How much are you willing to inconvenience yourself to save money?
This question came to mind when driving back & forth between California-Arizona where vehicle fuel prices have a $2 PER GALLON difference. (I love my diesel vehicle. Fight me.)
So (1) would I drive 5 hours inland to Arizona just to save $2 per gallon?
Or (2) Would I buy a shit-ton of gas cans & fill them up in Arizona then haul them back to California?
As destitute as I am, would I move to Arizona for all-around lower cost of living? (3)
(1) Um, no.
(2) Sounds like a clever idea but ultimately ridiculous for so many reasons. No.
(3) Stupidly & stubbornly, no, I haven't broken yet. I still love California too much to run inland away from this extortionately high cost of living.
BUT
I prefer to walk/run/bike rather than drive short distances.
Prefer DIY-ing or foregoing luxuries rather than paying for services I could do myself. Haircuts. Massages. Handyman repairs within my ability.
I usually take my hourly wage and compare it to the inconvenience. For example, if that inconvenience takes about an hour of my life, but saves me more than my hourly wage, I take it. There are exceptions of course, for example if I am low on money.
It also depends how much you like the activity. I'd rather do my job for 2 hours than cook for 1 hour.
This is exactly why I have a rice cooker, instant pot and slow cooker.cooking feels like a chore most of the time, and these make it easier for me to make healthy food and not feel like a slog
Cooking is such a mood. It can be fun, and you get to eat something really fresh and hot, and just the way you like it. But sometimes the actual process is annoying, sometimes there might be a lot of waiting involved, there's the cleanup, the prep work, stocking the ingredients, you might need specialized equipment for good results...
Stocking is the issue for me. I'd probably be more inclined to cook fun things if I happened to have the ingredients on-hand, but I'm a single dude with very few food preferences. I try to eat somewhat healthily, but I'm a lazy cook for sure.
Maybe I should find a good recipe book full of simple meals for one haha.
That sounds ludicrous to me.
Making food is more like reward than a chore for me.
Tbf I don't love eating food either so making it feels like double the chore.
Yup, that's pretty much the reason I don't cook anything that takes more than 15 minutes to make.
I usually enjoy cooking, which is why I do it. But im exactly like this with chores, gardening, etc.
We do this comparison, with the added "will this save money" modification. My time outside of 40 hours per week can't make me more money unless OT is approved. So that time is worth $0/hr. If the actions i do during that time save me money, I try to do them. It massively increases the amount of money we have for vacations and other fun stuff.
I'm also undiagnosed hyper focused ADHD, so that may be why. My wife tells me I can slow down, but I absolutely cannot.
I'm the exact same especially the ADHD because it gives me another calculation to do "Building my own looks fun plus buying one is more expensive minus the chance of me getting bored half way through and wasting the initial investment. Hmmmm lets spend a little more and just get the thing premade.
I’m pretty broke and have been for most of my life, so I’m pretty willing to be inconvenienced. Only thing I have to my name is a very old house in need of substantial work I can’t afford to do, on a very small town lot, and a car that’s falling apart.
I keep my heat set to 60f/15.6c at most, which is well outside of my comfort zone (I prefer being too warm over too cold). I use heated mattress pads/blankets to make it bearable, as they cost exceptionally little to use round the clock for a month, around a dollar a month vs the several hundred per month my heat goes up when kept to a comfortable temp.
I grow as much of my own food as I can. I know people do the math and determine that home grown somehow costs just as much as store bought, so it’s only good as a hobby, and I genuinely don’t understand that calculation. I compost and mix compost into my garden soil and my food is basically free..? And I recently added a small flock of chickens that eat my plant scraps and food scraps, and their waste is great fertilizer. It’s a nice holistic system. I also have some plants like tomatoes and peppers that grow year-round in hydroponics, the small amount of electric and powder nutrients used to grow them costs far less than the food they produce. I’m working on expanding my hydro options to sell surplus to friends and family.
I use compressed sawdust pellets (like for pellet stoves or horse bedding) as cat litter. It’s basically the same thing as feline pine but it’s $7 for 40lbs, which is enough to completely toss and replace the litter about 10 times per bag, more in summer because I use less (takes longer to dry out so needs to be replaced faster anyway). The litter is compostable, so it goes into a special pile that gets used as yard/flower garden dirt. However this requires that I stir up the litter at least twice a day, to allow the urine to dry properly. Else it just reeks of ammonia.
