NWR Poll: DIY vs. Money well spent

KentuckyKate

These are all things that most able-bodied people are capable of doing, but some of them kind of suck.  What do you do yourself, and what do you pay for?  If you're in an apartment or condo, some of these don't apply to you, but what would you do if they did? If your answer is "both" on some of these options, choose what you do more or elaborate.

Button-up shirts, pants with creases, etc: Iron yourself or send to the cleaners?

Grass: Mow it yourself or hire a lawn service?

Moving: Rent a U-Haul and load/unload yourself or hire movers?

Cleaning: Do it yourself or hire a housekeeper?

Painting: Paint it yourself or hire a painter?

Gardening: Plant and maintain yourself or hire a landscaper?

Car: Wash it yourself or drive-through a carwash?

Spaghetti Sauce: Cook it from scratch or open a jar?

Cookies: Bake them from scratch or buy a mix/premade dough?


(Edited for Clarity)

KentuckyKate

I seriously suck at nesting.  I spent thirty minutes trying to iron two shirts tonight, and they look just barely acceptable to wear to work.  That's when I decided I'm not buying any more shirts with buttons, and for the ones I have, it's totally worth $1.50/shirt at the cleaners so I don't have to do this anymore.

I also can't make homemade gravy, as much as I've tried.  I can make homemade biscuits, but I have to buy premade gravy.

KentuckyKate

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_nwr-poll-diy-vs-money-well-spent?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:0d2039f9-7148-4976-978f-246a5f914e85Post:9a52ec38-23e3-4a87-93cd-7c412d2a30d3">Re: NWR Poll: DIY vs. Money well spent</a>:
[QUOTE]Easy way out for all... except moving. I hate asking for help moving. It just feels wrong.
Posted by MeaghanandMichael[/QUOTE]
H said the next time one of his friends asks for help moving, he is going to give them $100 and tell them to apply it towards movers.  If they still don't get movers, then at least he won't feel bad for not helping, because he just gave someone $100.  He said it jokingly, but it wouldn't surprise me if he actually did it.

Beachy730

Button-up shirts, pants with creases, etc: Iron yourself or send to the cleaners?
I don't iron anything, I stick it in the dryer for a few minutes.  If that doesn't work, H irons for me.  I'm horrible at it.

Grass: Mow it yourself or hire a lawn service?  We're in a complex that does it, but growing up I always cut my parents grass so I'll do DIY when we get a house.

Moving: Rent a U-Haul and load/unload yourself or hire movers? Absolutely hire movers.  We're lucky that the military pays for our move.  Even just unpacking is enough for me to hate doing it.  But if we did pay ourselves, it would be WELL worth the money. 

Cleaning: Do it yourself or hire a housekeeper? DIY.  Except for something big, like I might hire someone to come clean our couch. 

Painting: Paint it yourself or hire a painter? Eh, probably hire someone.  My parents have hired painters, and they definitely do way better work than I ever would.  H would probably make us DIY though.

Gardening: Plant and maintain yourself or hire a landscaper? DIY

Car: Wash it yourself or drive-through a carwash?  Both.  Drive through for the most part, but I will wash it myself on a really nice day.

Spaghetti Sauce: Cook it from scratch or open a jar? Usually a jar since pasta is usually our last minute dinner decision.  I do make it from scratch once in a great while though. 

Cookies: Bake them from scratch or buy a mix/premade dough? From scratch.  My entire Italian family would kill me if I used pre-bake cookies for anything.  I have made them though before just for us when I want cookies and am being lazy.

ootmother2

cButton-up shirts, pants with creases, etc: Iron yourself or send to the cleaners?

Grass: Mow it yourself or hire a lawn service?

Moving: Rent a U-Haul and load/unload yourself or hire movers?

Cleaning: Do it yourself or hire a housekeeper?

I have a housekeeper because I'm lame.   NOT lamO, I am temporarily disabled

Painting: Paint it yourself or hire a painter?  My building pays for painting

Gardening: Plant and maintain yourself or hire a landscaper?  When I had a country house, I was half and half

Car: Wash it yourself or drive-through a carwash?

Real women don't pump gas, nor do they wash their own cars

Spaghetti Sauce: Cook it from scratch or open a jar?

My own homemad is awsome.  I hate it from the jar

Cookies: Bake them from scratch or buy a mix/premade dough?

