The Time or Money Equation
Cutting back on your expenses comes down to time or money because you either pay for what you want or need or you put in the time required to produce it yourself.
Much of the time you can save money by "doing it yourself". You can pay someone to care for your lawn or you can maintain your lawn yourself, buy frozen pancakes or make your own pancakes and buy all your vegetables at the grocery store or plant your own vegetable garden.
Of course, you can't always "do it yourself". You have living expenses and you need to get the best deal possible for your money. Finding bargains and deals is time-consuming and requires a balance between time and money. Do balance out or do you tip the scales?
Worth Your Time or Your Money?
Any cost cutting measure is worth pursuing up to a point, and you need to decide how much time you can reasonably invest in comparing prices and bargain hunting before it's actually costing you more than you are saving. If you hold a job, you can specifically calculate how much your time is worth from an employment perspective. The would-be salary for stay-at-home parents calculated at Salary.com sounds great, but few stay-at-home parents would find this figure realistic enough to come up with the value of their time. Stay-at-home parents, retirees and even those who are employed can calculate the dollar value of their time simply by considering if the amount of time required for the money-saving activity is worth it to them personally.
Say you go from store to store comparing prices on a $35 item and you eventually find this treasure on sale for $30. This is an impressive 14% savings, but it just took three hours to save the $5. Whether this is worth your time depends on your other commitments and whether you get enjoyment from comparing prices and features.
Strike a Savings Balance
There is a bigger pay off when money-saving tasks are completed quickly. Here are some tips for balancing saving money with spending your valuable time:
Features before prices: Instead of comparing prices on an item across several brands before you shop, visit two or three stores that carry the item you want to see which brands have the features you like. For example, go look at TV sets and note the screens that look best to you, then research prices among the brands you preferred.
Clipping and organizing coupons: Clipping small-value coupons only pay off if you have several coupons to use for each shopping trip. Clip only higher-value coupons for products you know you will use and do not spend your time on saving a dime or two.
Price comparisons: Rather than driving to different stores to compare prices, call the stores and ask for prices. Watch sales flyers and check web sites for retail stores you visit, and keep a price book. If driving between stores is necessary, set a limit on your time and miles traveled.
More expensive = more time: Plan to spend more time researching large purchases like a washing machine or expensive electronics to get the best quality for your money, but set a limit on how long you will research to prevent dragging the decision out.
Negotiating prices: The cost for high-value items can often be negotiated. Start researching major purchases as soon as you think you will be needing them instead of waiting until you need to buy. You have more negotiating power when you want something than when you need it.
Time/Money Balance
If your money-saving activities leave you feeling stressed because they have become too time consuming, you need to decide which of these activities are saving you enough money to continue using and which can be dropped. Then use the tips presented here to create a boundary around money-saving activities to help you to create a balanced life.
Have ideas for saving time while saving money? Tell others in the .discussion forum.
Related: Five Steps to a Balanced Life
Shelley Elmblad - Shelley Elmblad has been writing about personal finance and reviewing money management software since 2005.
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