Hello again,
Like most of us, each time the price of petrol and diesel lurches upwards, I go through the angst of filling up while calculating that my expenditure per minute matches that of a footballers wife let loose in Oxford Street.
From January onwards, I limited myself to one day per week of driving about for work. This not only saved the fuel cost and time involved, but also forced me to plan better, just like we all should. Years ago when I started my first job, my boss schooled me in making each trip worthwhile. If I was going to Edinburgh, I had to try to fit in 4 meetings in one trip, not plan four trips.
So using the same plan of cutting out trips this year, the result was that I got my fuel expenditure down from £200 a month to less than £100.
I now apply the same logic when looking at buying goods mail order and paying what might appear to be a high delivery charge vs driving, parking and buying it from a shop in Glasgow. To put it in perspective, it takes about 1 hour to get to Glasgow. The cost of this is £15-20 per trip, plus parking and the likelihood of buying more stuff that I didn’t plan to while I am there.
In comparison, buying an item online means that I get what I want and am not tempted by offers for stuff I do not actually need or want right now. It is almost always better buying online rather than wasting time and effort in getting the goods myself.
What I am really doing is paying other people to do things that I do not need to do myself. It’s the old time and money issue. I am now totally used to having a quick look on Amazon and E-bay, working out the right price to expect, finding the item at that price and then just getting it. Instead of taking 3-4 hours and costing £20 to purchase an item, it takes usually less than 15 minutes to find it online and buy it.
Have a nice weekend – winter has returned to Argyll – keep warm and busy – all the best, Roy Lewis