I’ve been preoccupied with several home improvements projects as of late but I’m still here.  So here are some miscellaneous money tidbits for you.

• Unit cost and procrastination - I generally look at the unit cost (price per ounce, etc.) when deciding whether to purchase a smaller or larger size of an item.  However, I don’t like being wasteful and try to only buy what I will use.  Sometimes this can backfire.  Several months ago, I bought a half pint of wood stain to use on our garage steps.  I guessed that amount would be enough and passed on purchasing the larger size.   Well, fast forward to a few weeks later when I finally got around to starting the project.  I discovered I needed more stain.  Once again, I delayed going back for more.  When I finally did, that color had been discontinued!  I searched in vain but was not able to locate any.  Therefore, I bought several similar stains in the hopes that one would match.  I never did find an exact match but completed the project last night.  So not buying the larger size early on (and my procrastination) caused to me to have to purchase three additional cans of stain, two of which didn’t match and I threw away.

 

• Doing it yourself - I’m not all that handy and I sorta dislike hard work.  But I dislike wasting money even more.  Mr. Savvy and I have been working on a backyard project for at least the past two months.  It’s not easy and not always fun BUT by doing it ourselves, we’ve saved ~50% on the project.

 

• The value of your time - Many personal finance articles preach that if your hourly wage is $X, you should hire people to do tasks that cost less than $X/hour.  While I agree that some things are worth hiring out, the traditional logic is flawed.  Most people do not have the capacity or opportunity to earn money 24/7.  Therefore, the time I use working in my yard is not taking away from time that I would be earning money.  It’s taking away from time that I would be laying on my sofa watching HGTV.

Last but not least, this weekend I’ll give my opinion of of the online ‘DIY’ financial planning that I tried out recently.  Until then, stay savvy!