Any night that I’m at work past 8:00 pm, I am faced with the same dilemma: do I take the subway home, or do I take a cab? If I take the subway, it will likely take me an hour to get home, as the trains start running more infrequently after rush hour. If I take a cab, I’m out close to $25, but I’ll get home in 20 minutes. Essentially, the question boils down to whether 40 minutes of time at the end of the day is worth $25.

And I really don’t know. I can’t objectively work through the issue. Although my biglaw salary should allow me to take cabs home at will, the cheapskate in me chides me for such a frivolous luxury.

Over the last several months, I’ve started getting more used to (and comfortable with) spending money on things– work clothes, nice dinners out, bottles of wine that cost more than $5. But, I still don’t feel like I’ve gotten used to spending money on services that save me time, like a cab. Perhaps all that will change when (and if) I start having a workload that is as hefty as my billable hour requirement. But for now, even though the firm bills out my time at who knows how much an hour, I’m still struggling to justify whether getting home in time to watch Lost is worth the cost of a takeout order of sushi.