With the unpredictable British weather recently causing havoc to our homes (goodbye trampolines), we couldn’t think of a better time to celebrate the UK’s hardworking tradespeople. Not only do they do a stellar job for their customers, especially in times of crisis, but they’re always helping out their friends and family with those little jobs around the house. That got us thinking…
How much money do you save if you’re lucky enough to have a tradesperson partner who will fix your home for free?
My Local Toolbox has conducted research using the latest market value figures for each trade, combined with our own average salary data, to find out. Continue reading to find out just how much your tradesperson super-spouse could save you, depending on their trade.
Key Findings
- Builders save the most money for the spouse over the length of their professional life, totalling £103,567.
- The average household will save £30,791 if they’re lucky enough to have a tradesperson living under the roof.
- Electrician Les has saved around £60,000 for his family so far.
- You’ll be 598 biscuits (yes, biscuits) better off throughout your life thanks to your tradesperson spouse.
If you have a spouse who’s a builder, they’ll save you £103,597 over your lifetime
If you have one of the country’s army of builders in the family, then you’re perhaps one of the luckiest spouses around. There’s around £60bn spent on residential buildings every year in the UK, that’s on things like extensions and conservatories. If your builder spouse is kind enough to carry out any work that needs to be done to your home, then the amount you could save in the long run is huge.
Over the length of an average marriage, having a builder for a partner will save you £69,065. The savings increase to £103,597 over the length of their professional life.
How much money will your builder spouse save you?
| Trade | Yearly | Decade | Marriage (32 years) | Professional life (48 years) |
| Builder | £2,158 | £21,583 | £69,065 | £103,597 |
For some context, £103,597 is the equivalent of four house deposits, three university degrees or 20,719 beers. Don’t forget to thank your builder spouse!
Tradesperson Super-Spouse: How they all stack up
Although having a builder spouse will help to save you the most, there is still plenty of other tradespeople who help save their families a bundle! If you’re lucky enough to have an electrician for a partner, they’ll save you an average of £755 per year. Throughout a marriage, that figure will reach a huge £24,173. That’s around 12 two-week long holidays abroad or a brand-new Volkswagen Golf.
Having a decorator or roofer in the family will save you almost £7,000 over their professional lifetime – that’s £144 per year. On average, between all six trades that we researched, they’ll save you an average of £30,791, or as we like to think of it 2,566 pizzas!
How much money will your tradesperson spouse save you?
| Trade | Yearly | Decade | Marriage (32 years) | Professional life (48 years) |
| Builder | £2,158 | £21,583 | £69,065 | £103,597 |
| Electrician | £755 | £7,554 | £24,173 | £36,259 |
| Plumber | £576 | £5,755 | £18,417 | £27,626 |
| Decorator | £144 | £1,439 | £4,604 | £6,906 |
| Roofer | £144 | £1,439 | £4,604 | £6,906 |
| Plasterer | £72 | £719 | £2,302 | £3,453 |
| Average | £641 | £6,415 | £20,528 | £30,791 |
Unfortunately, inflation has been in the news recently due to the latest increase. Here’s the same table as above, but this time factoring in the UK 10-year average interest rate of 2.52%. The savings become even more bonkers!
For example, throughout their professional life, the amount that knowing a plumber will save you will increase from £27,626 to £58,475 – that’s a total of £30,849 extra thanks to inflation.
How much money will your tradesperson spouse save you INCLUDING inflation?
| Trade | Yearly | Decade | Marriage (32 years) | Professional life (48 years) |
| Builder | £2,158 | £26,967 | £109,051 | £219,019 |
| Electrician | £755 | £9,435 | £38,153 | £76,646 |
| Plumber | £576 | £7,198 | £29,107 | £58,475 |
| Decorator | £144 | £1,799 | £7,277 | £14,619 |
| Roofer | £144 | £1,799 | £7,277 | £14,619 |
| Plasterer | £72 | £900 | £3,638 | £7,309 |
| Average | £641 | £8,016 | £32,417 | £65,115 |
Now we know the value of having a tradesperson super-spouse at home, time to meet a real-life Alarm Service Engineer who’s helped to save his friends and family thousands of pounds over the years…
Case Study: Alarm service engineer Les saves the day!
Name: Les Coates
Trade: Alarm Service Engineer
Service: 40 years
Free jobs: Once per week
Money saved: £60,000 approx.
My Local Toolbox spoke to Les Coates, a retired Alarm Service Engineer from Newcastle Upon Tyne who has been in the trade for 40 years. We wanted to find out just how much real-life tradespeople get asked to do free jobs for friends and family, and how much money they save them.
Les said “My mates and relatives are always asking me to do odd jobs for them, almost every week someone is asking me to help them out. Being an Alarm Service Engineer involves installing security systems, testing them, finding faults, and fixing them. Forty years of experience means I can basically help out with anything electrical in the home. I never ask for anything in return, I’m just happy to help them out.”
Using the same methodology as above, My Local Toolbox has worked out that Les has likely saved his friends and family around £60,000 over a 40-year period by being kind enough to carry out odd jobs free of charge. Thanks Les!
Just For Fun: Having a tradesperson spouse will save you 598 biscuits over your lifetime
If a tradesperson is working at your home, keeping them fuelled with a steady conveyor belt of tea and biscuits is essential. It’s a proud British tradition. This begs the question: if your tradesperson spouse is nice enough to do some handiwork free of charge, so you don’t need to fork out for it, how much tea and biscuits would you save?
As it turns out, not only will your tradesperson spouse save you around £31,000 depending on the trade they’re in, you’ll also be 598 biscuits better off over your lifetime! Imagine that: 598 chocolate digestives, jammy dodgers or hobnobs to the good.
How much tea and biscuits will your tradesperson spouse save you?
| Trade | Cups of tea (2 per day) |
Biscuits (4 per day) |
| Builder | 1,184 | 2,368 |
| Electrician | 259 | 518 |
| Plumber | 158 | 316 |
| Decorator | 79 | 158 |
| Roofer | 66 | 132 |
| Plasterer | 49 | 99 |
| Average | 299 | 598 |
When it comes to cups of tea, you’ll save about 256 thanks to your tradesperson spouse. Now, we’re sure your spouse might steal two or three biscuits and maybe a tea while working hard, so you might see a few go missing, but can you really blame them?