SaveBuyLive

Personal finance types love to talk about reducing spending (spend less than you earn) and increasing income (earn more than you spend).  Oftentimes this becomes some kind of debate.  As if it was some kind of battle where one wins over the other one.  Or at least where one is somehow superior to the other one.

This is silly.

Reducing spending and increasing income both take effort and produce money in exchange for that effort.  Therefore, the question to ask is “How much effort is it to do X and how much money do I bank because of it?”

Do the mental computations based on your life situations and start knocking out the easiest things with the largest payoffs.  Forget about those things that require lots of effort for little gain.  Here’s some examples:

Options for reducing spending:
- Switching to a generic brand (assuming similar quality) requires next to zero effort and can save you several dollars per shopping trip.  Or lots of money depending on how much you buy.  This sounds like a good deal.
- Saving $50 in cooling costs by turning off your air conditioning and getting a big box fan also sounds like a good deal.
- Saving $2-3 a month by constantly unplugging your “vampire appliances” sounds like a rip off.

Options for increasing income?
- Make $50 by watching a cat for a weekend sounds like a good deal.
- Spending hours writing for Associated Content for ~$3-4 an article sounds like a rip off.
- Spending several months (years?) writing a book that could bring in thousands of dollars?  Possibly a good deal depending on how much you enjoy the the work, how much time it takes and how much you think you’ll make.

What’s your take?  What are some of the easiest or hardest ways you know about to reduce spending or increase income?