that's a pretty good way to look at things to determine if it's worth it to try to do the job yourself.

I've taken on a few projects and factored in "what if I totally screwed it up and have to do it over" and still came out ahead.

But some things you do simply for the enjoyment of it. I could easily hire out the lawn care at my house. But I like to do it, even though my time would be better spent working.

$750 to stain a deck seems like alot to me though. You can buy a pressure washer for $100 bucks, a few rollers and brushes for $25 and a few gallons of stain for $50.

[Radiance]

She could choose to do better though...

I spend about $300 and 20 hours a month in commuting....

However, I really don't spend much in clothing, I do work in Corporate America but I've managed to dress formal with 3 pairs of pants and 5 nice shirts. I have 4 jackets for especial days. Main colors are black, beige and white. I have one pair of black working shoes and one pair of beige working shoes. I buy easy care clothing so no dry cleaning. I don't use jewerly
I am not the best dressed or the most neat at work but I make up by being very good at what I do and very good social skills. I am offered as many opportunities as my better dressed peers.
I decompress a lot with meditation and journaling and praying and playing with my son.

Still the point remains, before you spend money, is there a better way..

[Snave]

I think several people have mentioned you have to know what you can handle and what you can't. If you can do the work and do it right and save yourself the money, by all means do it. I know I take this apporach. However, there are some things that I can't do or can do, but detest doing, that I will hire people for. I know staining the deck is an example, but I have done this and done it poorly thinking I could save money. I would have gladly paid someone to do it looking back. It looked horrible.

[Radiance]

Agree!

I tried to do my own landscaping one time, on a very small area, and it was a mess, it looked like it was done by a 3 year old. Needles to say I had to pay to get it done and lost the money I had spent on materials.

So maybe the question really is,
Can you afford to HAVE a deck?

In good theory staining should be taken from the "home maintenance" envelop of her budget.

I set aside money in case I need to reapair the fridge or the washer, things I wouldn't try to do that myself so I need to budget for it.

If you buy a house with a deck, or add a deck, how often does it need to te stained and how much does it cost to have it done. That amount needs to be added to the cost of deck ownership.

[cschin4]

I don't care for my deck. It is too hot and I am on hill so it is too windy to eat out there and even the grill blows out. If I had to do over again, no deck for me as I prefer a porch. But, I highly recommend those plastic wood composites over the treated lumber.

[amandasfinances]

From my experiences with my husband's great sense of optimism around DIY projects, my opinion is that unless you are truly an expert and have lots of experience, it can end up being more expensive to take on large projects yourself. You will end up hiring someone to fix it for you in the end, which takes more time and money!

[Goldy1]

I always considered my commute as part of "work" I used to work 8 hours but had to punch out for an hour lunch(up to 9 hoursnow) and my commute was aabout 30 mins or more so it took my 10 hours daily out of my life to earn what I got paid in wages for 8 hours.

It hink the "escape entertainment" was a bit over the deep end and one does not need an $8 lunch ever really.