Time is Money

I got sick of always being broke so I started trimming the fat from my budget and (trying) to watch how I spend my money. It doesn't always work but I think I'm getting better. Things really hit me when I went out to dinner at the Olive Garden the other night. I ordered a drink, an appetizer, and an entree. The bill was $22.75 (plus tip) and that just seemed really pricey to me. I got me thinking that to make the money to pay from this meal I would have to work for 2 1/2 hours at a job I hate and a crappy meal at the Olive Garden just isn't worth it. So I started to reevaluate how I spend my money. Like my gym membership. Is it really worth it? Well my membership is only $10 a month so I figured, 'Yeah I can handle that.' Or if I want to go see a movie I would have to work about an hour and 15 minutes to pay for the movie ticket. Of course, there's nothing wrong with spending money on a movie ticket--but I realized when you have to work for an hour and 15 minutes just to pay for a movie ticket (and I haven't even added in popcorn or candy or drinks) you want to make sure it's a good movie.

Putting things in terms of how many hours I would have to work to pay for them has really helped me prioritize how I spend my money. I decided when I spend my (very measly) paycheck I'm gonna spend the money on something I need or things I really, really want. My grandfather and my dad have explained this concept to me over the years and I understood it in theory. So by carefully budgeting and eating out less I'm going to try to put it into practice.

Time is money at the grocery store, too. I had a customer come through my line with a huge grocery order. It took me about 5 minutes to ring up her whole order and her total was $208.65. I make $8.15 an hour so for my take home pay to be $208 I would need to work for 28 hours! It was hard to believe that what would take me 28 hours to earn had only taken her 5 minutes to spend!

So thanks dad and pop! I get it (I think)

**This entry is dedicated to my grandfather-- a great guy, a financial wizard, and one of (if not the) smartest guy I know!**