How hard to you work to lower costs?

I am just finishing up my first year on the board. It's been fun, but I am thinking that I will tone down my involvement a bit. First year I insisted (thus was the one to go get) multiple bids on every contract and took on a bit of a general contractor role for a big project, coordinating work between 5 vendors, all at no cost to the association. Project turned out great, on budget, but took a ton of my time.

Going forward, we have a big project that won't get a lot of visibility. Homeowners want us to get multiple bids (takes time) and keep costs down more (requires more board volunteer hours). I'm leaning toward hiring a full service vendor that can just take care of it, even if it costs more, rather than me playing general contractor again which I have no time for.

Wondering how extensive your boards go to in terms of cost savings. How much extra volunteer time do you spend trying to keep costs down? Where should I set limits?

If you have a Property Management company, ask if they have project management service. Our management company has that as a service that a Board may pay for. We have not used that service yet, therefore I can only guess that the cost could be 10% of the total project, would be the fee.