"Pay By The Hour"

February 21, 2011

Today’s Bit of Advice….

“Pay by the hour”

I know that sounds a little bit strange to some people as images of sleazy hotel rooms and loose women may pop up in the mind, but I assure you that this blog is not headed in that direction.  Though to be honest, I did hear recently about  friends who found a room for rent at an hourly rate in Europe where they could sleep off their jet lag.  Nice, clean room that did the job of getting their sleep back on schedule.  Not all hourly rooms are sleazy I guess!

But, back to the topic at hand.  When you have the choice, pay by the hour.  Or by the week.  Or by the month.  Or just by the visit.   There is no need to lock yourself into long-term commitment and pay for things you aren’t using.

For example, if you could join a gym and pay by the workout, think of the money you’d save.  Most people who sign up for an annual gym membership rarely get the number of workouts they pay for and then feel guilty about the money wasted.  Problem is, pay by the hour gyms are pretty hard to find.

We’ve chosen to rent movies for our family through Time Warner Cable’s “On Demand” service.  Sure, we pay $1.99 - $3.99 a movie and only have it for 24 hours, but we only rent a movie two or three times a year.  I love the idea of Netflix but we still end up paying less for what we actually use doing it our way.

Our cellphone texting plan works in the same manner.  For Valentine’s Day last year, I got my husband a cell phone.  Prior to that we had shared a phone and it was difficult to call each other when we were away from home or work.  Actually, it was impossible to call each other since only one of us could use that phone at a time.  The new phone took some adjusting for him but he’s come around to the point where he turns it on now and then and can actually check his messages now.  When I purchased the phone I was offered a texting plan.  Haha – if the guy can’t even figure out the voice mail how is he going to send and receive texts?  Well, I sent him a text last week and he was able to reply to me!  We’ve moved into a new era!  If I had purchased a texting plan we could really develop our texting skills but, no.  We have the pay as you go plan where each text costs money.  And that’s okay since I have sent a total of 3 texts in the last year and he has sent one.  I know there will come a day when we need to change the plan to accommodate for an increase in texting but, for now, this is a good fit.

We are fortunate to have a Before and After Care program at the girls’ school that allows us to use it on a drop in basis and pay by the hour.  The program at our son’s school requires a long term commitment and you have to pay for days it is not used.  The drop in pay-as-you-go is such a blessing for a family that only needs it sporadically.

There are times when pay by the hour is not an advantage, however.  We got our first internet service in 1995.  I remember sitting at the computer in our little guest room and thinking “this internet invention is the most amazing thing I’ve ever experienced!”  (I still think it is the most amazing thing!).  We used a phone line based service that included a set number of hours per month – I think 30 hours were given with the plan – and then you paid for each additional hour.  Back then, when we had to share the computer line with the phone line, we were much more limited in our internet access.  Today, we pay for unlimited cable access to the internet that still lets our phone calls come through.   I cannot begin to imagine what our bill would be if we still paid by the hour!  I’d have to get a second job just to support my habit!

Speaking of second jobs….. I don’t just pay by the hour, I also get paid by the hour.  For years, I worked at a contract salary and put in the necessary hours - some weeks more hours than others but the pay always stayed the same.  When I left full-time teaching in 2006, I entered a world of hourly pay.  I have many part-time jobs now.  My two days of teaching are still contracted but everything else is by the hour and by the job.  I teach private French horn lessons to local students for an hourly rate.  I do piano accompanying for talented high school students performing at state evaluation festivals for an hourly rate.  I play piano for choirs at three local schools for an hourly rate.  I do staff development and student enrichment presentations at an hourly rate.   The nice part of all this is that the more I work, the more I get paid. 

But there are some jobs I don’t get paid to do.  I do an awful lot of computer work for the various “volunteer” positions I hold.  Sometimes I look at the hours I put in and how much others are paid for the same type of work.  If I collected an hourly rate for that work, I’d be rich!

Others ask for my computer help as well.  Just yesterday, I spent three hours working on a project for my mother.  She is the lead person on a book project with a local group.  I volunteered to do all of the layout and editing of the book for the group.  I have spent many, many hours on this project.  She commented yesterday that I have probably put in $3000 of time and work on the book.  I probably have.  Then my father asked me to help him with a different computer project and we put in several hours over the last two Sundays.

I could probably get paid for all that work.

I should look for people who WILL pay me to do all this work.

But, I’m pretty sure that the time and work I’ve put in for my family is only a drop in the bucket compared to what they have already spent on my from birth to my fourth decade.   From the cost of raising a child, college tuition, a wedding, and the emotional investment a child requires, my parents have put in more than what I have yet to return.

I think I’ll just keep taking the jobs and completing the gratis work.  I’m fairly confident that collecting “by the hour” in this situation would be wrong.

But, hey, anytime you can pay by the hour and save yourself some money, take the opportunity!

Hope you enjoyed the read.