Time Versus Money

Have you ever had something so big to say that you felt like you had to say it or otherwise you’d just burst?

That’s exactly how we found ourselves about six months ago. We were going through the day-to-day of jobs and school and commitments. We were overextended, over-scheduled, and over-exhausted. Our home was overly appointed and overly cluttered. And much like our time, our budget was overspent. We came to a point, we were simply over it.

For years we talked with each other about how there was too much going on, too much money going out, too much of our time spent doing things we didn’t want to do. As the years went on, the conversations started to come on more and more, and our ideas of making big changes began to get bigger and bigger.

About six months ago we decided we were going to start putting some of our ideas into action. We knew we didn’t arrive at this place overnight, and we certainly would not get out of it overnight, but we were going to chip away at all the things bit by bit. We were sure there had to be others out there thinking and feeling the same way, so we decided we would share what we were doing with other like-minded people. Our big plan was to begin sharing our journey over Spring Break 2020. And boy, did we have plans…plans to declutter, plans to let go of things we had been holding on to, plans to examine that schedule and get that cleaned up. Big plans for Spring Break 2020.  

Well, we all know what happened Spring Break 2020. Things literally did change overnight.

While we didn’t make any big public announcement (there were enough of those at the time), we started chipping away at our things. We tossed out and gave away stuff for days and days. We got rid of things with no intention of those items ever being replaced.  And for the most part, that went along, as planned.

What we didn’t anticipate was the sudden halt to the schedule. What we thought we would have to gradually pull back, suddenly stopped. We no longer left home in the dark to only arrive back home in the dark. We no longer ate our meals on the go. We no longer passed each other in the hallway. We no longer had to text each other to see how we were doing. We no longer had meetings and practices, we no longer had parties and playdates. We could stay home and enjoy our time with each other without the guilt of all the other things we were “supposed” to be doing instead.

Because the schedule slowed down, so did our spending. For the first time we had more money than month because so much of what was keeping us so busy, cost us. We realized it cost us our money and it cost us our time.

It was in these moments we discovered that when posed with the question of what we value most—time or money—we wished we could have said, “time.” But we looked around and realized that was not the life we were living.

So here we are, six months later. The garage is mostly cleaned out, the bathroom and kitchen cabinets have only what we need, our closets and drawers are tidy and have fewer things. We have placed an unspoken halt to frivolous spending and buying, and we are carefully considering every purchase we make. It’s a start. 

Our days and nights and weekends we have spent with each other. We have hiked and biked, we have put together puzzles, we have binge-watched shows together, and we have had some die-hard Connect Four tournaments. We have each spent time working on something we are truly passionate about, rather than the “flavor of the week” commitment simply because it sounded fun and was offered on the right night at the right time. 

And we are finally at a point where we are tackling the so-called “American Dream” consumer debt we have managed to rack up over these past 20 years. Turns out, we weren’t spending it on anything we really wanted or wanted to do in the first place. 

We are excited to put a stake in the ground and to say, how we spend our time is what is most important to us, and we are committed to living that out, day-by-day. The truth is, our material things, our over-sized homes to house those things, and our mounting debt to support the buying and the housing of the things, simply aren’t worth it. The truth is, we are finding worth and placing value on the things that really matter— the things money simply cannot buy.