Whenever I get around to baking, it's my own, no premade!!

ETA:  I don't know how to iron
I

ootmother2

oh, I've done a UHall but I didn't drive.

ootdaughter was moving my stuff from Newport to Boston.  I insisted that she did it on her own.. With FI's help, of course

DramaGeek

Button-up shirts, pants with creases, etc: Iron yourself or send to the cleaners?
DIY
Grass: Mow it yourself or hire a lawn service?
DIY
Moving: Rent a U-Haul and load/unload yourself or hire movers?
DIY - I should mention that our one and only move was a mile door to door though
Cleaning: Do it yourself or hire a housekeeper?
This is one of the biggest arguments in our house.  I want a housekeeper, H wants to DIY, which translates into ME doing it.  See why this is an issue?
Painting: Paint it yourself or hire a painter?
DIY, kinda.  my dad does it, he was a professional painter
Gardening: Plant and maintain yourself or hire a landscaper?
We should hire someone but we can't justify the cost.  Mostly, we don't do anything.
Car: Wash it yourself or drive-through a carwash?
Depends on time and energy, I've done both
Spaghetti Sauce: Cook it from scratch or open a jar?
jar, like PP from-scratch intimidates me
Cookies: Bake them from scratch or buy a mix/premade dough?
I'm with beach - am I being lazy?  Then I pick some up at the store.  Otherwise I make my own.

tenofcups4me

Button-up shirts, pants with creases, etc: Iron yourself or send to the cleaners?
N/A I don't have any button up shirts or pants with creases. We moved into this house almost 2 years ago and I don't either I or DH have used the iron since we moved in.

Grass: Mow it yourself or hire a lawn service?  DH mows. If I lived on my own, I"d hire.

Moving: Rent a U-Haul and load/unload yourself or hire movers? I hired movers when I was on my home; for our last move, DH insisted we do it ourselves. I said I'd do boxes, but not furniture so if he wanted to do it with friends, that was fine. He and friends did the furniture.

Cleaning: Do it yourself or hire a housekeeper?
We do it ourselves, but I've had housekeepers in the past.

Painting: Paint it yourself or hire a painter?
Interior: myself. Exterior:  hire.

Gardening: Plant and maintain yourself or hire a landscaper?
Ourselves.

Car: Wash it yourself or drive-through a carwash?
Dh does it himself most of the time, but sometimes goes through a car wash. That's his job for both our cars.

Spaghetti Sauce: Cook it from scratch or open a jar?
Usually open a jar and "doctor" it; on rare ocassion from scratch.

Cookies: Bake them from scratch or buy a mix/premade dough?
From scratch because it's SO easy and so good. But that's just for cookies -- cakes are from mix and if I make a pie, I buy the Pillsbury dough sheets -- can put them into your own pie plate and they look and taste good.

[Deleted User]

Button-up shirts, pants with creases, etc: Iron yourself or send to the cleaners? DIY

Grass: Mow it yourself or hire a lawn service? DIY. But, I married a landscaper so I have a husband and lawn service all in one.

Moving: Rent a U-Haul and load/unload yourself or hire movers? Usually DIY, but we might hire movers the next time we move.

Cleaning: Do it yourself or hire a housekeeper? DIY, but one day I'd love to have a housekeeper. I suck at cleaning.

Painting: Paint it yourself or hire a painter? DIY

Gardening: Plant and maintain yourself or hire a landscaper? See above

Car: Wash it yourself or drive-through a carwash? DIY, unless I'm getting my oil changed because they do it at the same time at the place I go to

Spaghetti Sauce: Cook it from scratch or open a jar? Jar, most of the time.

Cookies: Bake them from scratch or buy a mix/premade dough? Pre-made, unless I'm baking for a party and have a recipe I want to try.

baystateapple

Button-up shirts, pants with creases, etc: Iron myself.

Grass: We live in an apartment complex and they have a mowing service.  If we had a lawn, we'd do it ourselves.

Moving: Rent a U-Haul and move ourselves.

Cleaning: DIY cleaning.

Painting: Haven't come up with this yet, but we'd probably do it ourselves.

Gardening: Don't have a garden.

Car: Wash it myself.

Spaghetti Sauce: Open a jar most nights.

