On May 19, 8:33*am, bob haller wrote:
i had a family friend who heated their home with wood, and bragged
about how much money they saved over oil heat

I then asked how much work does it take?

Oh the wood is free from a summer camp they owned

BUT they had to drive there every weekend for the summer to cut split
and haul the wood out of their mini forest. then haul the wood home
and stack and let dry for a year.

as i pointed out to them oil was cheaper.

if compared to the 3 of them having minimum wage jobs putting the same
number of hours in working at the local store, and adding in the cost
of gasoline to haul the many truckloads of wood home each weekend.

one family member admitted it started out fun but became a never
ending job he hated the constamt push to be ready for heat, concerned
all summer long...........

free heat wasnt free at all

"if compared to the 3 of them having minimum wage jobs putting the
same number of hours in working at the local store"

We often hear people say "It's not worth my time to do it myself. My
time is worth $X/hour and I can pay someone less than that to do it
for me."

That logic only works if you actually earn $X/hour during the time
that you would have otherwise been working on the project. If you hire
a guy to do it and then go sit on your butt shoveling Cheetos into
your mouth, then it didn't make economic sense to hire it out. The
money left your pocket and wasn't replaced.

In other words, unless the 3 of them actually went out and got that
minimum wage job, you can't use it as a comparison. If they pay for
the oil but don't work to offset the cost, then their cash flow will
show an outflow which might be more than the cost of the gas required
to get the wood.

I don't know that it will, because I don't know the actual numbers,
but I do know that you can't factor wages into the equation if the
wages don't exist.