Time is Money and Money is Time

Whenever I have spent a considerable amount of effort and time on something, I have frequently heard the phrases, “Time equals money”, “Your time is valuable”, or something along those lines.  I always perceived that the person was saying that what I was doing was not worth the effort.  Otherwise, why would they have said that?

Yes, my time is valuable . . . BUT it takes time to make and SAVE money.  Here’s a recent example . . .

My cabinets are so stuffed that I haven’t used The Grocery Game (TGG) in about a month.  I’ve just been picking up a few things here and there that were on sale or things we absolutely needed. 

Yesterday I decided it was time to sort through the coupons.  I know that when I haven’t done TGG in a while I will end up spending a good amount of time sorting coupons, clipping, and tossing out old stuff.  In between taking care of my son, I spent 3 hours doing those things.  Of course, it wasn’t a solid 3 hours, since I was caring for my son, but 3 hours is a long time to spend on coupons.  Then I also spent about 1 1/2 hours at the grocery store.  Again, it wouldn’t have taken so long if I wouldn’t have had a 2 year old with me.  lol

Now some people would think that I’m crazy.  They would never dream of spending a few hours on clipping coupons to save money.  I work at home and make a little bit of money each month.  These frugal tips that I share aren’t just for you.  They’re for me too.  I get to save money and have the joy of sharing tips with you.  These tips enable me to stay at home.

Do you want to know how much money I saved at the grocery store yesterday?????

Click below the “Read More” to find out.

I saved $93!  Yep.  I spent $59 (pre-tax) and saved $93.  Ninety-three dollars is more than I could make in a day of teaching.  If I were teaching, I probably wouldn’t have the time to clip those coupons and spend all that time finding the best deals.  And on Monday, I spent $14 at CVS, got about $50+ worth of stuff, and got back $14 in CVS bucks. 

This same scenario applies to itemizing my taxes.  I absolutely HATE itemizing my taxes each year.  I know it is going to take me hours to go through all of my bank statements and checkbook registries and to figure up all of the mileage for medical purposes.  I don’t know how many times I’ve been told to just claim the standard deduction.  But why should I if I can get back a lot more money? 

Yes, time is money, but money is time.  Right now, so long as I’m staying home with my children, time is what I have in order to save that money.

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