Frugality and Multi-Tasking

Published June 16th, 2008

There have been many different associations made between time and money.  Some people feel it’s worth spending more of their time to do things themselves, whereas others feel that if their time is worth a high hourly rate, then time spent doing things themselves is not worth the savings.  This post is about finding a middle ground between those two perspectives.  You are busy, and your time definitely is valuable, but what if you were able to multi-task with frugality in mind to get the most out of your time?! 

Now keeping in mind that different people have different ideas about the meaning of frugality, here are some of my suggestions for incorporating some frugal elements into your life without a huge outlay of your time:

While in-store grab coupons and learn prices

This can apply to grocery stores, department or warehouse type stores, or even gas stations.  One of the biggest things you can appreciate as a consumer in our society, is the huge choice of products available to you, and also a broad range of what you can pay for exactly the same item.  So, as you’re walking through the aisles of the stores you shop at, make the effort to consciously pay attention for coupon dispensers in the aisles, and if it’s something you might use, grab one or a couple as you walk by, all the while scanning and committing to memory the prices of certain things that you buy.  Personally, I store all of the information in my head, but some people will use a notebook or PDA to help keep things straight (writing it down may take a bit more time–but worth it over the long haul).

With a very small amount of practice this will become a habit, and you will be able to add to your home coupon supply and know whether you could be paying less for the same product, or which store you should buy which items at (if you shop at more than one store–which many of us do), all in the same or close to the same amount of time you would have spent otherwise.  If you have some time to spare and just went in for one thing, it doesn’t hurt to take a quick walk through the aisles and scan the prices of whatever store you’re in to see how they compare–you’ll often be surprised!

Make a grocery list and meal plan

In my other articles, I’ve talked a lot about the value of planning ahead and planning out your meals and grocery list based on what you already have at home on your pantry, fridge, freezer, and cupboards–and what is on sale that week.  If you’re a busy person, then do it in small bits, keep a notepad, whiteboard, or chalkboard in your kitchen.  Every time you open one of the aforementioned food storage areas take a good look at what’s in there and jot down an idea for what you can make for the following week.  When you’re on a break, or have a few minutes in the evening, go online and see what’s on sale in the flyers and jot it down. 

Sometime during the week (like on your commute–but not if you’re the one driving of course!) make a master list of your meal ideas for the week in one corner and then next to it the grocery list with which items you’re going to buy from what store.  The list shouldn’t take much time since you’ve been doing the leg work all week in little bits while doing other things.  The bonus, is that the list will keep you focused and you’ll spend less time in the grocery store since you’re organized. 

While this isn’t really on the topic of multi-tasking, what actually works best for me is to just do the grocery planning and flyer scanning once a week, all in about 45 minutes on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning when all of the new flyers have come out–but I realize that’s not realistic for everyone.

Double batches

Especially if you’re making a meal with ingredients that were on sale, make a double the meal and use the second batch for lunch-sized portions to go in the fridge or freezer, or freeze a whole other dinner for another night when you have less time.  If you plan on this, you are generally saving money and a significant amount of your time by working in batches.  Think of it as the idea of ”batch processing” so successfully used in the business and IT worlds, but applied to home economics! 

Subscribe for free to your favourite money saving websites via email or RSS

This is something that I’ve only really learned about in the last 6 months since starting this site.  Basically, instead of getting those really annoying emails for advertising in your inbox, you can get the latest articles from some of your favourite blogs right in your email account.  This saves you time, and takes the honus off of you to remember to visit these sites to get the information–let it get delivered to you! 

The other alternative that’s a bit more technologically advanced, is to subscribe via RSS.  Basically the most recent articles from a blog are grouped together in a “feed”.  You subscribe to a “feed reader” which has every feed that you subscribed indexed and ready for you to open.  It’s also another fast way to see information from your favourite sites sent to one place without you having to search it out.

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Plan your route and errands ahead of time

Many people do this already, but it pays to know your schedule and deadlines for things involving your home life at least a month in advance.  This way you can plan out your route to do many errands at the same time saving both time and money in gas.  If you have a friend that lives nearby, or a neighbour with the same interests, you guys may even want to carpool to save money over the long haul and have some companionship while doing the drudgery of your household errands.

Use the phone to get information

If you want information about the hours of a business, whether they carry a certain item, a price, or whether it’s in stock, give them a call.  It’s free and it will save you a whole lot of time and money in gas.  The Internet is great for some of these things, but sometimes it’s just easier to pick up the local phone book and let you fingers do the walking!  I know some of you are thinking that it’s annoying to be put on hold while they search for the information, but I usually put them on speakerphone and go about doing another job while I’m waiting.

Hope this post has helped, I’m sure there’s many more great ideas out there in use by busy singles, couples, and families.  I’d love to hear anybody else’s thoughts on how you incorporate frugality into your busy day? 

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