"No one is willing to hand out their money randomly, but that’s exactly what you do with your time. You’re very frugal with your physical possessions, but when

"No one is willing to hand out their money randomly, but that’s exactly what you do with your time. You’re very frugal with your physical possessions, but when it comes to your time, you’re wasteful of the only thing in the world that you should actually be frugal with." This is something where I frequently have arguments with my wife (mild and civilized, not that it's a real problem or anything). For example, suppose that we buy something online that is, say, $20, and it isn't up to our (or her) expectations. She will want to return it, and ask for my help. But my position is: returning it takes time (going to the website and finding out how to make a return, preparing the package, possibly waiting in a line in the post office), and for me that time is worth more than $20, so I'd rather lose the $20 and not do it (time has grown increasingly valuable in the last few years because we have a kid, so while we have decent savings, our amount of free time for ourselves -not kid-related- is close to zero). I'm pretty sure my position makes sense, but it's difficult to convey it in a way that doesn't seem like I'm just "not caring" (I think part of the issue might be that for me, devoting time to things like doing a return, taking more time for a purchase to find a discount, etc. is just a chore, and she somewhat likes it) so we end up in a middle ground where each gives in a little. PS: I am fully conscious that I'm writing this from a privileged position as there are people for whom those $20 would be a godsend, and it does make me feel somewhat guilty to take positions like this sometimes, but it's inevitable that one judges with respect to the scarcity of each resource in their own circumstances... and in my case it's free time which I consider to be very, very scarce. The fact that the $20 could be highly valuable to other people doesn't make it more senseful for me to spend some of my scarce free time on them if I need the time more.