General

Re: Choosing Time Over Frugality?

MotherChaos — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:48:11 GMT

Well, the first thing to go is surfing the Internet. I can lose thousands of hours to that, seemingly daily. After that, I give up some of the sillier things I otherwise do, like ironing our cloth napkins (yes, I'm afraid I do!). I'll also start cutting corners with the housework - taking the "if you can't see it, why clean it?" method.

Some of the other things I'll drop in a hurry are line drying my clothes (at $0.25 a load it's easy to drop), and walking the kids to and from school. It takes almost an hour to do that, whereas driving is less than fifteen minutes roundtrip. $0.30 in gas sometimes just can't compete with having that 45 minutes back!!

If things are tough at night, I definite switch from nightly to once a month cooking. It may be a pain on Cooking Day, but a huge timesaver when you're in the middle of the weekly grind.

Re: Choosing Time Over Frugality?

My Family's Interests — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:44:02 GMT

You're welcome! It's nice to try her free menus too so you get a sense of the food. She has lots of good books. I am thinking of getting her basic how to cook for my dh :)

Re: Choosing Time Over Frugality?

eyrehead — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:40:14 GMT

The first thing that has gone from my list is the once a week "major" house cleaning. I am fortunate that we can afford to pay someone (one of my best friends who really can use the extra money) to come in once a week, vacuum the entire house, dust, clean the bathrooms, and the kitchen. We pay her $10 an hour, and she usually gets everything done within 5 hours. Sometimes I'm here to help her, or I work on other things that need done (like laundry, the windows, etc.). Having this luxury in our lives, frees me up to do things like volunteer at the school, be involved in the PTO, run errands for Brian if needed, and other things like that that are important to me/us. I'm not a good housekeeper....I get side tracked VERY easily, and more often than not, there isn't much to show for several hours of work that I've put in cleaning the house. I'm not organized, though I keep trying to get there.

If something catastrophic happened like Brian losing work, or worse, and I had to go to work to support us, then obviously, all the vounteer work, PTO, etc. would get cut. But it would be worth it, even though I probably wouldn't like it much!

Re: Choosing Time Over Frugality?

jeweledsunshine — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:05:15 GMT

MFI,

Thank you very much for the link. This is going to come in very handy. I have been checking out books about "freezer meals" from the library, but they didn't really have the "do this, then do this, then freeze it" kind of layout that I really need. I need it to be pretty simple, and it looks like the link you sent is exactly what I've been looking for.

Re: Choosing Time Over Frugality?

My Family's Interests — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:39:51 GMT

check out www.savingdinner.com They have free menus but also menus you buy at reasonable pricing. They have lots of freezer meal menus where you put all you need for the meal in the freezer bags. They have 20 meal ones, sides, just chicken etc. just 5 meals etc. She has a shopping list. For example burritos one bag for the beans, one for the tortillas/cheese etc and it all goes in another bag so the meall is complete. The recipe have the making for the freezer on one side and the cooking instructions on the other side so it all fits nicely in a binder. also nice because you can give them to people as a gift it their are sick or new baby etc.

Re: Choosing Time Over Frugality?

jeweledsunshine — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 14:05:00 GMT

For me, the first things to go are housework and cooking. I admit, I will buy bags of already prepared stew setup so that I can just throw it into the pot with some water and let it cook versus buying all the veggies and meat, then chopping it all up, browning the meat, then having it end up in the same pot and cooking for the same amount of time. Seriously, the bagged stew setup is 5 bucks. Buying the meat alone would be the same price, plus the time it takes to prepare it just to start it cooking. I also buy bagged skillet dinner setups for time saving. 10 dollars worth makes many frozen meals that will go into my handy dandy baby deep freeze. I'm ridiculously obsessed with finding things that I can make and freeze, I just haven't really found all that many things I can do that with, lol.

Re: Choosing Time Over Frugality?

rolo — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:31:35 GMT

Any non essential to do items are the first to get the boot. Yeah, I would like to shine up the front window and door glass but...scratch it off. Ditto with baking a dessert, or organizing drawers. When crunch time hits, it's the small but numerous "niceties" that get scratched, including cutting back on personal "free" time to read, use the computer, visit with family/friends, etc. It all eventually gets handled, but not necessarily on the timeline I prefer.

Re: Choosing Time Over Frugality?

kabin — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 06:06:45 GMT

The first to go, for me, is always the housework. I guess because its the one thing that always needs to be done anyway.

If it were some life altering crisis then it would be time to sit down and re think prioroties. Some of the things I do now might not be so important then.

