LOL, definitely not the winning formula 
When I was in house, I tried to do as much as possible in-house, preferring to hire in resources, even if I had to start them as an intern, knowing we could invest in the software. Sometimes an ask was too big, the timing too tight, or it was just a one off that I couldn’t justify in-sourcing for. In those cases I went outside and the ask was typically north of $50k… depending on what it was. If that happened more than once, it became an easy ask to in-source it.