I control the finances in my marriage and I'm the sole earner. She pays the monthly bills for me so I don't have to. It's a good arrangement.

For a long time I've thought about how much of my time goes into the things I purchase. For example (and this isn't the actual amount), if I buy a $500 suit and I make $50/hour, that suit cost me 10 hours of work. I've never told her I make this kind of calculation, until today.

Since I'm working in a different country this year, I can't mow the lawn. She mowed it a few times and bitched. I can't blame her, I wouldn't want to spend an hour sitting on a riding mower without a spouse to bring me a cold beer either. So I told her to hire someone. Money is not an issue (I did not say that to her). I hired some dude on craigslist last time I was home for a week. He did an okay job for $50 and I know from a coworker that's fairly reasonable for my size lawn. I told him to come every other week. He didn't show up again. Guess he didn't need the work?

Well the first service she called is a national chain and they want to charge $100 per mow. That's ridiculous. I told her to find someone else and specifically to obtain at least 3 more bids. Her response, "That's a lot of work. I don't even know who to call. I'd rather just pay the extra amount."

I didn't get angry, although I did think "You'd rather pay? You aren't paying shit. I am." Then I explained my theory this way:

"You are willing to pay $100 more for this service to come twice a month. The first guy was unreliable, but there are plenty of others. How long will it take you to do find them, call them, and get prices?"

"Blah blah blah"

"Do you realize that $100 is two hours of work for me? You are telling me it is too much effort for you to make a few calls, get prices, and arrange a reliable service? You are asking me to spend 2 hours working, each month for the rest of the year, because you don't want to spend the 1 hour of effort to find someone who charges a reasonable rate?"

She's going to ask around the neighborhood friends and also look for a local company.