This question came to mind when driving back & forth between California-Arizona where vehicle fuel prices have a $2 PER GALLON difference. (I love my diesel vehicle. Fight me.)
So (1) would I drive 5 hours inland to Arizona just to save $2 per gallon?
Or (2) Would I buy a shit-ton of gas cans & fill them up in Arizona then haul them back to California?
As destitute as I am, would I move to Arizona for all-around lower cost of living? (3)
(1) Um, no.
(2) Sounds like a clever idea but ultimately ridiculous for so many reasons. No.
(3) Stupidly & stubbornly, no, I haven’t broken yet. I still love California too much to run inland away from this extortionately high cost of living.
BUT
I prefer to walk/run/bike rather than drive short distances.
Prefer DIY-ing or foregoing luxuries rather than paying for services I could do myself. Haircuts. Massages. Handyman repairs within my ability.
Honestly not much generally, life is for living, I’m privileged enough to be in a decent paid job that affords me that luxury. Though if I’m on a run of not saving for a few months, it’s time to find something to dial something back a bit, because that’s a sign I’m potentially living unsustainably
I learned the hard way when I was younger that living financially sustainably should be priority one, every month you live unsustainably is at least a couple of months it’ll take to climb out of the hole. And once you’re pretty deep things take their toll on your happiness
I live in a tiny garage “apartment” with only a washing machine, no dryer, and essentially “babies first refrigerator” too small to even keep a tub of ice cream in the freezer just so that I don’t have to live paycheck to paycheck.
Maybe try putting in the ice cream before the baby?
Seriously? I have priorities man! I can do without the ice cream, but there’s no way I’m going without a baby on ice. What kind of life is that!?
I am a baby first person, too. But they seemed like they wanted ice cream more. To each their own, I guess.
Enough to use the stupid fucking fast food apps that need to ask which location I’m ordering from six times and every screen takes two seconds to load.
I’m a musician, and not a particularly successful one. So I inconvenience myself a lot, all the time, to save money.
I usually consider
- how much I hate doing it
- how long it will take to do vs
- how long it will take to find someone to do it
- how much it will cost. The weight of what is acceptable changes depending on how much I need the money at that time.
Very little
deleted by creator
If you know anyone who works in nursing or similar, you can some times get medical grade staplers (and other semi specialty things) for free when they “expire” and need to be thrown out.
I’ve still got two staplers in my medical kit that expired in 2010. I assume it’s the sterile rating that is no longer valid since it’s a stapler. Haven’t needed them yet…
Super glue can fix some crazy cuts
That’s what it was designed for tbh
Saving doesn’t really inconvenience me as I dont want anything. I need to pay bills and other expenses, but there’s nothing that I want that I dont already have.
You could save on gas by riding a bicycle, but most people wouldn’t do that because it’s an inconvenience. You could save money on heating by setting the thermostat to 60°F in the winter, but that’s too low for most people. The list goes on about things you don’t do to save money because it’s an inconvenience
I usually take my hourly wage and compare it to the inconvenience. For example, if that inconvenience takes about an hour of my life, but saves me more than my hourly wage, I take it. There are exceptions of course, for example if I am low on money.
We do this comparison, with the added “will this save money” modification. My time outside of 40 hours per week can’t make me more money unless OT is approved. So that time is worth $0/hr. If the actions i do during that time save me money, I try to do them. It massively increases the amount of money we have for vacations and other fun stuff.
I’m also undiagnosed hyper focused ADHD, so that may be why. My wife tells me I can slow down, but I absolutely cannot.
I’m the exact same especially the ADHD because it gives me another calculation to do "Building my own looks fun plus buying one is more expensive minus the chance of me getting bored half way through and wasting the initial investment. Hmmmm lets spend a little more and just get the thing premade.
Yup, that’s pretty much the reason I don’t cook anything that takes more than 15 minutes to make.
I usually enjoy cooking, which is why I do it. But im exactly like this with chores, gardening, etc.
It also depends how much you like the activity. I’d rather do my job for 2 hours than cook for 1 hour.
This is exactly why I have a rice cooker, instant pot and slow cooker.cooking feels like a chore most of the time, and these make it easier for me to make healthy food and not feel like a slog
Cooking is such a mood. It can be fun, and you get to eat something really fresh and hot, and just the way you like it. But sometimes the actual process is annoying, sometimes there might be a lot of waiting involved, there’s the cleanup, the prep work, stocking the ingredients, you might need specialized equipment for good results…
Stocking is the issue for me. I’d probably be more inclined to cook fun things if I happened to have the ingredients on-hand, but I’m a single dude with very few food preferences. I try to eat somewhat healthily, but I’m a lazy cook for sure.
Maybe I should find a good recipe book full of simple meals for one haha.
That sounds ludicrous to me.
Making food is more like reward than a chore for me.
Tbf I don’t love eating food either so making it feels like double the chore.
Eight
Nice try but “inconvenience” cannot be measured numerically. We need anecdotes.
One time i eight’d to save money.
Woof, I don’t know if I could do that. I did six during college, and that felt like a big sacrifice.
I cut my own hair. Doesn’t sound like an inconvenience, but in the summer our house has no AC, and you’d be surprised just how stuffy one person can make a bathroom in 30 mins. And my hair has mostly looked like shit for 25 years. (The local hair styling school charges $2 less than local salons, so it’s not super cheap here.)
Yes haircuts are so expensive! Grateful I embraced a Pocahontas/ carefree Hawaiian girl hairstyle 30+ years ago. I NEVER cut my hair. It’s just long & wavy & takes care of itself, and somehow never grows beyond waist-length 🤷🏼♀️
That’s actually kind of amazing! It makes sense that it would break off at a certain point. Most of our hairs have a set length that they will grow to, and that seems to be yours. (That’s why your arm hair and eyebrows only get so long.) And it looks fantastic!
I use spotify premium.
I will pay to avoid inconvenience.
How much do I dislike the inconvenience? Some types of inconvenience I’m very tolerant of, but others I’d rather pay the money.
Often times when it is discretionary, I choose to just skip it altogether. Like if I’m not willing to run out for fast food, I’m not going to use one of the delivery apps.
I generally don’t.
