
04/05/2023
Time is money and money is time. And when you’re poor you don’t have either.
The more money you have, the more you can afford to walk away from a bad deal. The best way to get a good deal is to have little fear of walking away from it. Money creates options that you just don’t have if you’re poor - the ability to take time to make a decision, to walk away from a bad deal, or wait for the right sale or opportunity. There are no coupons that give you that. Money can’t buy happiness. But money can buy security and options. You won’t be very happy if you constantly worry about your food and shelter. Worrying over money and not being able to afford the basics consume you.
So many ways in which having enough money - and time - makes being thrifty easier.
Having enough money means when something with a long shelf life is on special, you can stock up enough to tide you over till it’s on special the next time, so you never need to pay full price. You can buy in bulk if that reduces the per unit price. If the bulk special is on something with a short shelf life, you probably know enough people who also want some so you can buy on behalf of several households and be reimbursed, so everyone saves.
Being able to patronise the same business multiple times allows you to build up a relationship that means your repeat business is worth something to the business owner, meaning you will often get opportunities or service unavailable to the person who only ever spends the minimum. Having enough money means you can afford a chest freezer, and be able to store bulk meat specials. It means you can cook multiple serves of some dishes, and parcel them into individual servings and freeze them for easy reheated meals later.
Having enough time means being able to invest in teaching your kids to help with the housekeeping and cooking, so they can contribute later, and so they learn thriftiness skills to use when they grow up, too.
Yes, you can buy happiness — especially if the money saves you time. So buy yourself some time. It's worth it.