Time budget

I told my husband that we need to quit spending so much money. After reviewing our budget, I realized that we spend unnecessarily. By my calculations, we could save a lot of money if we quit impulse buying. We pay off our credit cards each month and never carry a balance forward, but we are accumulating “stuff”. Stuff might bring instant gratification, but in the long run doesn't move us forward.

I also looked at my time budget. I waste a lot of time. I allow myself to DVR one show each night, and watch them on Saturdays and Saturdays. DVR does save time since I fast forward through commercials, and I usually feel like I've earned the right to watch my shows because of all the other things I do.

This wouldn't be a bad system, except for the fact that I find myself watching the shows that my husband watches. He loves television and movies, so even if I'm trying to work with headphones on, I am distracted. If I go into another room and hear my husband laugh or react to what he’s watching, I want to know what's going on.

It’s hard not to waste money and time. However, I find it much easier to control my monetary budget than my time budget. I have self-discipline when it comes to money because I use direct deposit to send money into a savings account, instead of relying on myself to move the money from checking to savings. With my time budget, I can make to-do lists and think that I am going to do everything for the gratification of checking things off, but it's not automatic like direct deposit. I have to work at keeping on task.

Even when I tell myself I'm wasting time, it's hard to get back on track. But I'm going to try to manage my time budget better because once it's gone, it's gone.