I have to admit that I thought that being a SAHM would free me up to do more things around the house, but I find that I am busier now than I was when I worked outside the home full time. I am currently working part time, helping to care for an elderly neighbor. It helps us to have that little bit of extra income and it's very flexible. I couldn't ask for more than that.

Re: Choosing Time Over Frugality?

jennylyn — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 05:29:12 GMT

Now that I am home and have more time than I used to at home, I cook A LOT more from scratch and bake all our breads and grow some food too. If I were in a position that I had to cut something out, those things would probably be first to go. For sure the gardening and baking. We currently have a gardener that cuts our grass and weeds the garden 1x per week in Spring/Summer and once every 2 weeks in Late Fall/Winter. If we did that ourselves, it would likely never be done because other responsibilities get in the way (we've been there before!).

Also, currently my DH's dress shirts (which he wears everyday for work) are washed/ironed at home but if I really needed more time, I'd pay to have them washed and pressed at the cleaners ($1.65/shirt). It's something that gets backed up around here really quickly and DH ends up doing it himself (something I feel REALLY guilty about!).

Re: Choosing Time Over Frugality?

helen — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 04:02:27 GMT

When I was really snowed under last year, I got a cleaner in, thinking if it worked out, that I'd get them on a regular basis as a way to cut down stress and enable me to work more hours. But I wasn't that impressed - whatever they shined the taps and sinks with left a greasy residue, and I didn't feel that the standards were that good. So a bit frustrating - the one thing that I'd really love to outsource, and it didn't work out.

Re: Choosing Time Over Frugality?

My Family's Interests — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:24:51 GMT

I think it depends too on what it is you are paying for instead of what you are doing yourself. Somethings I find that in the end for the hassle, energy and cost of some things, it is more cost effective to pay someone to do something. Not on a permanent basis but just to get it done. For example, I paid 2 teenagers $80 for 4 hrs labour each to clean up my garden, one big time. We have too many weeds etc to keep up. it is a every day chore it seems. I didn't have the energy and couldn't do it with my son around. To pay a babysitter to watch the kids would be almost the same. So it worked out, kids earned money towards their mission trip and I got a clean garden.

Crafts I do because I enjoy them. Same with gardening. Dh would be happy with all grass instead of shrubs and flowers. All things in moderation I say. some things to feed the soul, some the budget.

At my stage of life the amount of energy,childcare and cleaning involved doesn't leave much time for other things. by the time, the reg mess is cleaned up, no energy left for extra decluttering etc. it is either or situation.

Re: Choosing Time Over Frugality?

babs — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 02:11:27 GMT

It is a very hard question and the answer changes often. Being frugal is a lot of work. I could sit and read for hours or I can get up and bake bread, mend some clothes, weed the garden. It is all work. What do you give up? Dont know. Babs

Re: Choosing Time Over Frugality?

helen — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 23:48:17 GMT

Gosh, this is a tough one, Brandy. It's very relevant to me as I've been trying to do some things that matter - like growing my own food and baking healthy food at home - without giving up things like music ( I learn cello) that matters. I do a bit of knitting - well, let's say I have an unfinished knitting project or three - and it's something I don't want to give up, as I'd like to make our own winter knits from Aussie-grown yarn - but I'm not good at it, and it's time consuming. Likewise sewing - I bought a secondhand dressmaker's mannikin but she hasn't even been measured up yet, let alone had fabric near her.

I'm considering selling my guitar. I don't play, and really, one instrument is enough for a busy mum - I feel I need to really let go of some things. But I fear that I'll regret it.

On a short-term basis, when I get really busy, I admit that cooking is the first thing to go - frozen low-fat nuggets, pasta and some salad or something like that. Frozen pies, mashed potato, carrot and frozen peas with gravy. A lazy dinner! Or better yet, baked beans on toast.

I find it almost impossible, looking at the half-done things I have around me - there's a lot of stuff I want to do, and lots of stuff I feel I ought to do.

Re: Choosing Time Over Frugality?

Edey — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 22:54:27 GMT

When I went back to work I had to give up on a lot of my needlework, crafts and painting. I just couldn't work full time, keep the household running and still have time for that. I missed it greatly, and postponed most of it for 20 years. When I retired and had the time for it all, I had lost interest in many things, or couldn't see well enough to do them, like cross stitch. My house never got cleaned very well, not that I'm a fanatic cleaner. Bills didn't always get paid on time. And getting to my son's basketball games didn't happen. All of that had to take a back seat because work just sucked the life out of me. It wasn't right, but it's what happened. Edey

Re: Choosing Time Over Frugality?

Brandy — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 21:22:34 GMT

Gigi,

What if you were dealing with a permanent reorganising of your life and time?