All food scraps, whether cat food or human food, get saved for something. Scraps my chickens can’t/won’t eat, like raw carrots, onions, garlic, and celery, get turned into broth along with bones. After being turned into broth, the remaining material goes into my worm compost. Anything chivkens can eat, especially cat food my cats don’t eat, gets saved for them. Egg shells get saved (by everyone who gets eggs from me) and used as calcium supplement for them.
If I can build or make something, even poorly, I’ll do that before buying a thing (beer, bread, covey coop, chicken coop, shelves, etc.). If I can repurpose existing tools to do a thing I only need to do once, I probably will even if the task is far more frustrating as a result. I desperately wish we had tool library here so I could just borrow stuff. But no. And on this same sort of trajectory; I’ll do things manually rather than using gas or buying new tools. I inherited a ton of really high quality hand tools from my grandfather, and I use them quite a lot. I also shovel snow by hand rather than putting gas in my snowblower, unless we are expecting a blizzard.
I have more but this is already too long so ima just stop.
You're my hero and I will be seeking your guidance in the post-apocalypse.
Did you inherit the farrier tools? How often do you need to change the shoes on a centipede? I know the shoes are small, but there are a lot of them... Seems expensive depending on how many centipedes you have.
O, unless you're a centipede farrier by trade and that's how you make money. Seems like a potentially lucrative business since I've never met another centipede farrier.
(Also, nice work, that's impressive)
Farrier by trade. See, centipedes have a really amazing trick up our many sleeves, in that we can use one set of limbs to hold ourselves to the underside of the hoof, and the other set to pass a pencil along to trace the outline, making for perfectly fitted shoes every time!
Installing them is obviously a bit more work, but we’ve come up with a nice clamp-style nail driver that also makes use of all the limbs to provide the hinge pressure needed to drive the nail.
For trims, we use a big grinding wheel attached to a centipede-size treadmill for power. Sure it takes a while, but the results are perfectly manicured hooves! So smooth and even!
We haven’t figured out a good method to scrape the hooves, however. We normally have the humans do that, as we scurry around making sure nothing was missed.
O! My apologies! I thought you were a farrier FOR centipedes.
I never considered that you were a centipede that was a farrier... Does that make me racist? Maybe.
Yesterday I transported a seven-foot long, 70# piece of furniture across town by bus.
Hell yeah!
I declare you president of this club.
👑
How did the other people riding the bus feel about this LOL.
They were super nice! I was like, this bus is too full, I'll get the next one and five different people said "no!" and got up to make room. It was very sweet, real holiday spirit kinda stuff.
That is nice.
One day a woman was mad at everyone for not giving up their seats for her as she had a stroller. It contained three cases of beer and a basket of laundry.
lmao can you blame her though
A lot, I've walked across a city rather than pay for a taxi
Hell yeah, that's how I live too. It's exhausting & time-consuming but at least money stays in my bank account 😛 And we've got great legs & a great ass & excellent cardiovascular health.
Eight
Woof, I don't know if I could do that. I did six during college, and that felt like a big sacrifice.
Nice try but "inconvenience" cannot be measured numerically. We need anecdotes.
One time i eight'd to save money.
In a though spot? No new stuff. Rent, food, internet, electricity. Put everything to the side I can afford.
English is a tough language. It can be mastered through tough thorough thought though.
Username checks out.
If you know anyone who works in nursing or similar, you can some times get medical grade staplers (and other semi specialty things) for free when they "expire" and need to be thrown out.
I've still got two staplers in my medical kit that expired in 2010. I assume it's the sterile rating that is no longer valid since it's a stapler. Haven't needed them yet...
Super glue can fix some crazy cuts
That's what it was designed for tbh
I almost never order snacks or fast food delivered, cheaper to walk to the store if I want it
I think I have done it like twice when I was sick.
Expense aside, I find it useful for maintaining some level of discipline. If I can't be assed to get it myself, then I don't want it that much.
