Time is Money and Money is Time
March 19, 2008 by Karen Weideman
Filed under The-Grocery-Game, saving money
Whenever I have spent a considerable amount of effort and time on something, I have frequently heard the phrases, “Time equals money”, “Your time is valuable”, or something along those lines. I always perceived that the person was saying that what I was doing was not worth the effort. Otherwise, why would they have said that?
Yes, my time is valuable . . . BUT it takes time to make and SAVE money. Here’s a recent example . . .
My cabinets are so stuffed that I haven’t used The Grocery Game (TGG) in about a month. I’ve just been picking up a few things here and there that were on sale or things we absolutely needed.
Yesterday I decided it was time to sort through the coupons. I know that when I haven’t done TGG in a while I will end up spending a good amount of time sorting coupons, clipping, and tossing out old stuff. In between taking care of my son, I spent 3 hours doing those things. Of course, it wasn’t a solid 3 hours, since I was caring for my son, but 3 hours is a long time to spend on coupons. Then I also spent about 1 1/2 hours at the grocery store. Again, it wouldn’t have taken so long if I wouldn’t have had a 2 year old with me. lol
Now some people would think that I’m crazy. They would never dream of spending a few hours on clipping coupons to save money. I work at home and make a little bit of money each month. These frugal tips that I share aren’t just for you. They’re for me too. I get to save money and have the joy of sharing tips with you. These tips enable me to stay at home.
Do you want to know how much money I saved at the grocery store yesterday?????
Click below the “Read More” to find out.
I saved $93! Yep. I spent $59 (pre-tax) and saved $93. Ninety-three dollars is more than I could make in a day of teaching. If I were teaching, I probably wouldn’t have the time to clip those coupons and spend all that time finding the best deals. And on Monday, I spent $14 at CVS, got about $50+ worth of stuff, and got back $14 in CVS bucks.
This same scenario applies to itemizing my taxes. I absolutely HATE itemizing my taxes each year. I know it is going to take me hours to go through all of my bank statements and checkbook registries and to figure up all of the mileage for medical purposes. I don’t know how many times I’ve been told to just claim the standard deduction. But why should I if I can get back a lot more money?
Yes, time is money, but money is time. Right now, so long as I’m staying home with my children, time is what I have in order to save that money.
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That is awesome! I posted about thrift store shopping today- it’s the same idea. It takes longer because you have to pick through things, but the pay off is so worth it because you can save soooo much money!
Great job! We do not have great grocery stores here where I live. We do not have stores that run great sales or double/triple coupons. I do great at CVS (spent .81 cents got back 33.00 ECBs the other day) but I struggle with the grocery stores. I’ll be back to check out more!
Blessings,
Vickie@PursuingSimplicity
That is so much savings! Congrats mama!
Great job! It’s so worthwhile to have such a successful shopping trip!
Great Job! I’m currently a SAHM, and I consider saving my family money to be one of my job responsibilities. It does take time, but it really is worth it.
It does take time to save with coupons. I have a friend that does this…But as she says, “Its like cutting out play money out of the paper to spend.”
If it were actually dollar bills, more folks would be sitting down with their sissors too…lol
Good Post.
Robin@heartofwisdom.com
http://www.heartofwisdom.com/heartathome/
Great job! I am definitely a coupon clipper too, but you are right that it DOES TAKE TIME! Your post helped motivate me to get my big stack of clipped coupons organized into my box. They don’t do any good if you can’t find them! Thanks!
Candace: You’re right. Thrifty store shopping does take time too. I lucked out 2 weeks ago at a thrift store. They were having 90% off their winter stuff. I got 5 bags of clothes for about $22. It’s usually worth the time invested.
Vickie: If you don’t have a store that doubles coupons, then it does make it hard to save big. Before I started using coupons so faithfully, I would just watch the sales for buy 1 get 1 free offers. This morning I went to a local grocery store. They were having canned veggies 3/$1.00, tomato soup 3/$1.00 and Del Monte canned 20 oz pineapple 2 cans/$1.29. I stocked up! Sometimes you just have to watch sales and use coupons when you can. Do you have a close out store in your area?
Robin: It is like cutting out money. And the great thing is, everything I bought were things that my family can use. Sometimes if I get something really cheap and we don’t use it, then I’ll donate it to our church’s food bank.
C Duran: The great thing about The Grocery Game is that you don’t have to clip the coupons until you need them. Check out this article where I show how it’s done. It saves a lot of time. The reason it took me so long this week is just because my coupons had gotten so neglected. Good luck saving!
http://www.thriftymommy.com/how-to-play-the-grocery-game/
I love saving money at the grocery stores and other stores. To my son and I, it is a game to see how much money we can save. I tell him if we save over 50.00 at the grocery store, I’ll take him to get frozen yogurt at TCBY…..to which I usually have a coupon. My son loves it (and DH too!). I’m proud to eat as well as we do for as little as we spend!
$93 in coupon savings!?! You ROCK!
Fantastic job! I couldn’t be any prouder of you if you were spending my money.
Wow! $93! I need to invest more time in clipping coupons!
Good job! I’ve been doing grocery game for about 3 years and I love looking at the bottom of my receipts. I also love that I’ve built up enough of a stockpile that there are weeks I can skip either one or the other of my two ‘GG’ stores.
My argument to people who think I am nuts to spend about 3 hours a week on couponing: “if I save just $60, that’s like making $20 an hour. Tell me what job pays $20 that you can a)do at leisure and b)do in front of the TV!”
Keep up the great work!
First hello!!!
Karen you have wonderful gifts, like patience 
,but you’re right, the money are time!!!I am working on my savings and it goes hard to me because I was a really god money spender,but knowing that can Save At The Pumps,and that when I have the money I can surprise my Honeys(my kids-like I prefer to call them),..I got a motive!
Woooooooowww!!!100$ with those saving tips,I’m certainly trying it…
Try it and let me know,because it’s not working on all in the same way …we all have different cars and conditions
Best wishes!
wow. the perfect article i was looking for to arc my new tool to. i want to show people what to do with their savings and i new there would be a killer coupon site out here somewhere! thanks. my tool shows what that $93 can be invested at different levels for different lengths of time. holy cow thrifty mom….maybe we should link exchange?
Time is $, I juggle my coupons, and to me it’s work, being organized is work at any job. Thanks for your insight.