"if you pay peanuts you get monkeys" isn't a statement about low wage workers. It's a statement about having realistic expectations, and means the same thing as "wanting champagne on a beer budget". If you need to get work done on a shoestring budget you're going to get the best work anyone can perform for that price. Seems like a LOT of homeowners want contractors to be a charity. At my last job we hung doors throughout a woman's house who then had us come out three more times to adjust them after earth movement caused the framing to rack. No idea why my boss entertained it, but that over accommodation of spoilt fannies drove the company into the ground right quick