Call me nuts if you like, but I really like being super busy. I love having a long to-do list and little down time. In fact, now that the school year is winding down and I’m finding myself with fewer and fewer tasks to fill my time at school, I feel sort of lost. Yesterday, I was downright crabby from not having enough to do. Don’t get me wrong, I still put in a full day of work. It just wasn’t as action-packed as usual, and that drives me a little batty.
At any rate, I’ve been thinking recently about how being busy impacts my finances. I used to think that being busy all the time was a boon to my finances. After all, when I’m really busy:
- I don’t give in to the temptation to go shopping because I’m bored, because I’m not bored. This saves me from countless impulse purchases.
- I don’t have the energy to go out to dinner or bars with acquaintances just to fill the time. Sleep is free, and it feels so good when you’re exhausted from having a jam-packed schedule.
- I don’t mindlessly shop online to entertain myself; again, this saves me from too many unnecessary purchases to calculate.
Basically, when I’m really busy, I don’t have the time or energy to frivolously spend. But lately, as I’ve been working harder on some freelance projects and making headway on a super-secret personal goal (which may or may not be revealed here), I’ve been starting to see some financial downsides to being too busy, such as:
- I don’t have time to prepare meals, which leads to picking up take out food. This is both expensive and unhealthy.
- I’m exhausted, so I don’t put the same effort into shopping for deals and scrutinizing my spending. This has probably led to overpaying for things on more than one occasion.
- I feel unmotivated to cut corners. I normally put a lot of effort into figuring out creative ways to avoid spending money, but when I’m constantly rushed, convenience and ease are the name of the game. This becomes a serious problem with lesson-planning. Normally, I get an idea for a lesson that requires me to shell out money on materials, but then I figure out a way around the spending. Lately, I’ve just been rolling up to Target and plunking down the money needed for the original idea, no questions asked.
So, it seems like sort of a draw. In some ways, being busy saves me money, but in some ways it’s definitely expensive to be over-scheduled.
What do you think? Is being busy good or bad for your bottom line?
