What Do You Value More: Time or Money?

I have a question for you.

Do you know how many dead people are buried at your cemetery?

The answer: They’re all dead.

Thank you. I have more bad jokes, just ask.

Yesterday I was at the grocery store. I finished putting all my groceries on the belt when I realized I made a grave (more cemetery puns) error. I chose the wrong line.

The lady in front of me has the Sunday ad for every grocery store in one hand and a stack of coupons in the other. This grocery store matches all advertised prices and competitor’s coupons.

A manager walked up to verify the meat she is buying matched one of the advertised items she has in her hand.

This went on for several items. It lasted about 10 minutes. Not a long time, in the total of my life but still, it’s 10 minutes.

Now think about how much time this lady spent at home with all those coupons. Also add up all the time she spent sifting through the shelves to find the 6oz bottle of toothpaste that matched the 50 cent coupon.

My guess? I’ll bet she has at least an hour worth of time. An hour spent to save somewhere between $30 to $50. She probably earned that in an hour.

And a little observation here. She was carrying a brand new Coach purse (not one from the outlet mall), wearing expensive clothes, and waving around her elegantly manicured nails.

She didn’t look like money was an issue.

What’s going on? We do crap like this every day.

We spend hundreds, or thousands, of dollars on things that we want and then we waste countless hours on tasks that don’t produce a big return on investment.

Why?

People value the dollars in their wallet more than the hours on the clock.

It’s easy to count the dollars. It’s hard to quantify the hours.

You won’t catch me clipping coupons but I’ve wasted hours deciphering code on my sites. I could’ve paid someone $50 to do what takes me hours. In the time saved I could write several emails, outline another book or course, and played with my kids. All those would earn me more than the $50 cost (maybe not playing with the kids but it would be worth more than the $50).

It’s silly. But we do it every day.

And we have to point out that stupidity to our customers. If they buy what you’re selling, how much money can you save them? How many hours can they save? And if you put a dollar per hour figure on that, how big is that number?

The small cost will be made up by the time saved. And time is not replaceable.

Remember those dead people in the cemetery? They can’t buy more time.