The illusion of saving money
It is truly astonishing how much time and anxiety we spend on the pursuit of ‘saving money’. We analyze how much our time is worth and calculate if an activity generates enough ‘value’ to cover that cost. A common though process might be- “Why should I fix my own dinner? The ingredients might be cheaper, but my labor surely isn’t worthless! So if it takes me an hour to go buy a fish from the market, another 2 hours to fillet, arrange, and make Japanese Yellowtail sashimi- then I have 3 hours in at $50/hr., + the cost of the fish. That is over $150 dollars for a dinner I can buy for around 90 bucks!” And so you head out to eat, confident you made the wisest financial decision.
But what value has been added?
And at the end of that dinner, with your belly full, what have you gained? A full belly, at the expense of $90. And the belly will be empty again soon, but that $90 doesn’t come back… hmmm.
But what if instead you had gone to the local Japanese fish market and picked up a whole Yellowtail (amberjack) fish? Then spent an hour teaching your daughter how to gut and fillet that fish? Then your wife teacher her how to prepare the fillets into sashimi, ‘plate’ them beautifully, and serve the family an incredible homecooked meal of fresh sashimi?
For about 3 hours of your time, that same $150 bucks you diligently calculated earlier, you created an enduring family memory, taught your daughter a skill she will never forget, served a home meal to your family uninterrupted by the constant ‘shushing’ required of public dining with a large homeschool family. Instead of your wallet being $90 dollars lighter, it is only (in this case) $10 lighter. You still spent 3 hours, and your belly will still be empty again by the next morning. But your value added!!! You added a value that seems positively vulgar to try and assign a mere dollar amount!
Retrain yourself to think in terms of ‘value added’, and ‘money saved’ will fade into a distant obscurity.
Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is finding his place in it, while really it is finding its place in him.
—C.S. Lewis, “The Screwtape Letters”
