Collectively, this equates to a staggering £13bn squandered in the UK every year.  Some 94 per cent of those surveyed admitted that they worry about wasting money in the home, but admitted to reasons for outsourcing household jobs that were extremely simple – such as painting, decorating, fixing a slow computer and gardening.

The findings reveal that 71 per cent of UK residents have outsourced help in the last six months, and 72 per cent believe they have wasted money paying people to do household jobs they could have done themselves.

In certain instances, tasks were outsourced to trained professionals – most notably, home decoration, plumbing and mechanics – however, the vast bulk of tasks were basic and extremely simple, and outsourced to non-professionals, you should consider outsourcing.

Average amount of money spent outsourcing jobs every year:

When it comes to justifying why jobs are outsourced, almost a third (29 per cent) said that they would rather just employ someone else to perform the function, 20 per cent claim they do not have the time, 14 per cent simply couldn’t be bothered to complete these tasks and 12 per cent didn’t like doing them, despite being perfectly able to.

“Although some of the bigger jobs around the home can be tricky and best left to an expert, many smaller jobs do not require the skills of a professional and are quicker to complete than you might think,” said Diane McMillan of Crucial.com.