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Do it yourself! Save £700 a year

Although 94% worry about wasting money in the home, the average UK resident spends £700 per year on tasks such as decorating, upgrading slow computers and gardening

New research released today from Crucial.com shows that Brits waste £700 a year outsourcing help to complete everyday household jobs. For the whole of the UK, this equates to a staggering £13 billion per year*. Although 94% of those surveyed admitted that they worry about wasting money in the home, jobs such as painting and decorating, fixing a slow computer and gardening are just a few of the simple tasks that are unnecessarily costing UK residents hundreds of pounds each year.

The new insights revealed that 71% of those surveyed have outsourced help in the last six months, and almost three quarters (72%) believe they have wasted money paying people to do jobs around the house that they could have done themselves.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, larger tasks such as home decoration (£132 per year), plumbing (£128) and mechanics (£114) are where Brits outsource most of their help. However, the research shows that when it comes to smaller tasks, the average Brit spends £78 a year finding someone that can help with their slow computer. In addition, almost a third (31%) of those surveyed spend up to £200 in just 6 months, or £400 per year, seeking professional IT help – this could actually exceed the cost of a brand new computer and is money that could be saved fairly easily.

“Although some of the bigger jobs around the home can be tricky and best left to an expert, many smaller jobs do not require the skills of a professional and are quicker to complete than you might think.” said Diane McMillan, a computer upgrade expert from Crucial.com. She continued “Although people may think a slow computer requires the help of an IT professional, a simple computer memory upgrade can often solve this problem, and it is much easier and cheaper to do this yourself.”

When it comes to the reasons why Brits are outsourcing jobs around the home, the most popular excuse was that they do not feel capable of doing the job or have a lack of knowledge (61%). Almost a third (29%) explained that they would rather just employ a professional to do it and 1 in 5 (20%) claim they do not have the time. The research showed that 14% of people surveyed simply can’t be bothered to complete these tasks and 12% just don’t like doing them.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Zoe Taylor .