Your question is vague but here is my attempt to answer it. There is more than one way to value a dollar, all of which complement each other when that dollar is saved vs spent.
The first value for your dollar, is the amount that it can grow to over time. In ten years that dollar has grown to $1.34 (at 3% interest rate), $1.81 at 20 years, $2.43 at 30 years and $3.26 at 40 years. The numbers go even higher if you choose investments that will grow at an annualized rate greater than 3%. So each dollar you save will be making you richer in the future.
The second value is the how much time, or life energy you have traded for that dollar. By saving that dollar your are essentially keeping that life energy. An example may help with this. Though my annual salary is over $50k (a gross hourly pay of around $25/hr), my actual take home pay, after taxes, insurance, transportation and other job related costs is around $6/hr. This means that every dollar takes me 10 minutes to earn. Those are ten minutes that I will never get back and come from a limited pool of minutes that I have in my lifetime. By not spending that dollar, I now have ten minutes in the future that I will not need to work. Even more minutes if you are counting how much that dollar will grow in the future.
The third value of that dollar is a need that has been eliminated, thereby reducing the amount of income you need. For example, if I buy a cup of coffee for a dollar every day on my way to work, I now need $252 additional dollars in take home pay/year. This translates to roughly one more 40 hour work week per year FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. By no spending that dollar on coffee, I have now eliminated the need for one week of work, every year until I die. This also reduces the total amount that you will need to save in order for your savings to provide an income sufficient to pay for all of your expenses, eliminating the need to work. If your expenses are $40,000/year then you need to save roughly $1 million. If your expenses are only $15,000/year, then you only need to save $375,000.
So by saving ONE DOLLAR, you are 1. Increasing the amount you have saved both now and in the future 2. Freeing up a certain amount of time in your life that will not need to be spent working 3. Reducing the amount that your savings will need to generate to eliminate the need to work altogether.
I am currently trying to adjust my mindset in a couple of ways to help me save vs spend. Maybe you will find them useful as well. First, I ask “Is this expense worth the time that I will have to spend at work instead of doing X?” In my case this is spending time with my daughter, and most small purchases simply aren’t worth taking time away from my daughter. Next I ask, “What is the REAL, ACTUAL need that I am spending this money to address and is there a less expensive way to address that need?” This morning I woke up late and forgot to brew coffee. Instead of buying it at the local convenience store (where I would almost certainly have spent money on breakfast too), I decided to brew my coffee when I got to work. Finally I ask, “Is the reward for spending this money worth the effort it takes to get that amount of money?”. Usually the answer is no.
Hope this helps in your personal journey. Good luck!!