Cookies: Bake from scratch.

akhensley81

Button-up shirts, pants with creases, etc: DIY

Grass: N/A- still live in an apartment. But H would totally DIY.

Moving: We have always DIY'd and hate it so much, we're forking out the cash for the next move.

Cleaning: DIY

Painting: DIY

Gardening: Again, kind of N/A because of the apartment thing. But I would definitely DIY.

Car: Drive through.

Spaghetti Sauce: DIY, when I have the time. Otherwise, jar.

Cookies: DIY

Stackeye210

Button-up shirts, pants with creases, etc: Iron yourself or send to the cleaners?  DIY

Grass: Mow it yourself or hire a lawn service?  DIY (well mr Stack does it)

Moving: Rent a U-Haul and load/unload yourself or hire movers?  DIY
 
Cleaning: Do it yourself or hire a housekeeper?  DIY

Painting: Paint it yourself or hire a painter?   DIY

Gardening: Plant and maintain yourself or hire a landscaper?  DIY

Car: Wash it yourself or drive-through a carwash?  DIY (mr Stack once again)

Spaghetti Sauce: Cook it from scratch or open a jar?  Open a jar

Cookies: Bake them from scratch or buy a mix/premade dough?  Mix

samurai21

These are all things that most able-bodied people are capable of doing, but some of them kind of suck.  What do you do yourself, and what do you pay for?  If you're in an apartment or condo, some of these don't apply to you, but what would you do if they did? If your answer is "both" on some of these options, choose what you do more or elaborate.

Button-up shirts, pants with creases, etc: Iron yourself or send to the cleaners?
I iron them unless it's a dry ckean only item.
Grass: Mow it yourself or hire a lawn service?
Mow it ourselves.
Moving: Rent a U-Haul and load/unload yourself or hire movers?
Move ourselves
Cleaning: Do it yourself or hire a housekeeper?
Do it myself.
Painting: Paint it yourself or hire a painter?
Do it ourselves
Gardening: Plant and maintain yourself or hire a landscaper?
Do it ourselves
Car: Wash it yourself or drive-through a carwash?
Before when we both lived with our parents, do it ourselves in the driveway, but now in an apartment we use a carwash.
Spaghetti Sauce: Cook it from scratch or open a jar?
either or. I normally do a semi homemade using tomato paste.
Cookies: Bake them from scratch or buy a mix/premade dough?
I'm a fan of doint it myself, but sometimes we'll buy the break and bake and then when we get a sweet craving either microwave 1 or 2 unbaked cookies or make them in the toaster.

(Edited for Clarity)

emilyinchile

Button-up shirts, pants with creases, etc: Iron yourself or send to the cleaners? Housekeeper irons things. I don't iron though - my dad always did the ironing in my house because he wore dress shirts/iron-able things more than my mom, so I've decided it's a man's job

Grass: Mow it yourself or hire a lawn service? N/A, but we'd probably DIY

Moving: Rent a U-Haul and load/unload yourself or hire movers? We DIYed last time but will hire movers for any international moves.

Cleaning: Do it yourself or hire a housekeeper? Housekeeper. Perks of living in Chile.

Painting: Paint it yourself or hire a painter? Hire someone.

Gardening: Plant and maintain yourself or hire a landscaper? N/A except for my little window box that I DIY

Car: Wash it yourself or drive-through a carwash? DIY

Spaghetti Sauce: Cook it from scratch or open a jar? DIY

Cookies: Bake them from scratch or buy a mix/premade dough? DIY

waltzingmatilda13

Button-up shirts, pants with creases, etc: Iron them myself

Grass: Mow it yourself or hire a lawn service? If I had a yard, DH would mow it.

Moving: Rent a U-Haul. We haven't acquired enough stuff to feel like we need a moving service yet.

Cleaning: Do it myself, although, if I had the money I would not hesitate to hire a cleaning service.

Painting: Paint myself. I actually enjoy painting.

Gardening: I don't garden and it's not that important to me.

Car: Car wash! This is one thing I really hate to do myself.

Spaghetti Sauce: I can go either way on this. If I really want good sauce, I'll make it myself like the girl little Italian girl that I am. But sometimes I'm lazy.

Cookies: Scratch! Nothing bothers me more than those commercials of parents "baking" cookies with their kids and it's all over in 2 minutes because they break apart the dough and put it on a cookie sheet. That's not baking with your kids, I'm sorry.

