CashMoneyLife asked this question “What’s your time worth?” He also previously posted on Changing your own oil, something suggested to me under my car repairs post. I’ve debated this with my roommate who always wonders if it’s worth it for him to cook food or just eat out every meal?
For me and my DH it’s worth it cooking. Why? Mainly we’re salaried. We don’t get overtime, so the time we spend cooking we couldn’t be earning more money unless we got a second job. But if we got a second job how much would we really be making after taxes? If we made $10/hr we’d see after taxes maybe $5/hr. So if it takes us 1 hour to cook a meal, then we are “spending” $5 of income.
But what about the cost of food? Have you seen the markup of food from restaurants? Most meals where I live run around $12 for dinner and $8 for lunch. Yes it’s enough for 2 meals usually, but when I cook, I typically make leftovers for lunch the next day. Thus it’s worth it for me to cook.
However, I do not change the my car’s oil because I don’t have an area to do it, it will cost me a disposal fee, and I have to buy tools to do the oil change myself. Thus the savings would be minimal if I even had a garage to do it, which I don’t.
Now for my roommate? He too is salary and his income is not very high. So it’s really not worth it for him to eat out. But why? Well there is an intangible benefit from eating out. He socializes with people. This is very important, since he’s single, I think he likes the company. He’s going out to socialize with other singles or people whose significant others are not there. So in reality it’s more like he’s paying for entertainment.
So while his time is not worth much, and it’s expensive to eat out, he’s getting both food and entertainment out the same money. He’s getting more bang for his buck.
So what is my time worth? Not much. But there are times when I still spend money like oil changes because the inconvience is worth the $$$. What’s your time worth?
5 responses so far ↓
1 JoeP // Jun 18, 2009 at 11:22 am
I don’t agree with the Time = Money equation at all as it applies to personal life. Business, maybe, but as pointed out, there are many other factors and side-effects involved. I look at it more from a risk and inconvenience perspective.
Risk: if my lack of experience or proper tools might damage whatever I’m working on, then I’ll hire out the work. Worst case, I ruin something and it ends up costing more than it would have if I had not attempted it in the first place. Good examples of this are roofing, major engine work, flooring, concrete work.
Inconvenience: if the time and labor are big or it is dirty work, I’ll often hire it out. I could re-stack my rock wall (not terribly complex) but the time and back-breaking effort would not be worth it. Same holds for sealcoating my driveway…simple but involves lots of time and heavy buckets.
Part of me enjoys hands-on stuff that requires some time. Rotating tires allows me relaxation time and I get to work with air tools. Oil changes, I get to use better oil and filters than the quick lube shops provide, and know it is done right, and it fits into my schedule…could do it at 11pm if I want! I used to change oil with my dad, so it is kind of nostalgic, too. I also like the prep work for tasty meals that may take a while to do (pulled pork takes about 14 hours, but mine comes out way better than stuff you buy).
2 LAL // Jun 18, 2009 at 8:08 pm
JoeP, I gotta agree about risk. I might damage my car and that would be awful. Although my DH did helped his parent reshingle his family roof. I would never let him do it to ours, it’s dangerous!
We’ve done the pulled pork in a smoker as well. Delicious. That and homemade ice cream this year, blueberry! Awesome, but I think more expensive than store bought.
3 Inkstain // Jun 18, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Fantastic point. I often see people say “I’d only save $X/hour doing a frugal activity, but at my job I make $Y, so really it’s not worth it.”
Your job doesn’t usually give you the option of working as many hours as you please.
4 Meg from FruWiki // Jun 19, 2009 at 11:43 pm
And remember: a $1 saved is MORE than $1 earned. That $1 earned at work will be a lot less once you take out taxes, transportation, work clothing, etc. Of course, there may be other costs associated with saving $1, too. You do have to take that into account.
I take a lot of pride in being frugal (i.e. “not wasteful”) and get a lot of enjoyment from it, too. I like being green, I like seeing my actions have an effect on our balances, I like being even just a little more self-sufficient, I like not handing more money over to companies I dislike, I like having more choices than are available at restaurants or other stores. And often, it’s not a matter of “Why?” — for me, it’s “Why not?”
And anyhow, anyone who thinks they’re saving time by driving to a restaurant, waiting in line, waiting for their food, waiting for their bill, driving home, etc. hasn’t really thought about it much I guess!
5 LAL // Jun 20, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Meg that is definitely true about saving a $1 is more like $2 earned!
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