I live in a tiny garage "apartment" with only a washing machine, no dryer, and essentially "babies first refrigerator" too small to even keep a tub of ice cream in the freezer just so that I don't have to live paycheck to paycheck.
Maybe try putting in the ice cream before the baby?
Seriously? I have priorities man! I can do without the ice cream, but there's no way I'm going without a baby on ice. What kind of life is that!?
I am a baby first person, too. But they seemed like they wanted ice cream more. To each their own, I guess.
I have no idea, I'm quite frugal already without it being an inconvenience. If I'd step it up a notch to inconvenience I wouldn't be saving much more.
Enough to use the stupid fucking fast food apps that need to ask which location I'm ordering from six times and every screen takes two seconds to load.
It depends on how much money you make, right ?
Yeah this question is for us 99% of the population who are poor people because we work full-time but our employers will only pay us enough to need to keep returning to work every day.
Sadly it’s true
I usually consider
I use spotify premium.
I will pay to avoid inconvenience.
I did surveys for money so I could buy things I otherwise wouldn't. I made thousands doing it and bought SO much stuff I needed and wanted. I got entirely sick of them though as it really is a grind and stopped. It's impressive how much stuff I bought with this money. (I'm happy to tell anyone how). Sometimes when I'm leaving for work I just think of everything I'm wearing or carrying that I didn't pay a penny for.
I go to the hair salon school and let students cut my hair to save money (it's super cheap) and began colouring it myself. I only get my hair cut like twice a year as well despite wanting to do it more.
I have like seven digital library cards, I give the library a fake address in their city and sign up. It actually only benefits them that they get more patrons reading books. I can request books at my library anyway that they don't have in their collection and they'll get it from another library too.
My health benefits through my workplace include orthotic sole inserts, but also you get two pairs of shoes. That's two pairs of shoes a YEAR. I have coworkers who do it and don't use the orthotic insert, just for the shoes. If you have workplace benefits look at everything they give you and use whatever you can.
I will price match at the grocery store to the penny. You just stand there and say "this is 5 dollars at Walmart" and nobody ever checks so if it's really expensive I'll tell them it's a price I've seen it be before even if it isn't that week. The cashiers will also say "this is X amount at X store" and ring it up without me asking sometimes too.
I'll go to my doctor and get a prescription for something so it goes through my benefits even if I could buy something to treat it over the counter. I'm Canadian so it doesn't cost me to go, and they're legit conditions, but I don't HAVE to go in. Universal health care for the win.
Our drug reps bring us food like once a week so that's usually my lunch that day.
My workplace has an employee perks program where insurance or phone carrier or clothing stores or whatever will give you discounts. My phone carrier was going to charge me 30 dollars more a month to upgrade my phone, so I went and looked into their phone plans, and got an employee pricing plan for less than half of that with much more data and international calling, through the same carrier through an employee pricing plan dealer. It was even 5 dollars less when I went to pick it up on Tuesday because the plans change all the time. So now I get 100 GB of data, international calling and texting as well as all my usual features, for 45 dollars plus 1 dollar a month for a new Pixel 10. Can't wait to hand my old phone in on Saturday to my carrier and tell them I'm done with their bullshit as they were going to charge me 100 a month. Fuck you Bell Canada.
A local church has a "good food box" program (for anyone who wants it, not just for low income people) where you get a bag of 10-11 fruits and vegetables every other week for 22 dollars. Saves me mountains of money at the grocery store and it's very practical. It's absolutely great, and you just pick it up at one of the two locations.
It kinda depends on the domain. Some tools I could buy to make my life easier would be nice, but I can't justify the cost vs how much time they would save me. On the other hand, certain things that are hard on my back, knees, etc. are bought quickly especially in my mid 40s now.
For travel, anything domestic I will make some sacrifices, but maybe not all of them (night busses are still iffy). International where my but is in a seat for 15 hours (to fly to visit my parents every few years), I go with a decent one.
Bed-related things get priority for money since I'm spending 1/4 to 1/3 of my day in the thing and my body isn't what it used to be. Office chair is about to be on that list as well, though I've been putting it off for ages (and increasingly feeling it for a bad height match to my desk).