FutureMrsTR

Button-up shirts, pants with creases, etc: Iron yourself or send to the cleaners?  I have a steamer so do it myself.

Grass: Mow it yourself or hire a lawn service?  Mow it myself.  And by myself, I mean have H do it.

Moving: Rent a U-Haul and load/unload yourself or hire movers?  U-Haul and DIY.

Cleaning: Do it yourself or hire a housekeeper?  Housekeeper.  I don't have one now bc we're in a tiny apt, but if we were in a house?  I'd hire one just to do the kitchen and bathrooms.

Painting: Paint it yourself or hire a painter?  depends on the room, how tall it is.  If it would involve a high ladder or a lot of taping off, hire a painter.  Otherwise, I like painting.

Gardening: Plant and maintain yourself or hire a landscaper?  Landscaper.

Car: Wash it yourself or drive-through a carwash?  Depends on the time of year.  If it's nice out, I'd do it myself.

Spaghetti Sauce: Cook it from scratch or open a jar?  Jar, but we usually add some spices or fresh garlic.

Cookies: Bake them from scratch or buy a mix/premade dough?  Premade

SnShne322

Button-up shirts, pants with creases, etc: Iron yourself or send to the cleaners? Iron myself.  We don't have a use for them often since we both work in a casual environment.  I probably would send them to the cleaner if I remembered a few days before I needed them.

Grass: Mow it yourself or hire a lawn service? Mow it.  We only have a small piece of property.

Moving: Rent a U-Haul and load/unload yourself or hire movers? Move ourselves.  Our family has a number of pickups and even a box trucks so we don't usually need a Uhaul.

Cleaning: Do it yourself or hire a housekeeper? DIY

Painting: Paint it yourself or hire a painter? DIY

Gardening: Plant and maintain yourself or hire a landscaper? DIY

Car: Wash it yourself or drive-through a carwash? Both

Spaghetti Sauce: Cook it from scratch or open a jar? Both

Cookies: Bake them from scratch or buy a mix/premade dough? Scratch

pinkpinot

Button-up shirts, pants with creases, etc: Iron yourself or send to the cleaners?
I use a steamer because I can't iron.

Grass: Mow it yourself or hire a lawn service?
H is in charge of mowing the lawn, I wish he would hire someone because he lets it get sooooo long

Moving: Rent a U-Haul and load/unload yourself or hire movers?
Ugh do it ourselves.  Moving sucks.

Cleaning: Do it yourself or hire a housekeeper?
Do it myself but I seriously consider hiring a housekeeper all the time but I have a feeling I'd still be cleaning after he/she left....

Painting: Paint it yourself or hire a painter?
Hire.  We HATE painting.  It's so boring & tedious. 

Gardening: Plant and maintain yourself or hire a landscaper?
Uhhh what gardening?  Our yard is a mess. 

Car: Wash it yourself or drive-through a carwash?
Both, just depends on the weather

Spaghetti Sauce: Cook it from scratch or open a jar?
Open a jar

Cookies: Bake them from scratch or buy a mix/premade dough?
Pre made dough

mandysmear

Button-up shirts, pants with creases, etc: Iron yourself or send to the cleaners? cleaners.  i have ironed like 5 times in my life.  this is why.

Grass: Mow it yourself or hire a lawn service? our lawn is so small.  we'll be doing it ourselves. 

Moving: Rent a U-Haul and load/unload yourself or hire movers? we moved ourselves.  $1500 is not worth it.

Cleaning: Do it yourself or hire a housekeeper? clean myself.

Painting: Paint it yourself or hire a painter? paint myself.

Gardening: Plant and maintain yourself or hire a landscaper? landscaper.  i kill everything.

Car: Wash it yourself or drive-through a carwash? drive through.  if i still had my black car i'd do it myself though.  cause it would look dirty unless you washed it right.

Spaghetti Sauce: Cook it from scratch or open a jar? scratch.  everytime.

