Build or Buy?

What do you do with your free time? 

For most of us, it's hard to carve out a couple hours in a day to pursue a hobby. But unless you work at Ac*****re, most of us have weekends, and this is when we find time to do the stuff we want to do (get a haircut/get drunk/nurse a hangover/sleep). Problem is, weekends are notorious for never being long enough. So if this time is valuable to you, you want to maximize your weekend as much as possible, right? And if you're not gifted with Marcos or Napoles as your surname, you want to maximize the little that's in your wallet, too.

Let's analyze a common weekend task: getting a gift for a friend. How long would it take and how much would it cost?

Buy:

30 mins: travel to mall (Gas: P40)
5 mins: find parking
5 mins: walk to the store
30 mins: pick out the gift, line up and pay for the gift (Gift: artsy fartsy journal, P200*)
5 mins: walk back to the car
5 mins: pay for and leave the parking lot (Parking fee: P40)
30 mins: travel back home (Gas: P40)

Total time: 1 hour 50 minutes
Total cost: P320 

*Forget Moleskine. Let's assume it's a cheap journal, we're on a budget remember

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In short, around two hours and P300 to buy a gift assuming you don't stop for coffee, do any window shopping, or take a bathroom break.

Just for kicks, I tried to answer the question: how long would it take to build a journal? And here's what I got:

Build:

15 mins: gathering the materials
30 mins: cutting and gluing
90 mins: sewing and assembling
20 mins: trimming and details

Total time: 2 hours 50 minutes (total cost: P0**)

**I used materials just lying around the house--old, yellowing bond paper, cardboard, leather fabric scraps, thread, glue, electric tape.


So there it is. I spent an extra hour making the thing, but with zero cash-out. Granted, it's not going to win the Nobel Prize for arts and crafts, but I had fun making it, I used stuff that would have otherwise just been thrown away, I ended up with a gift that's more personal and heartfelt than anything you can buy in a store, and finally--this is my favorite part--I didn't spend a single cent!!

Of course, this 'build' option is not for everyone. But the option is there, if you stop and take a little time to think about it.