Thrifty Thursday - Time is money

Money.  We spend money.  We save money.  We budget money.  We waste money.  We squander money.  We never have enough money. 

Now, exchange the word TIME for the word MONEY.  Did you ever think about how closely those two words are used?  Yet there is a huge difference between them.  We might not have a never ending supply of money but we always start out the day with the same number of hours, regardless of how we spent our time the day before.  That makes time a pretty important resource.

When trying to be frugal (or thrifty), we sometimes focus strictly on money and forget to factor in time.  An example of this happened last week.  I needed a new pair of jeans and was planning on driving to the outlet mall about 30 miles away to buy them.  Then I did some thinking.  Let's see...my car gets about 20 MPG so I would be spending a minimum of twelve dollars on the cost of gas alone.  Then there's the extra hour of driving.   All to save maybe five or ten dollars on the jeans.  I could go to the local mall and come out ahead, even if the jeans cost a few dollars more.  That's exactly what I did.

There's more to a bargain than the cost of the item.  Going to four or five different grocery stores to save a few dollars might not be the best use of time or money.  Your time is valuable.  Spend it as wisely as your money.