My father the CPA never spent money on anything he could do himself. He changes his own oil, mows his own lawn, frowns on convenience foods, has my mother do his laundry 
…and on and on. Admittedly, he saved a nice nest egg.
However, I look at it a different way. I see my time as a commodity. Even if I could change my own oil, I wouldn’t. If I had a lawn, I’d have someone else do the work. The reason is because I make more money than it would cost to have someone else do these things and I have better things to do with my time. Maybe that sounds snobby, but it’s true. I could use that time doing something I enjoy instead of laboring over something I hate.
The same is true for produce. I hate chopping onions and bell peppers. I am easily bored to tears cutting melons into chuncks. My time in the kitchen is a commodity and I would rather spend it doing the actual cooking than toiling over vegetables with a cutting knife. I am less likely to get cooking if I have to go through the tedious motions of chopping things I hate chopping or cutting up things I hate cutting up.
That’s why I buy many things already precut. Diced onions can be found both in the produce section and the freezer section of your local grocery store. I’ve even found cut up fresh peppers of all colors and ready-to-cook butternut squash. Many produce sections have fresh pineapple, cantalope, honey dew, and even strawberrys already diced or sliced and packaged to go.
It may cost you a few extra pennies but it may be worth the pennies to save you time.
