money and making space

[asauer]

For the start of the year, I've been evaluating where I spend my time (and $) and what does and does not add value.  I have decided to actually spend more $ in certain areas b/c the time I get back is extremely worth it especially since that will allow me to build my side business (in 5 years I want to go full-time w/ biz) and spend more time w/ my kids.  Here's where I'm spending a little extra:
1. Transponder for toll road (save 40 min/ day)
2. Shipt for groceries (save 1.5 hrs /week)
3. quarterly deep cleaning for my house (save 2 hrs/ week)- I'm still doing the day to day stuff

Additionally, I'm starting a job which will be much closer to home (used to have an hour drive each way)

Though we are all generally frugal people, I wonder if you've found spending extra in some places has been valuable for you?

[sokoloff]

1. No way I'd give up my toll transponder (which costs me nothing out of pocket and gives discounts on tolls, so it saves money and time, but even if it didn't, I'd keep it for the time alone...) 100% with you there.

3. Quarterly deep cleaning saves you 26 hours? That seems like you have a lot of house, are a slower cleaner than me, or have much higher standards than I do. We have a cleaner every other week and that saves us the cleaning time and most of the disagreeing about cleaning time.

I tried some grocery delivery services. HomeRuns was excellent back in the day. Peapod wasn't as good (IMO). Amazon Prime Pantry isn't really a grocery delivery. It's hard to take advantage of sales with a delivery grocer in my experience. The convenience is there, but there are hidden missed savings in addition to the obvious cost.

I buy things on Amazon as my time saver that costs a little more. I was surprised when I had occasion to walk into the local large mall and realized I hadn't been inside [that particular mall] for over 18 months. I used to just "go to the mall" to kill time and walk around. It's mystifying to me now why I would do that. (I often didn't buy anything, just walked around.)

The other massive time saver is cutting out TV except for specific shows I consciously choose to watch. "Just watching TV" is an infinite time sink.

[asauer]

Completely agree w/ your comment about TV.  I have 2 showS on PBS that I watch and that's it.  So much more time available.

[Linea_Norway]

Sure, we recently bought 2 frozen dinners of the healthy wok type, to make me less stressed on the days when we have very little time to make dinner and I am the first to come home. Until now we have only eaten instant meals maybe a handful times a year. I intend to do it a little more often, maybe twice a month. Funny, because everybody else here thinks they should make home made meals more often.

I also still buy (cheap) books at Amazon, instead of going to the library. As a child I have read many library books and I have learned to dislike the short time to deliver it back. I want to be able to read a book in my own tempo without needing to watch the time to deliver it back. But still, buying cheap books at Amazon costs less than buying a paperback in Norway. So I do save money, compared to what I did in the past, many years ago.