Four Strategies That Are Frugal Only If Your Time Is Worth Nothing
Posted by Lise on 09 Jun 2008 at 03:13 pm | Tagged as: economics, frugality
In the open-source software community, it is often said that “Linux is only free if your time is worth nothing.”
In the frugality blogosphere, in our hurry to convey Ten Great Tips for Trimming the Cost of Toilet Paper, we tend to forget the price of our our own life energy in any equation of savings. We also forget the opportunity cost of spending two hours trying to save a few pennies.
Here are some of the biggest offenders in the time-money tradeoff:
1. Clipping coupons. I’ll admit it - I do use coupons myself. I belong to MyPoints, and I can “clip” online coupons through them and get rewarded with points. I don’t spend a lot more effort than that on it, though; I probably use about three or four coupons a month.
The biggest problem with coupons is a) the amount of time it takes to coordinate the coupons one has with the items one actually needs, an b) the tendency to move items into the “need” category that shouldn’t be there as a result. We all like to think we’re smarter than that, but the notion that we’re getting a bargain can be pretty powerful. A Harvard Business School study shows that the redemption of a $10-off coupon increases an individual’s spending and that, furthermore, the increase in spending stimulated by the redemption of a $10-off coupon is focused on groceries that customers would not purchase in the absence of such a coupon.
Basically I look at coupons as just another advertising ploy to get us to buy. Proceed with caution.
2. Re-using sandwich/storage baggies. I keep telling myself I should pick up this habit. But inevitably the dirty baggies pile up next to the sink and the cats get to them and leave tiny teethmarks on the corners, forcing me to throw them out.
Eventually I realized this: I hate dishes enough. It is just not worth my time, considering the only money I’m saving is a) the cost of a new box of bags, or b) the space they take up in my trash. (We have a “pay as you throw” garbage system in Lunenburg).
I know, I know. Amy Dacycyn of The Tightwad Gazette
If you value reducing your trash production for environmental reasons, a better long-term solution is to buy a quality set of reusable plastic containers. You don’t even need to buy them new; I see these at garage sales all the time.
3. Cutting corners on food. It’s a conundrum that the food that’s healthiest for us is most expensive, but food needs to be a priority spending category. Packing your diet full of processed products only means you won’t be around long enough to figure out those ten great tips for saving on toilet paper.
Keep in mind, too, in paying the premium for quality, sustainably harvested food, what you’re getting is not only better taste and nutrition - you’re contributing to a living wage for small farmers everywhere. Given the worldwide food shortages going on right now (caused in part by an emphasis on certain subsidized crops over others), you are quite literally putting your money where your mouth is when you do this. Spending more now on quality foods means that you’ll actually have these foods when times get even tougher.
That said, there are ways to save money on your food bill. Don’t dine out every night, shop around the outside of the store, stick to unprocessed or minimally processed foods, and look for generic versions of healthy or organic foods. Hannaford, for example, has a great line of its own organic foods, and my local one has recently started offering foods from a local farm.
It is also important to consider the quality of the food you feed your pets. A more expensive food may cost more in the short term, but you’ll be reducing your bottom line on vet bills, grooming bills, and the cost of litter. I’ll be the first to admit I’m a bit of a pet food snob, but the lowest quality food I would consider feeding is Iams or Science Diet, and I would highly encourage all pet owners to educate themselves on feline/canine nutrition and seek out the highest quality food they can afford.
4. Make your own X. It pains me to say this, because I am the biggest DIY geek in the tri-state area, but in our modern society, it is almost never cost effective to make your own. I’d be dishonest if I said that the money and work I’ve put into, say, my garden, is cheaper than what it would cost me to buy a season’s worth of vegetables. Even Trent of The Simple Dollar, maker of his own detergent, admits that it would cost less to buy his detergent at a bulk discount store.
Caveat: there is one big exception to this DIY rule; namely, cooking for yourself (based on the fact that restaurant meals are incredibly inflated relative to the cost of food).
Savings aside, part of the reason I so often do-it-myself is because I want a product just so, and the effort of finding it that way may, in fact, be more time-consuming. My husband and I are foodies, and we’re attempting to grow our own vegetables because biting into a vegetable that’s still warm from the sun can’t easily be replicated.
This ties into another pleasure of DIY: the amount of satisfaction you get from doing something with one’s own hands. In a world so divorced from physical labor, this is priceless.
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Make your own X only refers to manufactured products. Your caveat, cooking for yourself, comes under the heading of service. Mowing your own lawn and painting your own walls will always be cheaper, because service involves human labor and capital, and you can either pay someone else, or pay yourself (essentially…) to do the work. Manufactured goods are often able to cut out the labor costs through mass production and modern industry, so it will always be cheaper to buy a new pair of jeans than to make your own, or even to buy fresh produce versus growing your own. Food, in an unprepared form, is a good. Food, in a prepared dish form, is a service.