Cookies: Bake them from scratch or buy a mix/premade dough? i can and will buy premixed dough.  but i enjoy making them from scratch.

mica178

Other than the cooking stuff (which I pretty much always DIY), I usually hire people to do the dirty work.  It's worth the money not to be grumpy over doing the manual labor.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

Button-up shirts, pants with creases, etc: Iron yourself or send to the cleaners? - self

Grass: Mow it yourself or hire a lawn service? - depends, but N/A for now

Moving: Rent a U-Haul and load/unload yourself or hire movers? - MOVERS. OMG, I've moved myself with a U-haul so many times and the last time we moved we hired movers SO worth it. It took like 30 minutes.

Cleaning: Do it yourself or hire a housekeeper? - both, we have a cleaning lady twice a month, so obviously I do a fair bit of cleaning myself

Painting: Paint it yourself or hire a painter? - depends, but N/A for now

Gardening: Plant and maintain yourself or hire a landscaper? - self, but I have a black thumb, so no planting for now

Car: Wash it yourself or drive-through a carwash? - drive through - we don't really have the room in our driveway and I trust the pros to do a thorough job faster than I can

Spaghetti Sauce: Cook it from scratch or open a jar? - jar

Cookies: Bake them from scratch or buy a mix/premade dough? - depends, at the holidays I might do scratch, but I rarely bake

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_nwr-poll-diy-vs-money-well-spent?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:0d2039f9-7148-4976-978f-246a5f914e85Post:c2980e0a-756f-40a0-b907-9f58ee057055">Re: NWR Poll: DIY vs. Money well spent</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: NWR Poll: DIY vs. Money well spent : H said the next time one of his friends asks for help moving, he is going to give them $100 and tell them to apply it towards movers.  If they still don't get movers, then at least he won't feel bad for not helping, because he just gave someone $100.  He said it jokingly, but it wouldn't surprise me if he actually did it.
Posted by KentuckyKate[/QUOTE]

Yeah, it's one of those things that's fine when you're a few years out of college, but by the time I'm 35 if I friend asked me to help them move their furniture, I'd laugh at them.

BioGirl21

Button-up shirts, pants with creases, etc: Iron yourself or send to the cleaners? Right now we hardly own anything that needs ironing, but if I ever get a job where I wear anything other than red and khaki, I'll do it myself.

Grass: Mow it yourself or hire a lawn service? Our apartment complex hires a lawn service. But H wants to do the mowing when we get a house, he actually likes it.

Moving: Rent a U-Haul and load/unload yourself or hire movers? U-Haul and my muscles, I love packing and unpacking.

Cleaning: Do it yourself or hire a housekeeper? I wish we could afford a housekeeper, but I'd probably still do it myself even if we could

Painting: Paint it yourself or hire a painter? I love painting

Gardening: Plant and maintain yourself or hire a landscaper? H will probably do the gardening when we get a house

Car: Wash it yourself or drive-through a carwash? I perfer the carwash, H prefers DIY

Spaghetti Sauce: Cook it from scratch or open a jar? jar

Cookies: Bake them from scratch or buy a mix/premade dough? buy a box

katiewhompus

Button-up shirts, pants with creases, etc: Iron yourself or send to the cleaners?
Iron myself. I think it would be more effort to take them to the cleaners than just spend 10 minutes ironing. I also dont have any clothing that requires ironing...

Grass: Mow it yourself or hire a lawn service?
Mow it yourself. Our yard is small enough that it only takes 2 hours max and is good exercise. I also have a lot of plants and no faith that a service wouldn't lop them off accidently.

Moving: Rent a U-Haul and load/unload yourself or hire movers?
Movers We've used movers for our last 2 moves and it was incredible. We still help with carrying boxes to make it go faster but it's worth not having to move the heavier furniture and knowing their insurance will cover damages.

Cleaning: Do it yourself or hire a housekeeper?
Do it myself. I don't like other people touching my things and feel like if I picked up everything so they could dust/vacuum I should just do it all.

Painting: Paint it yourself or hire a painter?
Paint myself. Although my mind was almost changed on this when we bought our house and had to paint our 30' (ish)  high entryway. Not fun.

Gardening: Plant and maintain yourself or hire a landscaper?
Myself That's the fun part!

Car: Wash it yourself or drive-through a carwash?
Myself in the summer, drive-through if it's at all cold.

Spaghetti Sauce: Cook it from scratch or open a jar?
Scratch, although we do start with Hunt's tomatoes

Cookies: Bake them from scratch or buy a mix/premade dough?
Premade dough/box mix. It's just easier right now.