Thrifty Thursday: Time is Money

I know many of you have heard the phrase “Time is Money” more often than you can count.  Yesterday, I was thinking about this as I headed to the Dollar Tree to purchase cards for Grandma’s 80th birthday.  First off, I don’t usually buy cards.  We either send ecards or the kids make cards.   I just can’t see spending $3.99 on a card that will end up in the garbage.  When I do need to purchase a card, the Dollar Tree is my go-to store.  You can pick up cute cards 2/$1.

Anyways, I was under specific instructions from my mother-in-law that we were to mail 4 cards to Grandma for her birthday.  The kids could make their cards, but I had to purchase the other 2 cards.   Well, the Dollar Tree is not exactly close to my house.  It’s not terribly far, but I could pick about 8 other stores that sell cards before I even got close to the Dollar Tree.

I decided to stop at Walgreens which is about 10 minutes closer my house to purchase the cards.  They have a lovely section of $0.99 cards.  It pained me to spend an extra $1 on these cards – I know I’m crazy.  But it was the principle that I could have saved money.

Why did I spend the extra $1?  Round-trip was about 20 minutes of MY time to save ONE DOLLAR.  Hmmm,  not really worth it when you think of it like that.  PLUS I would have used a few dollars worth of  gas to get to the Dollar Tree.

My time is something I had to take into consideration with shopping at Kroger.  I love Kroger, there are awesome deals to be found.  However, Kroger is about a 25 minute drive for me.  When I factor in losing almost an hour of my day just in the car – it’s not usually worth the trip.  Now, if I have an appointment near Kroger, you can bet that I’ll check the Kroger matchups before heading out.  Otherwise, I’m better off spending a little more in my neck of the woods.

I realize my Dollar Tree example is a bit silly – it is only $1 that I’m talking about.  But stop and think about the amount of times you head out of your way to the store for 1 free product or to get a deal.

Think about how much your time is worth and factor that into your savings.  Think about how much gas it will take you do get there and factor that into your total savings.

Remember that your Time is Money too.

What have you found that not worth your time?