Oh, and linux? Yes, my time isn’t free, but the skills I learn can earn me a better job, or a more secure one, so for me, it isn’t a loss. Plus, as a hobby, linux is cheaper than almost anything else, given that the only real investment for me is time. Sure, a computer inherently costs more than a nice pair of binoculars or a good camera, but given that I’m not into birdwatching, and unlikely to be any good at photography, it’s the better choice for me. *grin*
That’s a good point about goods vs. services, Chad. That said, I’m still not 100% sure DIY is the way to go when it comes to most services, either.
In this post’s original iteration, I talked about the costs vs. the benefits of delegating tasks (house cleaning, mowing, etc). In the end it depends where your comfort zone lies, and how you want to be spending your time.
Personally, I’d rather be working on my blog than cleaning, so if I could I’d probably pay somebody to clean my house
Oh, well, there’s another point there, and that is the opportunity costs associated with DIY. Every hour I don’t spend shoveling snow is another hour I could be indoors, warm, playing with linux, or blogging, or some other hobby. So you’re right in that regard. Plus there’s a third factor to consider: If I can find the right balance point in paying for a service, I’d be happy to pay someone else to clean. This is not only because of the time I’d lose cleaning, but also the time I’d spend procrastinating on cleaning, and add to all that the fact that sometimes (frequently) a professional service provider can do it *better* than I can, perhaps even faster. But not cheaper (usually).
[...] Lise presents Four Strategies That Are Frugal Only If Your Time Is Worth Nothing. [...]
The best advice on saving on food costs is to consider eating lower on the food chain. Eliminate all meat. Establish vegetarian dietary habits and change the world and yourself. Meat is very expensive in cost per weight. Transportation and grains fed to livestock add to the high cost of meat. For those who find no ethical problems in the killing of animals will certainly, upon reflection, see a problem in the costs associated with eating meat . . . that is, I hope.
The thing is, if you work a job outside the home, your home time IS worth nothing! Unless you have a business (small as it may be) that you can work at home, your time there isn’t worth anything.
Renoir: I think most of the problems you mention with eating meat are eliminated by selecting meat that has been raised locally (no transportation cost) and raised and slaughtered humanely. Admittedly, it’s hard to find meat like that in some places (it’s something I’m still working on), but not impossible by any means.
I certainly think there’s a health benefit to reducing the amount of meat in one’s diet, but it’s also important to consider that humans have canines for a reason. I’d encourage you to check out Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, in which her family seeks to live for a year only on locally raised food, or food they’ve raised themselves. She talks about why her family chose not to go vegetarian or vegan.
I’m not sure I understand your argument, Stephanie. Certainly there are things I can work on at home that will increase my well-being, even if it’s not measured in money. For example, I can work on my garden - and I think that’s a better use of my time than clipping coupons. Technically, if I wanted to I could get a second job during that time and be making more than clipping coupons would get me, too - not that I would do that, because it would be exhausting.
Plus, I DO spend some of my time at home developing alternative sources of income, so I’m not sure I fit your criticism.
My point was that frugal activities are worth more than people think. A lot of people say “well, I make $xx.xx per hour at my job, so if I can’t save $xx.xx per hour doing something, it’s not worth it.” But that’s only true if you take time off work to do it.
In other words, you have to carefully look at how you would spend the time otherwise. Because sometimes the opportunity cost is just an illusion.
(Side note, not really related: the garden may or may not be more monetarily smart move - did you ever read The $64 Tomato?)
Lise,
I think Stephanie is referring to the fact that most people feel that they usually would be sitting around watching TV or some other very low return activity, so any DIY is usually a big net gain.
I have been so close to pulling the trigger on a cleaning person because of the time value comparison, I just can’t do it!
I’ve not read The $64 Tomato - is that a book? I’ll look into it.
[...] Four Strategies That Are Frugal Only If Your Time Is Worth Nothing appeared in Festival of Frugality #129, hosted at Money Ning. My article was slightly controversial and almost opposite the “try a little harder” theme for the week, but I got some valuable comments on it nonetheless. Some other articles I liked from this week’s festival were: [...]
All of us know someone who is uber cheap.
Sometimes DIY is cheaper. Sometimes it’s faster. There’s are several good reasons why you win when you prepare meals at home. It takes less time to cook a meal at home than it does to eat out, even if you factor in the time spent planning meals and making the trip to the supermarket. Fast food still doesn’t save you time either.
You’re still coming out ahead on the clock and in your wallet.
Brainstorming on frugal tactics can still be fun, even if you come to the conclusion that an idea will not save you money. The thought processes feed other more fruitful ideas. Oh, and it’s an activity that costs nothing, unless you’re obsessing about the cost of the sheet of paper and pen you’re using. :)
[...] Cut your own grass (and clean your own house). Lise at Frugal in the Fruitlands would tell you that some activities people engage in to save money — like clipping coupons and reusing plastic food-storage bags, as well as some DIY projects — [...]
I completely agree with you about washing the plastic baggies! Every time I throw one out I think about it. Let’s give each other permission to toss away, and then if anyone complains you can say, “well, Lizz said I could!” and I’ll say, “well, Lise said I could!” We’ll back each other up. Lol.
