Do you know how much you earn by the hour? Most of us does know that, so when facing something you want to buy just ask yourself, is this worth working x number of hours? If the answer is yes, just go for it. If you start wondering if that particular item is not worth that work load, so possibly it's better just to leave it there.
That's a great idea! I'm sure we'd be a lot more careful with our spending if we realize just how much time we need to work in order to pay that item off...
That's a great idea, except for people who do internet jobs and micro jobs. When I used to work at ChaCha, I earned so little per transaction that if I had to rationalize what I was buying, I wouldn't even have bought a loaf of bread.
It's true! Been there, actually opted not to buy bread before because of it, heh. I ended up making my own bread more often than not, along with other items, because I just couldn't justify the price, even though it was seemingly tiny. Now that I'm making more, I do use the technique of comparing hours. Quite often, it's simply not worth the extra 4 or 5 hours of work.
I do look at things and think about it like that. It used to be different when I had a crappy job and only got paid $8 an hour. Now, I do freelance work, so I have to look at it differently. For example, I'll look at something and say, "Is that worth X amount of articles?" or whatever. It does work!
It's effective let me tell you, glad to see that you're doing the same. Sometimes I buy something and I think, this is 4 hours work or something like that and it makes me value it in a different way, I just don't buy things out of a wimp because it's my work!
I always do that! When I began to work on a job and make an effort to get me some cash, I became sensitive about money and how I spend it. I don't even go to Starbucks anymore, I don't want to drink a coffee worth 2 hours of work for 5 minutes.
Sometimes it's hard though because we (I lol) have old spending habits and turning this rationalizing into effect take discipline. Nothing like feeling the work we have, if it's hard work we should be conscious about our spendings or else what are we working for?
Yes, I do. Working by the hour made me realize how much effort it takes to earn a certain amount and it only takes a few seconds to spend several hours' worth of labor. Before I buy any that's outside of the basic needs, I think it many times over if I really need it. In my mind I convert the price to dollars and assess how many hours will it take before I can reach the amount. If the product is something I can use for business, the I would compute how long will it take to get an ROI out of this purchase. Very nice topic!
Thanks, I am glad you liked it. Wow, I am impressed Athena, how do you calculate the ROI in a leisure product? Or are you talking about investments you make to your business? Sometimes calculating the ROI it's not simple.
"I need it." or "I want it." - this is one simple way to rationalize your spending. Sometimes, we buy what we want and not what we need, specially to those impulsive buyers. Having it listed, you will be able to track where your money is going and it is a lifestyle changing experience if you are able to master rationalizing your spending and live a very good lifestyle. Doing so, is giving your money it's worth and preventing you from wasting your hard earned money.
I think that's a very good way of going about it. I myself do something similar but I don't go as specific as counting the number of hours it would take. I just weigh the amount against how much work I feel went into the money I will be spending and then I think about how much I really need the item. Often I arrive at a conclusion that I'm just feeling impulsive at the moment and I give myself some more time to think about it.
There are some jobs that I love to do, but they are simply not worth it because they pay really low. So at that point I need to fit that activity in the leisure category if I want to continue to do it and dedicate the work time for other activities.
Brilliant, however, it's kinda hard when you only depend on work online to put gas in your car and you live really far from the city, for example, 30.1km in distance from the city, so, you have really no option other than to work until you have enough money for gas to go out into the city or hop a ride.
Yes, I always keep count how much money I make, how much money I would make doing something different in a given period of time. For example I think about the time as it is money, and if you do something to earn it's good but if you could do something else in order to earn more then you should consider that. On the other hand, I don't keep count of my expenses so good, I spend a lot of money on cigarettes, I know this is bad for my budget and health but I can't stop it.
Cigarette prices have raised obscenely in the past 3 years. And it is all because the government taxes them. Retailers do not make anything on them. I don't smoke but I used to work in a grocery store. I feel sorry for those people that dole out 10%+ of their month's salary on cigarettes.
My friend, 10% of their salary, that sounds good. In my country, if you smoke a pack per day, that means you give away about 150$ a month for cigarettes, and guess what, you mininum salary is somewhere around 300$, you do the math how much percents are cigarettes out of one's salary. However I don't smoke that much because simply I can't afford.
No way that smoking can fit in any sort of rationalization, smoking is terrible for our health and for our pocket, so that can be a good saving, quit smoking and save the money you are not spending, I think many would be surprised at the end of the month.
