To buy or not to buy (a washer)

I'm rethinking my plan to buy a washing machine. At around $300 it's not that I can't afford the cost. There are no clotheslines in my condo complex, so I would need to buy both a washer & dryer, or else have clothes airers around the place which doesn't really work for sheets & towels.

There are lots of lavanderias around which do your washing for 10 pesos a kilo. (exchange rate 12 pesos to $1A) You leave it there in the morning, they wash, dry and fold it and you collect it in the afternoon. In Merida last year I usually managed to accumulate about 3kg of washing a week, so that's 30 pesos weekly including washing powder & electricity. At 3395 pesos for my own washer, it would take at least a few years to recoup the cost, not to mention power, detergent and the cost of a dryer.

Think I'll wait and see how the laundry girls go.

Arturo tells me that for about 250 pesos a week I can get a girl to come in and clean, do the washing and ironing, maybe even do some cooking. So that's another alternative, and it will be injecting money into the local economy, helping to support a family. (I need to think that way so I don't feel it's slave labour!)
There is a girl who will be doing the final clean on my apartment so I will talk to her tomorrow about the cost for weekly cleaning only. It will be useful to have someone who can do that if I have someone else staying here and need to have sheets and towels changed & washed.