Hi Elliott - thanks for visiting :)
Well, obviously I love frugal brainstorming myself, as I run this blog! This post sprung from the realization that some of the frequent frugal recommendations just don’t work for me.
Eating out is an interesting conundrum for me. I’m a foodie, and I love good food - but I don’t terribly enjoy cooking myself (though my husband does). I have frequent temptations to eat out, but I’m learning to curb them by reminding myself that most of the restaurants in my area really aren’t that good.
But to be honest, I’d have no problem spending a huge amount on a meal from a celebrity chef, say, because to me that would be a “once in a lifetime” experience.
I like your approach, Lizz. Let’s also work towards getting ourselves some more permanent sandwich containers!
[...] in the Fruitlands: Four Strategies That Are Frugal Only if Your Time is Worth Nothing. Sometimes I think my time is worth nothing though, so I struggle with finding that balance [...]
[...] in the Fruitlands: Four Strategies That Are Frugal Only if Your Time is Worth Nothing. Sometimes I think my time is worth nothing though, so I struggle with finding that balance [...]
Excuse me if I repeat some sentiments already expressed by other commenters, but…
First off, I’m a proud user of Ubuntu because I was sick and tired of having to deal with Microsoft’s bull crap — like their automatic updates that, even when supposedly disabled, would reboot my machine without saving all my work. I love Ubuntu and have found it super easy to use. And yes, the philosophy of it all doesn’t hurt either.
1. A lot of coupon users clip coupons when they wouldn’t be doing anything else that would make them money. For some it’s just as much of a hobby as knitting, one which they may do while watching t.v. or watching the kids. For others, it’s simply a matter of needing money and not being able to work every free moment they have. Personally, I do use some coupons, but I’m not a heavy coupon clipper. I don’t buy newspapers, I don’t eat a lot of processed food, I buy generics just about whenever I can, and I try not to buy stuff I don’t need just because it’s on sale. In other words, it’s hard to find coupons that I want to use. That doesn’t mean that others can’t save, though.
2. I use Pyrex containers more than bags, so I don’t find myself with a whole lot of baggies. However, I don’t mind reusing them at all — especially to help cut down on all the plastic in our landfills. It’s not at all hard to wash them out. It hardly takes more time than grabbing a new one. I don’t see what the big deal is.
3. O.k., I agree with you here. I buy very little processed food. I eat mostly fresh produce, nuts, cheese, whole grains, legumes, and some meat. Processed food may seem cheap to some, but you’re mostly paying for packaging and air. I eat simply and healthily. I’m much better for it and I’m spending far less than when I loaded up on convenience food on sale.
4. I used to think that I didn’t have time to do DIY work. Then I stopped running around town for the ‘quick solution’. Shopping takes a lot of time, especially when you factor in traffic. And now with gas so expensive, it costs a lot more, too. And at least I learn something by doing things myself — and have a lot of fun most of the time. For example, I really like having my garden. And it won’t be hard at all to recoup the costs since I spent hardly anything on plants, already had the tools, and don’t buy fertilizer or pesticides.
Another thing, people often complain about how doing even simple frugal things is to much work to justify the savings — but a lot of time they could really use the exercise, even if it’s just a tiny bit here and there.
And as I mentioned, it makes a big difference if you enjoy the activity or if it is in line with other priorities or if you take pride in your work or if you just really don’t mind it. Recently, I read someone say something to the effect that it was better to toss toothpaste containers in the trash than try to get the last bit out and get carpal tunnel. Geez! Is it that hard? Is that really my choice? Is there a wave of carpal tunnel among frugalistas?
And of course, not all time is worth the same amount, whether from person to person or even minute to minute. There are times and places where I can’t — or don’t want — to work, and so I might as well try to save money unless I have something else really wonderful or important to do. Not so much, really. I can only play so many games of WordTwist at a time.
I know I’ve been long-winded, so I’ll wrap this up by saying that it’s o.k. if some frugal strategies/tips don’t work for you, don’t fit your lifestyle, or just plain aren’t worth it to you. However, I think it’s rather mean to say that they “are frugal only if your time is worth nothing” as if the people that do use them either can’t do the math or just don’t have time that’s worth more than nothing.
[...] Four Strategies That Are Frugal Only If Your Time is Worth Nothing. This is me being controversial. [...]
On the ziplock bag front-
I use each bag about twice. I use it for some food thing. If it is really clean after that, I might give it a quick cleaning and then use it again. Once it is dirty, I use it to hold what I scoop out of the litterbox. It keeps the trash smelling a lot better and avoids having to use tons of bags or take the trash out constantly. And I never feel too guilty about it. (Maybe I should?)
[...] Chores: Do We Overvalue Our Time? at The Personal Financier. This might be surprising to you, as I’ve argued before that some things are worth outsourcing. But Dorian wisely points out that opportunity cost only means anything if you actually harness [...]