Rainy Day Pennies | Debt Free Living and Personal Finance

A frequent phrase I hear from friends and coworkers is, “I would like to do <blank>, but I don’t have enough time.”

Some of the items for <blank> are as follows:

exercise
lose weight
cook meals at home
do another task at work
find a new job
learn to write computer programs
travel

I assure them I have just as many hours in the day as they do, but I have done all of the things listed above.  I do them on a regular basis.

My secret? I have a superpower able to slow down time while I get things done at supersonic speeds.

No, not really.  Alas, I am a mere mortal.  However, I have learned the art of time management and prioritization.

I admit.  I said I don’t have enough time to do <blank> on occasion.  In some cases, this was correct.  I was overwhelmed and overburdened with too many tasks.  I have friends who legitimately are overworked and understaffed.  The most competent people get more and more work piled on them.  If this is you, of course you should talk with your boss about it.  Unfortunate as it is, in many cases, you’re going to have to deal with it.

On the other hand, I’ve seen more than a few coworkers not use their work time effectively, then have to scramble with overtime to catch up.

The truth is, I’m somewhat lazy.  I don’t want to work nights and weekends.  I like to spend my evenings goofing around, and my weekends exploring fun places.  Sure, I like overtime pay.  I reserve it for when I absolutely need it, though.

I value my free time.  I’m still young (mid thirties).  I want to enjoy my health and my youth while I can still climb mountains (if I wanted to).  I don’t want to wait until retirement to live life.  I don’t want to burn away my pretty years in a cold cubicle, scrimping for every minute of overtime I can get to pay bills.

This is why I life a debt free life.  I’d rather live lean now, so I can have more freedom now.  I don’t want to live paycheck to paycheck.  I’d rather have more time, than work overtime.

I structure my work days following the Getting Things Done* methodology.  I bought the book five years ago, and I reread it every year.  It’s a time management system that absolutely fits me, and how I organize my tasks.  The most important rule I learned is the “2 minute rule”.  If I have an item on my ‘To Do’ list that takes less than 2 minutes, do it right now.  That one seemingly simple rule lead to my reputation among my bosses and associates as being ‘on top of things’.  Or, “competent”.

When I became serious about eating out less, the most important thing I did was to make meals at home.  Like most young people starting their adult lives outside of college, I didn’t know how to cook.  I had to learn, but I had “no time”.

This wasn’t true.  I didn’t make the time.  It wasn’t important to me.  When it became important to eat at home, I found the time.

My mom was a stay at home housewife until I started school.  Both my parents worked full time every day after that.  My mom worked anywhere between 30-50 hours 4-6 days per week as a housekeeper for a hotel.  Yet we always had a clean house, clean dishes, and home cooked meals every night. 

My mom, obviously, is a superhero from whom I inherited my time stopping powers.

My mom is a superhero.  This is true.  However, she has no time stopping powers.  She has just as many hours in the day, and wishes she had more time, just like everybody else.  Home cooked meals was important to my family, so she made time.

When asked about home cooking, many people think of their grandmothers toiling all day in the kitchen making the ultimate pasta sauce and Bundt cake, and every dish in the house dirtied.  This isn’t necessary.  You can make a delicious all day cooked pasta sauce in a crockpot, and you don’t need to use every bowl and pan you own.  I can do without desserts, so I skip the Bundt cake altogether and opt for a fresh, sweet apple.

Something I learned from my mom was how to take advantage of ‘make ahead’ meals in large batches.  Immediately after going to the grocery store, she washed and chopped all veggies, and put them in containers.  She bought bulk quantities of meat and marinated them in the fridge.  She set a rice cooker in the morning before work for a fresh pot of rice by the time she came home.  After a hard day of work, she threw the marinated meat in a frying pan, and put the chopped veggies in a salad bowl.  A scoop of rice on the plate, and voila – we had home cooked meals every night.

As an adult, I do the exact same thing.  I plan and prep my weekly meals on the weekend when I do have time, so I don’t have to muddle with it in the week.  While the frying pan is heating up, I throw all pre-chopped veg in salad bowls.  On average, I spend 30 minutes a night prepping and cooking dinner.

You may be thinking, “Cathy, how do I have time to goof around?  Aren’t there still a pile of dishes? I hate doing dishes!”

I’m with ya.  I hate dishes too.  A dishwasher, my friend, is a marvelous invention.  My tricks? 

1. Don’t wait until the dishwasher is full.  I run it half full, and frequently.  My dishwasher is usually run twice a day.
2. Empty it asap.  If my dishwasher is empty, as soon as a dish gets dirty, it goes straight in.
3. Wash while cooking. Don’t wait until you have a huge pile in the sink.  If I see a huge pile, I get overwhelmed and gravitate towards, “I don’t want to do this”.  While my steak is cooking in the frying pan, I’ll take the cutting board I used to prep and drop it straight in the dishwasher.  The key is, step #2 above must have been complete.
4. Start the dishwasher after dinner.  Put your used plates in and start it, even if it’s half full.  See #1.

Some of you out there – I’m reading your mind.  You’re thinking, “Doesn’t running half loads of the dishwasher waste water and cost more electricity?”.

Modern electric dishwashers use less water than hand washing.  Machine is better than human.  Don’t believe me? 

With traditional hand washing, you typically fill a sink basin with soapy water, then rinse in a second basin.  Most people leave the tap running while they wash and rinse.  Think about how much water is running down the drain if you have a full load of dishes.

Turn your dishwasher on.  Stop it while it is in the wash and rinse cycle.  See the water at the bottom?  There’s probably about an inch of water in there.  The dishwasher is recirculating it during the cycle.  Plus the water temperature is hotter than most of us can handle hand washing.

If you can wash your dishes in that little water by hand, and get it clean, you, my friend, are a freaking superhero.  I don’t know how you do it.

As for the cost of electricity, it’s miniscule.  My laptop probably burned more electricity while I wrote this story.  Even if it was costly, the truth is, if I didn’t have a dishwasher, then I probably wouldn’t eat at home regularly. 

I don’t have time not to run the dishwasher.

Until next time…

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Productivity by Cathy