How Much Is Your Typical Hour Worth OzBargain?

[Deactivated] on 01/03/2018 - 20:47

TLDR; Poll: How Much Is Your Typical Hour Worth to you OzBargain?

Sometimes I come across deals on Ozbargain, or situations in real life that I see people do something very cheap that makes absolutely no sense and makes me think; do people care about money more than their time/life? Like is 5 cents worth more than 5 minutes of your time? Is $50 worth more than 20 hours of your time?

I saw someone was trying to refund some fruit for less than a dollar after a few days that it was totally passed its due date. I guess they had to look for the receipt, take the rotten fruit, turn on their car, carry it to the store, use $5 of fuel, 3x$2 worth of ATP for their "brain" cells, muscles, and tongue,… to get less than $2 refund. How much is the cheapest value you put your shoes on and hit the road to get a refund for?

Or I saw this deal here or many other deals that you have to spend days, running and talking and planning in order to painfully be eligible to probably get something random for "free"

In other words, how much is your typical hour worth Ozbargain?

Why?

Poll Options

  • 26
    About Nothing I have nothing more important to do.
  • 18
    About $50 or more
  • 14
    About $20
  • 6
    About $30
  • 4
    About $10
  • 2
    About $5
  • 1
    About $15
General Discussion Time

Comments

  • poboy on 01/03/2018 - 21:04
    +2

    In most cases, your earnings are constant regardless of your activities.

    The worth you apportion will vary according to past habits, how much you want to score up against an organisation, how much you care about a principle and making good on a public statement.

    We are emotional beings, not rational beings.

    • [Deactivated] on 02/03/2018 - 19:22

      Well said
      By the way whoever voted for $5 an hour pm me, please! Can I pay you $5 an hour? :)

  • mskeggs on 01/03/2018 - 21:12
    +7

    I’ve reached the point in life where I no longer stop to pick up a 5c coin if I am in a hurry.
    If I am out for a stroll they couldn’t make a coin low enough in value that I wouldn’t pick it up.

    • toristo on 01/03/2018 - 21:33
      +4

      I'll often leave silver coins on the ground or in corners where kids might find them.

      I remember how excited I would get finding coins as a little kid who was too little to earn pocket money, but old enough to understand that money gets stuff.

      …plus, I hate the jingley feeling of shrapnel in my pocket.

      • effgee on 02/03/2018 - 09:23

        I had an uncle who apparently used to hold a penny on one edge with a piece of cardboard, heat up the opposite edge with a cigarette lighter, then toss it out of a laneway onto a busy footpath.

    • Kangal on 01/03/2018 - 21:37
      +7

      I think I have some expired African coins somewhere, will scatter them in the vicinity of mskeggs to workout his ab muscles.

      • dasher86 on 02/03/2018 - 07:32
        +2

        Might be worth something to a Nigerian Prince though

    • effgee on 02/03/2018 - 09:21

      agreed, I can't walk past a coin on the footpath, regardless of denomination.

  • [Deactivated] on 01/03/2018 - 21:36
    +2

    I’m priceless, why would you ask such a thing..

    • [Deactivated] on 02/03/2018 - 19:18

      O_Ops, sorry princess from Korea! I did not see you passing by.

  • forumninja on 01/03/2018 - 21:42
    +4

    People love hobbies and most people pay for their hobbies. My hobby is OzBargain and my hobby pays me.

    • [Deactivated] on 02/03/2018 - 19:19

      Fair enough but the question is about peoples time value.

      • forumninja on 02/03/2018 - 19:46

        You asked about people’s time value with respect to activities relating to OzBargaining. As OzBargaining is a hobby/sport to some of us (see scotty’s post below which you have read), it is an activity some people are willing to pay money for. Too many of us have paid money to buy things we don’t need to score a bargain.

  • mysterytal on 01/03/2018 - 21:48
    +4

    I value my time at 50% of minimum wages.

    If I can save about $10 that then it's worth about an hour of my time.

    If it's taxable earnings then it must pay at least $20 per hour before tax but after tax and travel expenses I should net at least $10 for all the hours that I'm out of the house including travel and lunch. So if I leave for work at 7am and get home at 7pm for a 9 to 5 job then I must make sure that after the cost of tax and travel is deducted I get at least $600 per week which is very difficult on minimum wages.

    I can very easily find tasks that save me $10 per hour. Shopping around is easy to do but it takes valuable time. I could just visit one shop and get everything purchased in 30 minutes but spend more on a single shop or I could spend an hour extra shopping around and save $10 by shopping at Coles, Woolworths and Aldi.

