Saving Money vs. Saving Time

I am a math teacher, and as a math teacher, I like to crunch numbers - especially when it comes to our budget. I like to know if my money-saving efforts are worth the time I spend. I tend to value my time at about $10/hr, since that's what I make after taxes at my part-time job. So if something saves me at least $10 for every hour I do it, then it's worth it.

I know not everyone can be at home, and so time is worth more. For those of you reading this with an outside job, I do not condemn your time-saving efforts, even if they completely contradict with my money-saving efforts. Every mother makes choices, and every mother needs to do what's right for her situation.

For example: cloth diapers. Does the extra time laundering them make up for the cost savings? Well, I'm not going to crunch the numbers here, because it's been done in many different places. The average cost for disposables, depending on where you look, is in the neighborhood of $2500-3000. Estimates for cloth diapers range from $400-$1500 depending on the style of cloth. Since I use the cheapy plain boring Gerber flatfolds and prefolds, it appears I will save about $2000 per child. If you figure that the extra laundry time is an hour a week (a stretch, since I do laundry anyway and wash the diapers with other hot-water laundry like rags and underwear; they get clean in the one washing and I've never had a problem), it works out to 150 hours. My husband and I use low-volume garbage service, which we couldn't do if we were throwing away 50 diapers per week, and that saves us $120 per year, or $360 over three years. Total savings - $2360, even at a very conservative amount over 150 hours = 15.73/hr. This is more than $10/hr, and since I also try to be as environmentally friendly as possible, it is definitely worth it to me.

For more info on cloth diapering, check out this post at MomAdvice.com and Cotton Babies

Also related to cloth diapers is laundry. I line dry clothes, as much as possible. I think we've run the dryer once since we moved in 8 months ago. Again, estimates online vary for how much money it saves, but using this calculator at 1 hr/load and 12 loads/month gives me $4.80, or .40/load. Each load takes me about 5 minutes to hang up/take down. So I can hang up and take down 3 loads of laundry in about 15 minutes, during which time I save $1.20, which works out to $4.80/hour. That's a pretty low return, but there are other advantages. Line drying indoors in the winter brings the benefit of added humidity. We have musical instruments and like to keep the humidity constant. Drying clothes indoors gives our humidifiers an extra boost. Line drying outdoors in the spring/summer/fall helps clothes look really bright, as the sun bleaches out stubborn stains (a big plus for rags/socks/underwear/diapers). Clothes also last longer and fade less this way. It uses no extra resources to line-dry. And, if I never use a dryer, then I don't need to replace it.

How about you? Are there any money savers you do that you'd like to figure out a money/time ratio?