I only buy new devices when it really becomes an issue for core usability (from phones to PCs to vehicles to farm equipment). I would rather repair or limp along with it until it dies or I can't stand it anymore. At that point, I will usually by the newest (PC or phone) or very recent used (vehicle/equipment).
I found a (used) standing desk was roughly the same cost as a good office chair, and I'm very happy with my choice for the desk. I stand up about 6 hours out of the day, and it's been great for my back and feet.
My desk raises and lowers but I actually don't work as well standing for some reason and there's pain. When I work outside (I'm a farmer as a second job), I don't typically have pain but I'm also not standing still
i have been looking high and low for months in my local charity shops for a specific cd, that i very well could have bought online for a fairly reasonable price
Time is money. You deserve that CD. Just give in & buy it online already 😛
i thought itd be more special to find it in person 😅
either way, theres a suspiciously CD case shaped object wrapped under the Christmas tree, so we shall see :3
How much do I dislike the inconvenience? Some types of inconvenience I'm very tolerant of, but others I'd rather pay the money.
Often times when it is discretionary, I choose to just skip it altogether. Like if I'm not willing to run out for fast food, I'm not going to use one of the delivery apps.
I'll take a bus for 1h rather than pay a taxi to get someplace in 10 min to save $40.
I'm fortunate enough that I have no issue covering essential expenses, so I've setup an automatic transfer after payday to move some of my wages to a savings account. In other words, I don't have to inconvenience myself at all to save
I don't think that the question aligns that much with how I usually think, I usually think of spending as the inconvenience itself.
Honestly not much generally, life is for living, I'm privileged enough to be in a decent paid job that affords me that luxury. Though if I'm on a run of not saving for a few months, it's time to find something to dial something back a bit, because that's a sign I'm potentially living unsustainably
I learned the hard way when I was younger that living financially sustainably should be priority one, every month you live unsustainably is at least a couple of months it'll take to climb out of the hole. And once you're pretty deep things take their toll on your happiness
More dependent on how much money. $100 is a lot for me in general, so I'll definitely go out of my way. $20... Maybe, depending how much inconvenience and how much the remaining price is. I'll never under any circumstance inconvenience myself over less than $5, because I can't fathom a situation where $5 saves my life. Maybe if my entire family died.
I'm a musician, and not a particularly successful one. So I inconvenience myself a lot, all the time, to save money.
I cut my own hair. Doesn't sound like an inconvenience, but in the summer our house has no AC, and you'd be surprised just how stuffy one person can make a bathroom in 30 mins. And my hair has mostly looked like shit for 25 years. (The local hair styling school charges $2 less than local salons, so it's not super cheap here.)
Yes haircuts are so expensive! Grateful I embraced a Pocahontas/ carefree Hawaiian girl hairstyle 30+ years ago. I NEVER cut my hair. It's just long & wavy & takes care of itself, and somehow never grows beyond waist-length 🤷🏼♀️
That's actually kind of amazing! It makes sense that it would break off at a certain point. Most of our hairs have a set length that they will grow to, and that seems to be yours. (That's why your arm hair and eyebrows only get so long.) And it looks fantastic!
If I can save money I probably will. Rarely I consider it an inconvenience though.
i live in a garbage can
My tolerance for inconvenience is rather low.
I'm currently renovating the toilet, I'm not going to pay someone else € 3500 for six days of work (six for me).
I will pay to avoid inconvenience. I work a stressful job, I won't sacrifice what little free time I have to do things like decorating.
Saving doesn't really inconvenience me as I dont want anything. I need to pay bills and other expenses, but there's nothing that I want that I dont already have.
You could save on gas by riding a bicycle, but most people wouldn't do that because it's an inconvenience. You could save money on heating by setting the thermostat to 60°F in the winter, but that's too low for most people. The list goes on about things you don't do to save money because it's an inconvenience
Very little
I generally don't.
We all have jobs. Answer the question if you feel like participating. Or hey do you mean you have the kind of job that pays enough to survive comfortably so you never need to make sacrifices?
They spend 8 hours a day inconveniencing themselves for money.
Sorry, I just wanted to talk about the elephant in the room. Full time jobs are time consuming and often stressful which can lead to health issues or family issues.
Time is something we can't buy, and I wish we didn't have to sacrifice it
I'm not sure of the relevance