  • cypher67 on 01/03/2018 - 21:49
    +3

    My time has no value if it has something to do with principle. I Upgraded My health insurance and in their cutover charged me an extra one off $42 when it should have been $17, I spent a good 4 hours across a week fighting it because it was simply wrong and I could prove it. If we let companies like this overcharge and no one pulls them up we all lose. I was right, I got the $42 down to the correct $17. I then explained to the person on the phone that they just spent 4 hours of peoples salary over $25, they couldnt care less. I on the other hand was at my work on the phone getting paid.

    • Third_Gear on 01/03/2018 - 22:06
      +1

      So you were at work getting paid while on the phone to your insurance provider for four hours? Self employed?

      • [Deactivated] on 02/03/2018 - 19:53

        Got them redhanded!

  • Donaldhump on 01/03/2018 - 22:29
    +3

    Depends on your life at the time.

    I got a solid payout from a redundancy. Bored with life while looking for a job, I walked to the shops and back , withdrew two hundred bucks on Ing and put it straight back in a the post office. One hour effort, for fifty cents. Had nothing better to do at the time

    I don't think I'd do that for twenty bucks right now.

  • Make it so on 01/03/2018 - 22:31
    +2

    Ha ha, my time is worth way more than I'm saving, but that's not the point.

  • bobbified on 01/03/2018 - 23:07
    +1

    I think the answer would depend on the question, what would you have otherwise done with your time had you not been on ozbargain? Time doesn't wait for anyone. If the answer is you wouldn't have been doing anything productive anyway, then you're not really losing anything to get a deal.

    What doesn't make sense is something like spending $2 on petrol driving to a far away petrol station to save a few cents/litre where that total discount works out to be less than or equal to the amount spent getting there.

  • subywagon on 01/03/2018 - 23:47

    I bought some fruit, got home and discovered it was rotten. Next day I had to buy milk anyway so I brought the fruit back for a refund.

  • aussieprepper on 02/03/2018 - 04:53

    Fiddy Bucks
    Sassy approves lol
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZydHB78zNvA

  • steven6 on 02/03/2018 - 04:54
    +2

    A true OzBargainer will only visit during work hours, so you're getting paid to look for bargains and you're not using your own internet. :)

  • Ryanek on 02/03/2018 - 08:23
    +1

    Sometimes… it's the principle of it.

  • effgee on 02/03/2018 - 09:21
    +1

    This is a great question.
    In general I waste way more hours on ozb compared to what I save.
    Cheaper (and way more fun) than pokies I guess - "recreational thriftiness".
    Or maybe a touch of compulsiveness.

  • John Kimble on 02/03/2018 - 10:15

    Tree fiddy

  • scotty on 02/03/2018 - 10:25

    I have actually been asked similar questions in some industry meetup recently. One guy couldn't fathom why people spend so much time tracking prices, and the others don't understand why people to bother spend all that extra effort and time to save mere pennies.

    As expected, these aren't OzBargainers.

    My only reasonable explanation is — at some point the act of bargain hunting can no longer be valued at how much money it saves. In some extend it becomes a sport where some people find joy when performing, and others compete for glory. There are obviously some hero OzBargainers who are almost like sports star here (we all know who they are). They are like celebrities here where people follow and imitate. Everyone cheers when a great deal is shared.

    Asking question like "How much is your typical hour worth on OzBargain?" simply tarnishes the image of this sport we all love.

    • [Deactivated] on 02/03/2018 - 19:01
      +1

      Hi Scotty, thanks for stopping by. I respect your work and talent a lot.

      The sole purpose of this post is to remind people of the value of their time and a healthy life compared to the sporting joy of collecting pennies and definitely not tarnishing anything by simply asking an enlightening question! I am going to be honest with you, I appreciate it that you replied what you meant as respectful and customer-friendly as possible but your reply reminds me of tobacco company excuses for keeping people sporting a low life joy.

      Now, speaking of tarnishing joy, let me tell you what tarnishes joys, it is when I am happily looking for a prestigious jacket and stumble upon my own loser style jacket posted on here for $70! So I comment that:

      "Nice but the jacket feels like it is for losers for some reason! I guess there are better ones out there for $70?
      Anyone has a better idea?"

      Then I get banned right away by you into the penalty box for trolling! It is either you and I have an absolutely different definition for trolling, and by all means, if by trolling you mean hate speech towards a jacket I see your point, go for it or it could be a pure dictatorship and bullying members to shut opposite point of views in favour of sponsors?

      And that was the second time you banned me for trolling with a double standard for absolutely no reason.
      That is a real tarnishing joy of sporting pennies that we all love.

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