I’ve noticed sometimes that there’s some half-baked videos or blogs or whatever that purport this or that frugal trick, but if you look at the time or math, it’s not actually frugal for you.
What are some examples of that you’ve come across? The things that “aren’t worth it”?
For me it’s couponing. (Although I haven’t heard people talk about it recently–has it fallen out of “style”, or have businesses caught up to the loopholes folks used to exploit?)
It’s more of a generalized rule but:
Assume that your own time has value.
A lot of “frugal” tips operate off the assumption that you can spend your own time and it doesn’t cost anything. But your time is valuable. Time spent trying to save a few bucks should be considered working time; ask yourself how much you would get paid by your job for the same amount of time. Maybe you enjoy doing whatever the thing is, so it can be considered recreation, but if it’s some difficult or mind numbing slog, then that doesn’t necessarily mean that you actually saved yourself anything, because you weren’t getting paid to do work, and you could have been doing something more rewarding instead.
I feel this way about cooking. I hate cooking. It takes a lot of time. And lots of cleanup time. And time spent planning and shopping. Plus the tools, ingredients, and power/gas/water used all cost money. With all that in mind, a $9 bowl of chipotle is significantly cheaper by my estimation than cooking an equivalent myself.
I’m with you on cooking something like one meal. If I’m going to get out a bunch of stuff in the kitchen and put in that much effort, then I had better be eating for at least a few days off of what I make. Casseroles, stews, big pots of pasta, and holy hell was I excited when I learned how much curry I could make in one big crock pot and then put that on rice for like two weeks’ worth of meals.
I just cook stuff that basically cooks itself. Crockpots, pasta, certain veggies and meats on the oven. After doing them many times I already know the timings for everything so I just put alarms to remind me of turning the fire off/flipping them in the oven once and that’s it. Doing something else in between. Technically speaking you spend only a couple minutes actively cooking for each meal that way. Just don’t forget to set the alarms or it’s burnt (and move the particular meat from the freezer to the fridge the night before)
I would not habe worked in that time. I would have sat on the sofa and watched something on Netflix that I do not care about.
Flights with connections. Flying has become so tedious, frustrating, stressful, that saving money by spending yet more hours dealing with it, just isn’t worth it. I’d sooner cancel the trip
I saved $500 per ticket on an international flight for my girlfriend and I and the extra connection should have only added a few hours to the trip.
Then they cancelled my flight, and I got stranded in another country (Canada), spent over 10 hours in the airport getting a new flight, lost two days of the trip, which were the best days, lost the money I paid for the hotel for those days, and I only get a few days off a year and that was how I spent several of them.
The Europeans and Canadians on the flight got their flight comped. Being an American, I had to fight for a meal ticket that didn’t even cover the cost of two sodas. This was pre-pandemic too.
Oof 😭
Businesses have caught up and fixed the exploits.
For me, it’s dried beans. Beans are an excellent source of protein and fiber, and it doesn’t get much cheaper per serving than bulk dried beans.
But rinsing, soaking over night, and then boiling, only to end up with way more beans than we will consume, and canned beans are almost as good and almost as cheap.
You don’t need to soak beans lol why do people always say this? Never have I ever soaked beans before boiling them.
Soaking and cooking too many beans? That’s just like opening a big can of beans when a small one would suffice.
We use a pressure cooker for our dried beans. 20-40 minutes depending on the bean. You don’t have to soak them overnight when using a pressure cooker. I ensure that each batch we make is consumed within five days.
Canned beans are considerably more expensive based on the amount we eat.
If you only eat a can here and there, it’s probably not worth making them from dry.
I’ve found pressure cookers are the only way I can get beans tender. (I’m not a great cook.)
Do you have hard water? That can make beans not get soft if you’re boiling them.
Cloth nappies/diapers. Cleaning them is a black hole for personal time.
The manufacture of 2.5 years of disposable diapers has a lower carbon footprint than the energy usage to launder cloth diapers over the same time period.
So it’s still a win if the energy source is renewable itself.
Searching for the cheapest gas station. Too much time and gas.
In Australia there are apps that show cheapest prices near you, so at least there’s not too much time and effort involved.
Ah good. Sorry. I’m traumatized by parents driving obsessively around for hours looking for best prices on things…obviously there are better ways now.
Not sure if this counts, per se, but Solar Panels. Specifically, via a loan.
My electric bill is insane, thanks to the powers of capitalism and monopoly. So I figured installing solar panels would be a good investment. Sure it takes ten years to break even, but I’d rather be paying my way through that than paying my electric utility.
Well, the problem I ran into was that the interest on a loan would effectively negate any headway I was hoping to make per month.
I still plan on doing solar, but not before either interest rates at least quarter themselves or I save up enough to practically pay for it up front.
For myself I got them when rates were low. It actually saved me money instantly, swapping from a $300/mo bill to a $140/mo solar loan repayment.
Cutting sponges in half. It just makes them harder to use, and then already last a long time and cost like $1 each. I’m not going out of my way to save ~$1/month.
Unplugging electronics. I have a kill-a-watt meter and did some math. It took more power for my computer to run the spreadsheet than I’d save by unplugging everything in my house. Electronics have gotten way better at managing phantom power draw.
And I’ll second coupons. The only coupons I look at is the monthly Costco mailer, and I only really look at things I’ll buy in bulk. I try to buy enough to last until the next sale, which has worked out pretty well so far. But I literally don’t look at any other grocery store coupons because I just don’t find much value there.
In fact, most of these frugal “tricks” are worthless. Just focus on the high value lifestyle choices (cooking at home instead of prepared meals, learning to DIY common repairs, etc), and ignore most of penny pinching. In other words, don’t be penny wise and pound foolish.
That said, here are a couple of things that I do think are worthwhile even if the money savings isn’t huge:
- cut my own hair - takes 15-20 min once a month, which is less time than I’d spend getting to and from the barber; it’s essentially free ($20-30 for clippers, which I’ve used for dozens of hair cuts), but $20/month saved isn’t why I do it, I just hate going to the barber, it just seems to take so much time
- change my car’s oil - same as hair, it takes ~30 min, and most of that time I’m just sitting inside waiting for oil to drain; I don’t save much money, but I do feel like I save time vs driving to/from the oil change place, and I use high equality OEM filters
Never ever follow a cutting your own hair advice.
Why not? If you’re fine with a simple haircut, it’s really quite practical. I’m a guy and do a simple taper fade from 1" on top to 1/4" on bottom (similar to this).
My brother did it for years and he got to a VP level role at a large insurance company. If he did a bad job, there’s no way he would’ve gotten that kind of role because it’s as much about personal presentation as it is about competency.
I have my wife check it each time, but I don’t have her do it because I think I do a better job.
I’m a guy and do a simple taper fade from 1" on top to 1/4" on bottom
Same here, but a bit shorter than in the picture. I haven’t been to a hairdresser for at least 35 years.
