The Ultimate Tip to Saving Money

Time per day per item

And I don’t mean it’s time for you to buy your own materials and create garments. That’s a wonderful idea if you are good at it, but you would need years to master the skill. That being said, If you love creating your own clothes and items, please ignore this and use your skills to create a new wardrobe.

At this point, you may have noticed that I always enjoy collecting ways of stopping my over-consuming habits and buying impulses. My current flat is exactly 3 minutes away from 2 different shopping centres and now that sales are coming, I am trying to prepare myself mentally to avoid spending more than I actually need.

However, after reading a lot about this topic and finding different tips and tricks that go from the usual “pay yourself first” to “just don’t bring money with you”, I came to the conclusion that the best tip in order to save money is to compare money with time.

We can all agree that time is one of the more valuable things in life. If you don’t treasure your time enough, you will spend it in an ineffective way, which can lead to regret for not mastering something you wanted to learn or create.

Why time?

If you are a normal person working for a company, you change money for your time. Your way of creating an income is exchanging it for time, what does that bring us?

Let’s imagine you want to buy a nice pair of shoes. They are really cute and you look amazing on them, but the truth is that you don’t really NEED then right now. How much they cost? And now is when the easiest math formula comes into play:

If those shoes cost $100 and you make an average of $20 per hour, those shoes actually cost 5 hours of your daily job. Now, you have to look at those shoes and avoid thinking about the price in pounds/dollar/euros etc. Because now, the price of those shoes, is approximately 5 hours of your day. Are they worth that?

This of course changes depending on your financial situation. If your salary happens to be $100 per hour, the price of the shoes is actually 1 hour. On the other side, if you make $10 per hour, buying those shoes will be equivalent to working more than a full-time shift possibly.

You decide what is worth it

At the end of the day, you are the only one that can make the estimation.

Maybe you are making $15 per hour but you don’t have to pay a lot of rent and transport. Or maybe you need to save money for some important project you have in mind and maybe want to consider if it’s worth really falling into the temptation of the cool shoes you don’t need them that much.

You can decide if you want to include the net salary or want to go with the gross (I would recommend going always with the NET in mind). Try this method and see if there is any difference.

Pretending that you can perfectly afford those shoes whilst saving money because you make enough to afford them hassle-free, it’s a very subjective situation. Some people wouldn’t have any trouble buying them even if they equal a week of working, but others consider it too much of a hassle to exchange them for 4 hours of their money gained through work.

Maybe you want to bring a few circumstances into the debate

Yes, you know you want those shoes, but let’s be honest, there are a few points you may want to consider if there is still a bit of uncertainty about the final decision.

Is it the first time you have seen those shoes? If it is, you can consider waiting a few days and see if they can’t leave your mind. Maybe you forget about them after one or 2 days. At the end of the day, you didn’t need them, right?

Or maybe, you have been thinking about them for months and were just waiting for the slightest discount to hunt them, plus the fact that your current ones don’t have much life left. That could also mean it’s time to treat yourself (as long as you feel they are worth that time).

What else?

Are they an essential “everyday use” piece? I don’t mind spending some extra on items I know I will be using for a long time. If you will be able to wear those lovely shoes for a single upcoming wedding or event, you may want to save and wait until you find something more affordable that you also like.

What if we are talking about an “everyday use” piece? Let’s imagine that you are actually checking a jacket. You know that, despite summer around the corner, you will need it for winter. In that case, you may want to check the quality of the item. Is the quality, price and time worth for you? You can check some of my tips to find quality items here.

And finally, is that particular piece going to match with your style? I am not talking about how many uses you can give it, but how comfortable and amazing you feel with it. There’s no doubt I would happily spend more money with something that makes me feel comfortable in my own skin and gives me the confidence to be myself.

Which are your considerations when buying something new? What is your mental process when you find something you like? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section down below 😊