Trading time for money

Every day, we make decisions that involve trading money for time and time for money.

When we buy prepared food instead of making our own, or pay to have our car's oil changed instead of doing it ourselves, or perhaps even pay to have someone wash our car, mow our lawn or clean our house, we trade money for time.

When we save money by brown-bagging lunches and cooking dinner at home, and by doing our own chores, we trade our time for money. We do that by clipping coupons, comparison shopping and searching out deals that help us keep a few extra bucks in our pockets.

Now, businesses are increasingly demanding more of our time in exchange for giving them less of our money.

Used to be, things would just go on sale. A cereal box might contain a prize, and credit card purchases might come with cash back, frequent flier miles or some other incentive.

Now, you not only have to belong to loyalty clubs, with bar-coded swipe cards that track your buying habits in order to get discounts at many groceries and drugstores, but you might also have to agree to get e-mails from that same store.

The prize in the cereal box is likely to require you to go online and punch in your personal information as well as proof of purchase, and some credit cards now require you to register every few months to get their cash-back deals.

I accept this challenge.

I will jump through some hoops to save money. But we all have to make decisions about where to draw the line (I'm not sewing my own clothes and raising chickens for eggs.).

Last week, I sold an inexpensive used book on half.com, which meant I had to package it for mailing and stop by the post office. I clipped codes from five Kellogg's cereal boxes and entered them online in exchange for a movie ticket worth $10.

I registered for an offer through my credit card, which means I'll get 5 percent back on every restaurant bill for a few months, which will come in handy on out-of-town trips. And when I had a prescription to fill, I went to the new Harris Teeter in Mount Pleasant, where they're giving $20 store credits for each new prescription through August.

Were these activities worth my time? Would they be worth yours?

The thing is, many of us during this "Great Recession" are earning less money than we did the year before, often for doing the same work and more of it. And that's the fortunate folks who still have jobs.

While not everyone has suffered, I seem to recall reading about multimillion-dollar bonuses for the Wall Street wizards behind this mess, pay freezes, furloughs and rising health care costs have left wallets a little thinner throughout the Lowcountry and the nation. All the middle-class heroes who politicians like to talk about -- teachers, cops and firefighters -- are taking pay cuts in Charleston this year.

And when less money is coming in, the scale tips in favor of trading time for money.

That can mean taking the time to read the grocery store circulars in the paper to see what's on sale where, instead of just shopping at the same store every time.

It can mean little things, such as paying more attention to whether your car's tires are properly inflated, which extends the life of your tires and saves gas. And it can mean big things, such as understanding how to cut your tax bills.

Not to steal any of the Coupon Queen's thunder here, but you can save lots of money by shopping at multiple grocery stores because they all have different things on sale each week.

And you might get the best deal on shampoo at the grocery store and the best price on a 12-pack of soda at a pharmacy.

Being a smart shopper isn't going to make anyone rich, but it helps pay the bills.

An accountant I knew at a small magazine publishing company once told me a dollar saved is actually better than a dollar earned because you don't have to pay taxes on it. I'd rather have more earnings than more savings, but point taken; money saved is real money.

Where do you draw your own lines on time and money? What time-saving services are worth the cost, and what time-consuming things do you do to save money? I'd like to know, so please shoot me an e-mail, or if you're reading this online, post a comment. Thanks.

Reach David Slade at 937-5552 or dslade@postandcourier.com.