Time and money are always significant. Look at this scenario.

You can either do your own yard work or you can pay someone to do it for you.

You find that it takes you about 50 minutes to clip, mow, and otherwise clean up your yard each time you do it.

You do it four times each month.

Also, once a month you need to maintain the lawn equipment. That takes about 49 minutes in addition to you clipping, mowing, etc.

All of the maintenance and lawn work must be done on a Saturday because of your typical work schedule.

You are paid $ 18.75 hourly and get time and a half on weekends.
Alternatively, you can pay someone $ 50 monthly to do the work for you.

(a) Assume that your off-time has value at the rate you are normally paid. What is the monthly cost of your lawn care when you do it yourself and have no chance for weekend work?

(b) Assume that you have the option to work the weekend time you need to spend on your yard. So you must pay someone to do the yard work.

You should assume your overtime rate applies here.

What is the net gain to you to pay someone to do the clean-up for you?

To calculate the monthly cost of your lawn care when you do it yourself and have no chance for weekend work, we need to consider the total time it takes you to do the yard work and the maintenance, and then calculate the cost of that time based on your hourly wage.

(a) The time it takes you to do the yard work each time is 50 minutes. Since you do it four times each month, the total time spent on yard work per month is 50 minutes x 4 = 200 minutes.

The time it takes you to maintain the lawn equipment each month is an additional 49 minutes.

So, the total time spent on yard work and maintenance per month is 200 minutes + 49 minutes = 249 minutes.

To convert this time into hours, we divide 249 minutes by 60:

249 minutes / 60 = 4.15 hours (rounded to two decimal places).

Now, we need to calculate the cost of this time. Since you are paid $18.75 per hour and get time and a half on weekends, we will calculate the cost of 4.15 hours at your usual wage and then add the additional cost for weekend work.

The cost of 4.15 hours at your usual wage is:
4.15 hours x $18.75/hour = $77.81 (rounded to two decimal places).

Since all the yard work must be done on a Saturday, we need to calculate the additional cost for weekend work. Time and a half on weekends means an additional 50% of your hourly wage.

The additional cost for weekend work is:
$18.75/hour x 50% = $9.38/hour.

So, the total monthly cost of your lawn care when you do it yourself and have no chance for weekend work is:
$77.81 + ($9.38/hour x 4.15 hours) = $77.81 + $38.84 = $116.65 (rounded to two decimal places).

(b) Now let's calculate the net gain to you if you pay someone $50 monthly to do the clean-up for you, assuming you have the option to work the weekend time.

If you pay someone $50 monthly to do the work for you, you will save the time spent on yard work and maintenance, which is 4.15 hours.

The net gain to you is the value of this time, which is calculated by multiplying the time saved by your overtime rate (time and a half). So, the net gain is:
4.15 hours x $9.38/hour = $38.83 (rounded to two decimal places).

Therefore, the net gain to you by paying someone to do the clean-up for you is $38.83.