A happy Monday to you all!  I am guessing you are a lot like me and have a busy week ahead.  How often do you find yourself so busy that you wind up spending extra money to fix problems that pop up?  Today we’re going to take a look at some things that are impacting my wallet and some possible solutions.  I’d love for you to share some of your ideas at the end of the post.

First, an example from our fun and crazy family life…I promise my other examples are more practical.  A good number of you have heard about the owl we are rehabilitating in our home.  The owl has been living with us for two months and will probably need to stay another month or two.  Do you know how much it costs to feed an owl?  The little owl can eat up to 50 mealworms a day.  I don’t know if you have bought mealworms lately but they are EXPENSIVE!!!  A container of 50 mealworms costs $4.99 at the pet store.  Over the past few months we have probably fed that owl $200 worth of worms.

My wife and I were joking about how we probably spend more to feed the owl each day than we do our children.  That statement might actually be true so my wife set out to find a solution.  She first checked Craigslist for a local supplier and found nothing.  She then looked at eBay and found a supplier that has been in business for years and has a 99.8% approval rating.  My amazing wife bought 1,000 mealworms online…not every woman would do this.  Guess how much 1,000 mealworms from eBay cost?  $12.95 with free shipping.  That is roughly a 93% savings.  Why did it take so long to find these savings?  We were too busy to spend 15 minutes researching.  (You can see our little friend on the owl cam at LiveChickenCam.com)

Now for some more practical situations and applications about the cost of being too busy…

Fast Food

I’ve written about the high cost of eating out before.  In my previous post I approached it from a health and financial cost perspective.  In most family budgets, eating out would probably make up a substantial portion of the food budget.  I found that we were spending over $4,000 a year on convenience meals.  So with our ultra busy schedules, how can we cut back on this expense?

One thing I have stopped to consider is the time factor.  In the early morning as I am trying to get out the door to the office it can often feel like I’m saving time by not scrounging around and finding something to take for lunch.  But if I run somewhere to grab a bite I’m spending more time doing that than if I had taken 5 minutes to round up lunch at home.  If I walk across the street to Whataburger it takes an average of 15 minutes and $7 to return to my office with lunch.  If I take 5 minutes to grab food at home I have saved myself 10 minutes and probably $5.  If I hop in the car to go somewhere it takes even more time and the added expense of fuel.  Over the course of a year, bringing lunch from home can regain many hours and save thousands of dollars.

I can be pretty lazy in the morning, so I also use this trick.  I keep a stash of microwave dinners in the big freezer at home.  I walk right by the freezer on my way out the door so I can grab one in 10 seconds and be on my way.  Microwave dinners aren’t the healthiest things but they are WAY better than fast food and only cost $2.

Late Fees

I don’t get hit with late fees often, but I kick myself when I do.  Several months back we had to have $2,000 worth of repairs done to our truck.  The Ford dealership was running a promotion for a 0% interest credit card that the repairs could be put on.  I was enticed to sign up for the card because I could also get a $50 rebate on the repair.

Well last month I let this temporary credit card run past its monthly due date.  I simply forgot.  The late fee was $34!  There goes most of my $50 savings.  The best way to avoid late fees is to setup automatic payments for all your bills.  You still need to review the bills though.  Someone I know recently reviewed their water bill that was on autopay and realized they had a massive water leak since their water bill went from $50 a month to close to $300 for the last few months.  It can be really easy to ‘set it and forget it’ with the autopay feature, but part of a good money management program is a monthly review of all bills.  If you don’t like autopay I have also used a calendar to remind myself to pay various bills.

Redbox

This is a minor expense, but I am horrible about returning movies to the Redbox.  Every once in a while I will pick up a movie on the way out of our grocery store.  Redbox charges $1.25 a day for movies and I am horrible about holding onto movies for 3, 4 and sometimes 5 days.  I have learned I am better off paying $2 on Amazon to watch the movie instantly instead of letting days of rentals pile up.  Please tell me I’m not the only person who does this???

How about you?

In just these few ideas I have figured out how we could save hours of time and thousands of dollars.  Of course the key is implementing the necessary behavior changes.  What areas of expense have you found in your busy schedule and how have you fixed them?  Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section below.  And please consider sharing this post to expand the audience for the conversation.  Everyone likes to think about how to save some money!

Make sure to come back next Monday as I look at some expenses associated with common household appliances.  I’m doing some research in our home and the results are pretty interesting.