The Frugality of Time
If you know me, then you know that work has been less than stellar for me this year.
I wish I had more (paying) work, in the entertainment industry or other work. But nonetheless I’ve come to learn to appreciate the changes these things have necessitated. Most notable the usage of time.
I’ve begun to learn what I call “the frugality of time”.
This concept is something that is a bit counter intuitive but something I have come to enjoy and quite relish.
The concept of “the frugality of time” stems from the long old adage of “time is money”. It is true in the sense of making money but I’ve come to find it in saving money as well.
The ability to slow ones’ self down is something that I think we all need to learn in our current society, but that’s an entire other post of its own. Yet, what I’ve found in purposely slowing myself down and thinking about ways to creatively and carefully use my money and time I’ve found great joy in doing simple things.
Convenience is nice, yet it is costly, both monetarily and in simple satisfaction.
First off, a lot of this stems from my love of the kitchen and of creating and building and cooking, but I think it can be applied to other areas of life as well.
I’ve learned over the past few months how to satisfy myself by simply “doing” instead of buying or consuming.
Take for example these pretzels that I made (and seem to have gotten a lot of views and tons on comments on facebook). Really they were quite simple to make and only took about an hour and half from start to eating. And it was fun. Who do you know that can say they’ve made their own soft pretzels? (pretzel recipe)
There’s a magical thing about doing things for yourself. Something that’s rooted in the past and rooted in self worth. Time is valuable and time spent learning and creating and practicing is worth so much more.
You become a “master” at things by spending the countless hours of doing them. Most of those hours you do not “earn” money, you earn experience and learn lessons.
I’m not saying my goal is to “master” the pretzel. I think what I’m trying to get at, is the fact that, too often we have given up the ability to do something for ourselves in the name of convience.
Yes it’s easier to go out and buy a bottle of iced tea, but when forced to make decisions about pennies, learning that spending 1.99 on a bottle of iced tea is ludicrous compared to spending 2.14 on a bunch of tea bags from target (that will make 30+ pitchers) and taking the 5 min it takes to boil a kettle of water and make your own pitcher of iced tea. I’m not saying you shouldn’t ever buy pre-made iced tea. I’m just making the point that sometimes when you do something yourself the savings add up.
Should everyone stop their normal routines and start doing everything themselves? No way. Should you at least stop and consider the benefits to learning how to do things for yourself? Yes.
Take the simple act of slowing down your life to go to the farmers market and buy ingredients to make salsa on a saturday. Not so hard. Completely satisfying. A great use of a sat afternoon. Fun. Bring a date. Do it with your significant other.
There’s too many people I know who are constantly stressed. Maybe all these things that make our lives “faster” really aren’t that great for us. In the name of convenience they are making things harder over all. Maybe they just always make us feel like we aren’t doing enough.
I have a solution. Bake some bread. From scratch. With your hands. (a recent loaf I made)
It takes time, patience and getting your hands dirty. Real dirty. I can only speak for myself but the satisfaction filled a part of me that technology, gadgets, time savers or even sales could not fill.
There’s a good reason the phrase “stop and smell the roses” exists. It holds a truth that we are quickly over looking. A truth we are slowly forgetting.
Being frugal with my time is far more than just saving money. It’s about preserving myself. Preserving my sanity. Preserving my desire to be satisfied with the things I do and the things I make.
Being frugal with my time is teaching me how to live through the things I do. I can not merely exist. Much of who I am comes from the desire to create.
These last few months have very much so forced me to stop and think about how I live my life. The things I do and why I do them. In a lot of ways I’m very glad I’ve been put into a position to slow down and smell the roses. To stop and shop with intention. To plan and to find new ways of doing old things.
Ultimately I’ve begun to learn that being frugal with time has made me much richer. And I encourage you to do the same.
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