One luxury that we both equally agreed to splurge on was a cleaning lady (ok....Makoto suggested it after a Saturday afternoon where I tried to teach him my toothbrush scrubbing technique for perfectly clean shower tiles).
I can't begin to tell you what a relief it is to not have to start Saturdays with my cleaning to do list. I've talked to several people who are on the fence about getting a cleaning lady...mostly because they think it is a splurge/luxury and that they really could/should just do the cleaning themselves. In the end, it costs us $120 a month (3 x $20/hr every two weeks)...that's roughly $4 a day for sparkling clean bathrooms and kitchen, shiny clean floors, dust-free surfaces, fresh linens and no more arguing over who's cleaning the black crud out of the oven.
Some tips:
