How I Doubled My Income By Buying Back My Time

I made more money, cut my working hours in half, and drastically improved my quality of life

In 2018, I was working two jobs (one overnight) and every dollar I made went to my rent, bills, and other expenses. The more I worked, the more exhausted I was, and the more my expenses went up.

After working for 12 hours, the last thing I wanted to do was take a 90-minute commute, cook dinner, and clean my apartment. I didn’t want to make my bed or do my laundry. I wanted to sleep the moment I walked in the door, and that’s often what I did. Right on the couch.

On weekends, I didn’t have free time. I worked extra to make up for the takeout I had gotten during the week and the parking tickets I had gotten when I couldn’t find a non-metered parking spot after an hour of circling.

I made a promise to myself: as soon as I “make it”, I’m buying back my time.

When I finally took the plunge and went to coding bootcamp, I knew I was adding a $500-a-month student loan payment to my expenses. I got a great job as a technical writer, but my expenses were still out of control and I was sleeping an average of 3 hours a night. I knew I would have $0 left over at the end of the month unless I did something. My entire way of living wasn’t sustainable. Yet. But I had a plan.

I took a deep breath, and with a few swipes of the debit card, I put myself in a position where I was able to double my income, cut my working hours in half, and drastically improve my quality of life by buying back my own time.

Here is what I did.

1. I got rid of my car.

It was an old car, and although it was paid off, I was paying over $200 a month for insurance, at least $300 a month for metered parking, and (embarrassingly) at least $100 a month in parking tickets. I live in NYC. I used to spend an hour a day looking for parking. I let the car go.

Savings: $600 per month Time saved: 7 hours per week Subtotal: 7 hours per week

2. Uber.

Uber is cheaper than car ownership for me. I have to transport a certain someone home from school a few days a week. $18 for Uber three times a week is way cheaper than owning a car, and it saves me 90 minutes on public transportation 3 times per week. Besides… if I’m going to own a car, it’s going to be a nice car — and it’s going to be when I have an actual home and an actual driveway to park it in.

Cost: $54 per week ($216 per month) Time saved: 4.5 hours per week Subtotal: 11.5 hours per week

(Edit: Got this down to $42 a month and a lot more hours saved!)

3. Robot vacuum.

I bought a robot vacuum for $150 on sale. I used to spend 15 minutes a day vacuuming messes that I didn’t make. This is not a joke. Now, the robot vacuum does it.

Cost: $150 (one time expense) Time saved: 1.75 hours per week Subtotal: 13.25 hours per week

4. I hired a maid.

She comes once a month. In 4 hours, she deep cleans the entire apartment while I get other work done. This is a huge deal, because I never had time to clean. I’m saving more than 4 hours a month here. I’m saving a solid 4 hours a week, because that’s how much time I used to spend cleaning.

Maids aren’t just for rich people — trust me. $100 a month saves me 16 hours of cleaning every month (plus the cost of cleaning supplies).

Cost: $100 per month (I used a coupon for the first month) Time saved: 4 hours per week Subtotal: 17.25 hours per week

5. I cancelled my gym membership and bought a treadmill, weights, and resistance bands.

I don’t have time to go to the gym. I really don’t. Between commuting there, exercising, commuting back home, and paying for child care — it’s not happening. Not if I ever want to sleep, that is. I used to pay $50 a month for the gym. No. I bought a treadmill from Amazon (it folds up, too!) and now I work out at home.

Savings: $50 per month Cost: $200 (one time expense) Time saved: 5 hours per week (commuting) Subtotal: 22.25 hours per week

6. I bought a portable washing machine.

I live in an apartment. I bought a portable washing machine for $189 and now I do my laundry daily, without leaving the house and without spending 2 hours at a laundromat.

Cost: $189 (one time) Time saved: 2 hours per week Subtotal: 24.25 hours per week

7. I started having my groceries delivered.

It costs practically nothing to order from FreshDirect. I pay a small delivery fee and I tip the driver. I save 30 minutes in commuting time and 1 hour of shopping each week.

Cost: $10 per week Time saved: 1.5 hours per week Subtotal: 25.75 hours per week

A few other changes that I’m not including in my subtotal:

• I work remotely once per week. This isn’t something that everyone can do, but I save an extra 2.5 hours in commuting time each week.
• I switched to an online pharmacy (Capsule) that delivers medications. I save at least an hour a month. No more commuting to (and waiting in line at) the pharmacy.
• If I need to go to Target, I do same-day order pickup. It’s free. I order what I need in the app and I pick it up from the customer service desk. I save about 2 hours a week commuting, walking up and down the aisles, and waiting in a never-ending line.

I bought back over 100 hours each month — that’s more than 4 extra DAYS — and I spent hardly any money at all.

Here’s what changed:

• I quit the part-time overnight job and started doing more freelance writing instead
• I’m able to focus on my full-time job, which means I rarely have to take work home
• I stopped working on weekends
• I stopped ordering takeout; I’m not too tired to cook anymore
• I started to sleep an extra 2 hours each night
• I visit my family more often (I used to tell them I had too many chores to do)
• I started playing guitar much more often (I’ve been playing since I was 6, but I never had the time to play regularly; now I do)

I never thought that spending money would help me earn more money, but ultimately, it did. Out of the 100 hours I save every month, I dedicate about 25 of them to writing, which earns me a nice paycheck on top of my full-time work — and I still have 75 extra hours to spare.

I’m not going to get into the whole How much is YOUR time worth?! discussion, because it doesn’t matter how much your time is worth unless you do something valuable with the time you’ve saved.

If you’re going to hustle, you need to have time and energy to hustle. If there’s anything in this world worth spending money on, it’s your time.

Takeaways:

• Buy time.
• Buy rest.
• Do something valuable with the time you’ve saved.