Time, Money, and So Little of Either
Wednesday, August 26, 2009 at 5:00AM Getting married is a strange experience. It is one of those things you have no way of knowing or understanding until you're doing it, and once its over, whatever you learned is likely (and hopefully) never going to be used again. One of the weirdest phenomenon is the experience of time.
My wife (!) and I got engaged in January. We decided to get married in August. That was a full 7 months away. We started off by planning some of the bigger things, getting ideas for themes, prices, and whatnot, but then life got busy and wedding planning stopped being as important. After all, we have 7 months. Well, soon enough, we were two weeks out from the wedding, and now all of a sudden, it's been two and half weeks since we got married. Time shot by in a flash.
The last two weeks before the wedding were insanely busy. Every night after work, we would be scheming, planning, plotting, calling, arranging, picking up, and paying for things. It was crazy. At that point, you have so little time, that when there became a choice between something that was fast, or something that was less expensive, we would always choose the faster option.
For the most part, we simply ran out of time to feed ourselves. Beside the fact that we had so little energy that the thought of cooking made our stomaches turn, we just didn't have the time to plan, prepare, and cook dinner. It just wasn't happening. Or, if we were out shopping and it came close to a meal time, we would eat out so that we would be able to finish the shopping. It had to get done, so we did it.
While I don't like spending money that doesn't need to be spent, in this case, I think that the cost is justified. Sometimes, we run into life's situations where cost doesn't matter - but time does. So you pay a premium in order to enjoy food quickly, without having to make it yourself. There are tons of situations where one would trade money for time.
When do you trade your money for time? When do you regret it?
wedding 
Reader Comments (7)
First of all, congratulations on being married! I hope that your relationship continues to grow for many years to come.
My take on the "time vs. money" issue is that it's actually not an issue. Everybody spends money to save time. If there's any regularly recurring personal finance topic that I sigh at every time it comes up it's the "time vs. money" issue. (No offense intended! ;-) )
People buy pre-assembled computers from Dell, Apple, etc. all the time instead of buying the parts and putting the computer together themselves. People buy clothing from Macy's, Target, etc. all the time instead of buying fabric and sewing clothing themselves. (Heck, people buy fabric instead of making the fabric themselves, too!) People buy houses that were made for them instead of buying land and the materials to build their own home. (And ditto for people buying lumber instead of cutting down trees themselves.)
People buy all sorts of things instead of doing it from scratch themselves. That's what it means to live in an efficient commerce system: someone specializes in making clothes, someone else specializes in growing food, and they get together and trade. Lather, rinse, and repeat on a larger scale to get what we've got going. We just use money as the medium of exchange.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of people saying "I could cook at home for a lot less money than eating in restaurants, so I'm going to cook at home." I just think that the "time vs. money" issue is old news: we as a country, society, world, or what have you chose money.
I always choose money over time when it comes to food, and I feel that it is a problem, not something to be justified. So, I am making small changes so that I can master this thing. The commenter above stated that we all choose money over time, due to specialization. I think some specialization is a good thing, but we've become almost overspecialized. A couple generations ago, it was common for a mother to cut her children's hair and even her husband's. Preparing a meal is so basic, that we should not be paying other people to do it for us on a regular basis. It's more expensive, less healthy, and I don't really believe it saves time, unless you use a fast-food joint drive-thru. Otherwise, the time it takes to get to the restaurant, wait for the food, eat the food, drive back home, takes more time than just putting on a pot of pasta and opening a jar of sauce.
Usually, when I claim to not have the time, I'm fooling myself. I just don't want to cook. Sometimes I'm so hungry I can't even think to begin how to cook. For those times, I eat something, anything, to take the edge off. Like a handful of grapes, or even saltines. Once I get some food in my belly and calm down, I realize that it's no huge undertaking to microwave a potato or even to just pop some popcorn and open a can of soup.
As a final thought, I think specialization has made us malcontented. Whenever I do anything for myself, like knit a hat or mittens, grow my own tomaotes, or even just make a meal, I feel so much better. Yes, they take time, but so does working 8 or more hours a day. And it's way more fulfilling doing work that benefits yourself, than doing work that benefits your employer.
Congratulations on your wedding! I was married about 3 years ago, and planned my wedding in a short amount of time. I remember the impending final few weeks before the big day and how chaotic it was getting everything done. Stressful doesn't even cover it--definitely a time when money is traded for time.
I tend not to do that much with food, mainly because I try to prioritize healthy eating and eating out tends not to go that way for me. There are certainly occasions where I trade money for time. The first is online shopping. Sometimes it costs more to have something shipped, and occasionally you can find a better deal or sale if you look around in person. However the time that it takes, the time in the car--it's just not worth it to me. I prefer to check it off my "to-do" list and get it done online seamlessly. Another area is typically home improvement projects. My husband has a multitude of amazing qualities, but handy he is not. Often he'll try to fix something (a plumbing issue, a roof that needs repairing, etc.) and it takes WAY too much of his time, which is valuable. We'd rather pay someone to come in and complete a task in an hour that would take him three or four. Same goes with an oil change--pay the money, and leave it to the experts.
"Getting married is a strange experience. It is one of those things you have no way of knowing or understanding until you're doing it" --- just wait until you have kids!
No, in all seriousness, your situation isn't out of the ordinary. For example, we just moved a few months back -- and spent way more money getting carryout in 1 week than we had at all in the month before. It's just the nature of it. When your priorities put something extremely important at the top, other things get neglected -- I wouldn't worry about it.
Congratulations on your marriage!! This is my first comment here but I have been reading your blog for past month. You seem like a really frugal and sensible guy, so I am sure you will do fine with money, house and all that.
Money is funny thing, as I recall as a child, I thought $25 some aunty gave me on birthday was so much money, now as a grown up with kids and house and bills to pay, even $1000 seems short, how we change? Life changes even when you do not want to.
Well done sir on your marriage but I wish someone had done a cost analysis of a typical marriage/ married life up until divorce per year kinda scenario. This could have saved me a fortune. Maybe this could be an idea for you? It may catch on!
when i eat out, this is one of the reasons that i use, i have very little time as it is so let me use the money that i have to buy more time in that i will have saved it from avoiding the chore that is cooking. That and the fact that i love eating out :)