Comparing Values

This morning I received a quote for garden services which is something most houses do in South Africa. There are actually 4 things that we do in South Africa that I never had to worry about when I lived in the UK. The average house in the UK would not warrant a garden service due to the size of the property, but here the houses are much bigger and they do have gardens that need maintaining.

The cost of R900 per month includes a weekly visit by a team that will spend roughly an hour on your property. R900 is roughly $45 so it averages out at around $10 per week which is cheap and a no brainer. They say it is dangerous to compare, but I cannot help myself as I know these services in SA are cheap yet they are an important part of the economy supplying jobs that anywhere else would not be deemed a necessity.

I thought I would check and see if a similar type service was on offer in the UK for gardens that would warrant help or assistance and obviously the pricing is on another complete level. Just a gardener for the day will hit your pocket for 150 GBP which is roughly 16 x the current cost here in comparison being R200.

I was shocked to see gardeners earning a reported average of £51,626.40 per annum and no wonder people tend to their own gardens because the cost is madness. In Central London one would pay more than 350 GBP per day to have a gardener.

In SA gardeners are seen as unskilled labor so it is one of the poorest jobs you can find even though the service does offer huge value to the home owners. Families ted to spend a lot of time out doors here so having a maintained garden is a must. I am no green finger person and see a garden as a chore and not a pleasure so handing the task to someone else is always going to happen.

I mentioned 4 things we do here that are not done elsewhere so garden services is one of them and the other 3 are pool services , armed response (security) and a household domestic.

Pool services I have never used as I have learned the tricks of maintaining a pool and if you use the pool regularly you are always doing something whether it is testing the water or adding chemicals. For myself personally this is waste of money and is that basic for someone to learn themselves. I am not 100% sue of the rates, but it must be up there at around R1000 per month today which is expensive even though it is only $50 per month.

Armed response is a must have as your contents insurance demands this as part of the policy agreement. I pay roughly R300 monthly which is $15 and they have armed patrol cars in your area 24/7. Knowing you have armed back up less than 3 minutes away is nice to know and they offer protection to the entire area. These companies have license recognition cameras that flag vehicles with fake number plates or stolen vehicles so crime is normally picked up before it happens. They have cameras in the area and these companies communicate with each other so crime in our area is under control.

The last one which I fight my family on all the time is domestic workers but tend to agree with e these days as it is no about doing the cleaning, but more about having a presence on the property if everyone is at work. When we go over seas on trips she will move in and take care of things whilst we are gone like feeding the dogs. I am still dead against someone cleaning up after you though as I actually enjoy doing housework as you take pride in your home. This cost is still very reasonable costing around $250 monthly which is again seriously cheap but more importantly offers someone a chance of employment which otherwise would be jobless. In the UK this housekeeper type role would cost 10 x what we pay here and I would never pay that.

In comparison the services we are offered are so much cheaper which raises the standard of living even though you cannot compare salaries with the GBP being 25 x more valuable than the Rand today. Saying that I would trade this all in knowing my family was safe living somewhere else as these are all things we can do our selves and do not need to pay others to do these things for us. Convenience for now though as they are all helping free up time to do other things.

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