How Do You Spend It?

This thought came to me as I look through my closet, across my desk and then also as I check spending habits on my bank statements.

I’m thinking do I really need this, is it really worth the value that we’ve placed on it? So, I’ll ask you the same question, “How do you spend it?”

What I’m referring to here is time and money.

It really adds up. $10 here, $20 there. 15 minutes there, 30 minutes there.

I think what really hit it off for me is, as I flip through my t-shirt closet (yes, sadly I have a closet for just my t-shirts) is the fact that some t-shirts are more expensive than others and really some of those aren’t as comfortable as the ones I’ve paid less for.

You might ask “Why would you pay more for something that isn’t as comforting?” and that is a good question. I have t-shirts for places I’ve traveled and ones with funny or cool quotes, I have ones from my kids and grand kids which are priceless to me. But the ones that “flipped the switch” are the ones from my favorite sports team. Granted I’ve had many of these for decades (yes, really!) and as I look at the current price of sport team shirts I ask myself “Why are you spending that kind of money for a t-shirt.

It doesn’t take long to realize that more and more we are paying for a brand!

Let’s look at it this way. You can pay $6 for a comfortable t-shirt with nothing on it. Or your can pay upwards of $30 for a swoosh, logo or sports team. Or let’s look at it this way 1 shirt vs 5!

Don’t get me wrong I enjoy supporting my sports team but how many of those shirts could I not buy and spend the money more wisely or for more memorable items. I don’t need a t-shirt to remind me that my favorite team won the championship. How many of those shirts could I not buy and take my kids & grand kids to a real game? Those are things that make memories not something hanging in the closet.

That is just a simple look at spending but think about it what else are we over spending for a brand? Coffee, Car, Services?

Now I’ll be the first to admit there are certain items that I “have” to have a certain brand simply because it IS better in taste and over all value.

Services! There’s another area. $10 for this movie/music service, $20 for this magazine service or in business $20 for this online tool, $30 for that one.

How much do we use that service is it a nice to have vs need to have?

Luckily some of the things we have laying around we can eBay and get some return on money spent, but the same is not true with time.

Not only do we spend money but we also spend time.

It is said we all have the same 24 hours in your day and it’s what you do with them that matter. And that is so true.

We all need down time, and time to rest and recharge our batteries but is there places that you are wasting time or not managing it in away that makes most sense.

I hear people say I don’t have time to learn something new, or read a book or exercise, etc. But you have time to watch sitcoms, read Facebook, play video games!

Now I’m not saying those things are bad – I do them too, BUT everything within moderation. Could you skip a 30-minute TV show and hit the treadmill? even better watch the show/movie while on the treadmill. I’ve actually been doing more of this, watching a show while walking takes your mind off of the activity.

Shut off facebook/social Media for an hour and read instead. Set a timer if you have to when playing games. Maybe playing games or watching movies is your down time. I know they are for me, mainly because it helps me shut out the voices in my head for ideas and projects that I could be doing. Down time is a good thing we all need it.

But if you truly want to improve your life and current situation you have to consider what changes do I need to make to reach the goals I have in mind.

Maybe it’s even less than you think. 

Here is one simple example. If you cut out just one of those cups of coffe lat-te-da things a week at $7 a piece after 4 weeks that’s $28 that’s enough for a month of training at an online training course to learn a new skill, or 3 or 4 digital books to learn something new to improve your abilities to get a raise in your job or be able to increase profits in your business.

That is just ONE example there are so many places to pick up time and money by making a few shifts. Hopefully you take a moment or two and start implementing at least one new things to start reaching the goal you have set in mind.