Friday night when I opened my e-mail, one of the on-line bookstores I purchase from notified me that two books that were on my wish list were now available.
As it had been a fair time since I had been there - so long, in fact, that I did not remember which books it was talking about - I went there. Sure enough, there they were: a book on the Varangian Guard and a book on Orthodox Spirituality. Adding them to the other book I had in the cart - also on the Varangian Guard - put my total at $42.80 (with tax but no shipping, as there is no shipping cost when the purchase is above $15.00).
I looked. I entered my credit card information. And then I started doing my Produce (A)Isle math.
My princely wage, as you might recall is now $16 an hour, which is 3% more than I started at 6 months ago (and, in percentage and amount, more than I anticipate receiving from my day job this year). Technically I probably receive around $14.70 an hour after taxes.
And so I did the math. Those books would cost me 3 units (hours) of labor on Produce (A)Isle.
They are still sitting in the shopping cart.
I do not know why my mind somehow grasps this better as a unit of measure than my day job amount (which is more, to be perfectly honest). I suspect it is because in common with most desk jobs there is not a sense of how much effort I am putting in for that salary - the pay is ultimately for results, not hours worked, and so the per hour amount can become meaningless when one spends a great deal more time working (at one time, I believe I calculated my salary at my previous employer to be almost the same no matter how I got promoted based on hours worked). This is not the case on Produce (A)Isle: I can clear understand how many banana boxes I have to move or salads I have to rack or bad fruit I have to pick out to get that amount of money.
Suddenly, every expense takes on a new meaning.
As a counter example, my training with The Berserker is approximately 8 units of labor on Produce (A)Isle every six weeks, or one Saturday workday. In this case I consider it a valuable exchange for the knowledge and guidance (To be fair to myself, I do feel the same way about books and seldom if ever have told myself or a family member not to buy one). But I clearly understand the cost of what I buying.
It also puts saving activities in perspective. For example, I now spend about one hour a week darning socks. Yesterday (today as I write this), I did 8 to 9 socks, one tabi sock for Iai, and my cheesecloth for yogurt. Assuming the cost of tabi was the same as regular socks (it is not), I darned about $16 worth of clothing in an hour. The labor/cash exchange was equal, excluding the exercise of the skill and the knowledge I put off spending the money one more week - which is not monetary but valuable. Last week I sewed the inside of my Produce (A)Isle jeans that were ripping on the inside seam. I am not sure how long it will hold (it has held to date), but a truly new pair of jeans would cost 3 units of Produce (A)Isle labor. Even a used pair would cost 1 to 2 units of labor. In that case I definitively came out ahead.
Applying this measure to everything makes all the difference. I have a standard by which I can measure the value of everything - yes, something things are an investment rather than an expense, but it helps with the initial spend (Depreciation of such things is beyond the limited use of this model - how do I put value on something like a generator [51.5 Labor Units] or a Pressure Canner [13.5 labor units]?).
It certainly seems to make saying "No" a great deal easier - after all, how many banana boxes do I really want to move to get that?
These days, I measure most things in time alone with no value attached. Someone wants an hour of my time to help out and tell me it's only a hour. Well yeah, but I would rather spend that hour doing something else thank you very much. Time when I was younger was worth cents. Time now is worth it's weight in silver. I have a feeling that it will be worth gold and precious gems in another decade or two.
ReplyDeleteThat is fair, Ed. Time is certainly one of the few elements that grows more precious over time, not less (Pun intended).
DeleteI will say that - to your point - it does make saying "no" easier.
Aha! The effort of moving banana boxes has an unexpected result, your bookshelves appreciate the lesser load TB..........:)
ReplyDeleteIt did, Nylon12. Although to be fair, there is no "lesser load" to be had here anymore, just new bookshelves...
DeleteThat is a good part of the reason why I use only $$$ as my purchasing device. Each purchase requires pulling out my wallet and counting out the amount spent. It really makes you pause when the number is connected to cash.
ReplyDeleteIt does, it does indeed. Many of the vendors I use are only online, but the Produce (A)Isle Labor unit (PAL, I should give it an acronym) certainly helped put it in perspective.
DeleteThere is a rather small book titled "Your money or your life " that you seem to have already discovered.
ReplyDeleteThe librarian knows my name and even sometimes suggests a book to me.
Intralibrary loan still exists.
Michael on my phone
Heh heh. Nicely one, Michael.
DeleteWe do have an HOA library. I probably should go get a card.
Excellent post. This kind of practical economics makes a lot of sense to me, and I've always found it curious that more people don't evaluate potential purchases this way. It's interesting that this particular job prompted it. I think it's a really useful exercise to ask oneself how many hours of one's time a purchase is worth. Puts a different perspective on value.
ReplyDeleteLeigh, I think it is somehow "real" because I can associate a chunk of time with money in a physical way instead of the more abstract method of "a desk job", where meetings and computer time run together.
DeleteI think the challenge will be not becoming so caught up in the Produce (A)Isle Labor Unit (PALU) that I never buy anything. One should make some allowance for small pleasures.