I've noticed many people spending countless time trying to save money.
How much is your time actually worth?
Is anyone actually weighing up how much time you spent to save some $/c against time spent?
Just throwing this out there….
How much do you want to save? How much is your time worth?
DanMar on 04/11/2019 - 23:39
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And the gym bloke for getting fit for free but the shoe guy likes this.
Hmm. Hypothetically speaking, If I was an unemployed NEET whose sole purpose in life is to just browse Ozbargain, my time is worth exactly $0.0/per hour, I can safely conclude that on every bargain I take advantage of, there is a net $ gain directly proportional to the amount of savings from RRP (minus GST).
In all seriousness though, if you are a busy person whose time is mostly allocated to work, then it makes that spending time bargain hunting is going to cut into your other personal hours. If you fall into this category then you might feel that bargain hunting is generally a waste of one's time and isn't worth doing.
Once your browsing eyes see an attractive deal, suddenly the $0.0/hr rate turns negative real fast
There are many who don't. Monday is the week's low point for petrol and I still see people lining up 4-5 cars deep for petrol (some still clearly waiting ON THE ROAD).
It is lunacy.
The difference between Sunday prices and Monday prices would be about 5c a litre, at lets say 60 litre tank that's $3 saving.
They would lose more in time and petrol waiting 15 mins for a bowser to become free.
Wait what… Petrol cost less on Mondays?
WA only
I browse ozbargain a lot at work so I consider that time being paid to hunt for bargains.
I don’t put a $ value on my time as that would suggest I am foregoing work outside of my normal work hours.
In saying that, I still have to look at the balance between what a bargains worth and the time it will take to attain it, so I do put value on my time, but I just don’t monetise it.
The average person lives to 75 years old these days. Breaking it down the average person spends 25 years sleeping, 25 years working and 25 years worrying, and then when they get to the last week of their life they think of all the things they should have, could have, wished they had done. Don't be like average people - don't let life control you, let you control life.
The average person lives to 75 years old these days
Your stats are a bit outdated.
Your stats are a bit outdated.
Maybe they should say the average person has a good 75 years and the rest after that is useless 'bonus' years that you're sitting around not able to do anything but waiting for death.
How much is your time actually worth?
It's not that simple a question. My charge out rates are astronomical. But I'm lucky to even get close to, and my target utility rates are nowhere near, 100%.
So it's a matter of opportunity cost. Don't spend time saving cents when you can be making dollars instead, of course. But there will always be downtime when you'd otherwise not be making money at all.
I browse and organise bargains whole at work, so I'm getting paid to do it. If there is work I volved for the bargain, it has to be at least $50 savings per hour spent to make it mildly worthwhile.
I’ve mainly stopped picking up 5c pieces. I still stop for 10c. Figure a maximum 6 seconds per coin, that is $30 an hour at 5c rates, $60 an hour for tens.
Maybe I should still be picking up fives.did someone leave a trail of 5c coins for you to follow?
I do scrap metal as a side hustle. i love it.
I used to walk the 1.5km home from station and get bored. Now I go different routes up to 5km scrounging scrap and don't get bored. More exercise plus product.
About 50% of the processing (micro-scrapping), I do while watching TV - so now I get make a few $$ an hour to watch TV.
The rest of my processing is in my storage cage. It involves bending, hammering, working out how to dis-assemble things. So I get paid to increase flexibility, dexterity and problem solve.
Bargining is a hobby so the time i put in is my own enjoyment. Its like playing a rpg, doesn't it make a difference if you get a higher score? No but its fun to do.
Of course, I staggered to the takeaway shop on Sunday arvo and saved $8 compared to the same items through Deliveroo.
It took me 15 minutes.
To me, I was paid $32 an hour, pro rata, to walk, tax free!
What I didn’t consider was I was depriving an exploited gig economy delivery driver of an income.