Hiring a freelancer for his or her particular expertise or to do a bunch of time-consuming tasks isn't just for businesses anymore.

A slew of web sites provide consumers with access to hundreds, if not thousands, of people (both in the U.S. and abroad) who will vie for the opportunity to do everything from inputting all your contacts into a database to designing your wedding invitations. Crowdsourcing, as it's called, allows you to post a project or task online so several people may bid for the work. The cost to do so is often a fraction of the regular price. (While there usually isn t a cost attached to listing a project, the web sites that broker these deals often take a percentage of the overall price paid.)

Brian Piepgrass and his wife discovered just how useful -- and inexpensive -- crowdsourcing could be while planning their wedding in Milwaukee. Overwhelmed, they turned to an online service called GetFriday, passing their Milwaukee hotel search and room negotiations to GetFriday's assistants in India. The cost: about $8 an hour. A similar service in the U.S., estimates Piepgrass, would have cost around $300 to $400.

From custom-designed Christmas cards and tax preparation to landscape design and tutoring services, anything you can do on a computer or a phone, someone on the other side of the planet can do, says Timothy Ferriss, a time-management consultant and guest lecturer at Princeton University. And if the task requires someone closer to home, sites like Guru and CrowdSPRING offer workers both in the U.S. and abroad. Between people in various countries or down the street, it s about delegating work for less than it costs you to do it, says Ferriss.

Here are five tasks you can save money on through crowdsourcing.

Research

Crowdsourcing can be especially helpful when you have a project that requires a lot of legwork or insider knowledge, such as tracking down a hot holiday toy that's been sold out for months or making affordable travel arrangements at a destination you know little about. When Canadian business student Drasko Raicevic and a friend needed help planning a trip to Australia, they posted a request on freelance site Elance.com. An Australian travel agent soon reached out. For about $125 per traveler, the agent made all the arrangements and booked them on an inexpensive Australian airline not widely known outside of the country. Raicevic estimates that the cheaper airfare alone saved them about $1,600 each.

Custom-design projects

Annoyed that you have zero artistic acumen or the graphic design ability of five-year-old? Crowdspring.com, Elance.com and Guru.com are good places to find a freelance designer for things like invitations, photo projects or any other graphics work. Posting a project is free. Once you pick a designer and negotiate a price, you are required to prepay the agreed-upon amount into an escrow account to avoid handing over credit-card numbers. To find the best designer for your project, compare reviews and ask bidders to submit portfolios or even sample projects based on your request.

Personal assistants

Virtual assistants can help you manage personal calendars, organize files, transcribe notes and even send out holiday cards. Ferriss's virtual assistant who lives on an island off the coast of Vancouver, goes through about 2,500 of his emails each week. Each day, the assistant sends Ferriss a single email with four or five action points. The cost for such dedicated treatment? Roughly $60 a month, he says. (You can also pay as you go for single tasks.) Find assistants at concierge web sites such as AskSunday.com, GetFriday.com and Redbutler.com.

Financial Advice

Balancing checkbooks, preparing your taxes or any other personal bookkeeping tasks are easily delegated through crowdsourcing. At Guru.com, you can hire a woman who has 10 years of experience as an accounting and auditing assistant to prepare your taxes for just $8 an hour. At H&R Block, a similar service can set you back between $150 and $200 for the entire project.

Safety tip: To protect your sensitive financial information ask the freelancer to sign a nondisclosure agreement, which legally bars them from divulging sensitive information.

Specialized Help

Looking for a personal shopper, a dance instructor or a professional chef to whip up a home-cooked meal? Seek out a helping hand in your area by going to the jobs or classifieds sections of Craigslist. A personal chef with 17 years of experience preparing meals in fine dining restaurants in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York, is offering his cooking skills to New Yorkers for about $20 an hour. You can even barter services. In another posting, a personal trainer in Las Vegas is willing to trade his services for salsa dancing lessons.