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Obsession with not wasting time/money

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poorlittlefish

Active Member
Is anyone else a little obsessed with not wasting their time or money? I get so stressed out driving to work because of people slowing me up for no reason, am always "clock-watching" and get very upset if someone keeps me waiting or a train is late.

My obsession with time shows itself badly when I have to attend a work meeting/course, especially if the trainer says we'll be finished by a certain time and it becomes obvious it'll overrun. It's bad enough having to find things to say and interact with people (especially those I don't know) but in those situations I feel like a caged bird. At the time we should have finished everyone else will still be engaged with the trainer and participating while I'm bored out of my brain and desperate to get out of the door as soon as I possibly can. Everyone else hangs around at the end, but I leave immediately.

I can't stand wasting money either. I can't ever justify treating myself, going on holiday (alone) or buying luxury brands and if I buy something then find it was even a pound cheaper elsewhere I feel so cheated and annoyed. All the things that stress me out don't bother other people. Does anyone else feel like this about time or money?
 
Oh yes, that is sooooo me! I do not do fractions of time etc! If someone is a second late, I panic and when I am late, it ruins the whole day.

And yep, hate wasting my day.
 
I'm chronically late because I hate to waste time. I'm always squeezing in just a little more of whatever I'm doing before moving on to the next thing, which means I don't leave enough time for the transition from one place to the next, which often makes me late or just barely on time.

And yes, I hate wasting money. I might start bribing myself with a treat if I'm struggling to get through something, but it's pretty rare that I actually buy the thing I bribed myself with. And even when I do, I don't actually get much pleasure out of it...it might be something I was going to get anyway, but I don't feel a sense of satisfaction and pleasure even if it really is a treat. So most of the time I don't bother.
 
Yep, same here. I hate being delayed or being late for anything, or other people being late, it really stresses me out! Especially if I'm delayed due to circumstances beyond my control and I'm going to be late. I also have a tight control over money, and am afraid to spend it on everyday things like food - and then go and spend a disproportionately large amount on things like CDs or something related to my special interest.
 
poorlittlefish said:
Is anyone else a little obsessed with not wasting their time or money? I get so stressed out driving to work because of people slowing me up for no reason, am always "clock-watching" and get very upset if someone keeps me waiting or a train is late.

My obsession with time shows itself badly when I have to attend a work meeting/course, especially if the trainer says we'll be finished by a certain time and it becomes obvious it'll overrun. It's bad enough having to find things to say and interact with people (especially those I don't know) but in those situations I feel like a caged bird. At the time we should have finished everyone else will still be engaged with the trainer and participating while I'm bored out of my brain and desperate to get out of the door as soon as I possibly can. Everyone else hangs around at the end, but I leave immediately.

I can't stand wasting money either. I can't ever justify treating myself, going on holiday (alone) or buying luxury brands and if I buy something then find it was even a pound cheaper elsewhere I feel so cheated and annoyed. All the things that stress me out don't bother other people. Does anyone else feel like this about time or money?
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Waste just drives me crazy (crazier?). Whether it is time, money or whatever. I do not like waste. Everyone around me thinks that I am just being grumpy, but it takes hard work to get anything. I do not like working for nothing. I see waste everywhere. Just think how much more we all would have if everybody stopped wasting so much.
 
Yes, I hate being late, or other people being late, too. I hate it when other people make me late. For example, on New Year's Eve 2014 we went to a party at someone else's house, and my mom told me we had to leave early and pick my brother up from work at 9. But then she spent an extra half hour talking to people, so we didn't leave until around 9:30. :mad:
 
Yeah i have an obsession with not wasting time or money as well - mine or that of others'. I literally *have* to clock in for work at 2 minutes till the hour or i get a bit upset inside about it. I obsess everywhere about if i'm wasting someone else's time or money cause thats how i was raised...if i wasted my parents' time or money, they yelled about it.

I also price match my groceries to save money even though i have plenty saved, and rationalize it to myself pretty well. I mean yeah i do need to keep a certain nest egg saved up so i can afford to move out when i graduate but really, spending 2.98 on a bag of chips instead of the 1.99 sale price isn't gonna bust my budget. Yet i do it and the idea of not price matching to save money...i just can't do it. 0_o
 
Kari Suttle said:
Yeah i have an obsession with not wasting time or money as well - mine or that of others'. I literally *have* to clock in for work at 2 minutes till the hour or i get a bit upset inside about it. I obsess everywhere about if i'm wasting someone else's time or money cause thats how i was raised...if i wasted my parents' time or money, they yelled about it.

I also price match my groceries to save money even though i have plenty saved, and rationalize it to myself pretty well. I mean yeah i do need to keep a certain nest egg saved up so i can afford to move out when i graduate but really, spending 2.98 on a bag of chips instead of the 1.99 sale price isn't gonna bust my budget. Yet i do it and the idea of not price matching to save money...i just can't do it. 0_o
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All I can say is that you're soooooooooooo not alone there. Right down to the chips. Unless it's the Hawaiian kind...once in a blue moon I'll spend the extra bucks for them. Hell, I used to hold out for the GV chips sold at $1.00. But that sale no longer happens....

The only thing though Kari, is that in the long run being mentally and emotionally "tight" over money will serve you well.
 
Although I do both, I'm not convinced it is directly related to being on the spectrum, in my case.

Re time: the number of hours per day is limited and there are many demands on me. I can't spend endless amounts of time on any one thing, much as I might sometimes like to, because it'll run directly into something else and I need downtime to function. In an atmosphere where it's 'go, go, go!!!' all the time I will literally get sick, which I think is displaced mental stress. If there were fewer demands, of if they didn't cost me as much energy (i.e. if they weren't as heavy on the social aspect) I wouldn't be watching the clock as much as I usually do.

Re money: having had too little of it throughout much of my 20s and sometimes not knowing where my next meal was coming from has made me a bit obsessive about it. I'm doing pretty well these days financially (relatively speaking - I'm not 'well-off' in common societal terms). But the memory from back then doesn't go away, and I definitely don't ever want to go back to how it was then, so I'm frugal. Also, not being able to cope with full-time work puts a lid on how much I can earn. But, these days I allow myself small luxuries. If the huge cup of take-away coffee for €2 significantly improves my mornings on the days I have to work, then I'll get it. It's worth the expense to me, and it is calculated into my budget and I'm conscious of the expenditure. It is true, though, that I always keep my incomings and outgoings in mind and always weigh up what the return-on-investment versus its expense is going to be. I try to frame costs in terms of the time and effort needed to generate the money, I stay aware of the fact that there are usually some unforeseen expenses over any one year, and I save as much as I reasonably can.
 
Time has never been a consideration of mine, I get there when I get there, although, I'm never late. Maybe I have a subconscious time monitoring thing?

Money is different, nowadays I am very aware that it is a finite resource in my life and as such I monitor it carefully. I love my spreadsheets.
 
Me on the time thing (that's probably why I have so many watches and a clock in every room. Watches are an obsession.)

"No comment" to the second one. :D
 
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