I don't spend money if I don't need to. I find good deals whenever I can.
When I was young, we didn't even turn on the airconditioning.
I don't really buy stuff that I don't need.
So now, if you asked me to induce spend $3000 within a normal month, it would be a tough task for me.
Regular readers know on some months I have to induce spending or prepay my telco bills to push up my credit card spending to get certain rebates/bonus interest.
Cos on some months, I can hardly even hit $500 spending on my credit card.
Of course not all months I have this problem, some months I have other unexpected expenses, replacement items, following my wife around on her biz trips, etc...
But generally, spending less is not much of a problem for me if you take a look at my monthly spending, and we remove my wife induced expenses, our actual monthly expenses is really quite low, and if my wife retires eventually, we should be regularly hitting that low level of spending.
But let's flip it around.
What IF I never was frugal? What if I was a normal person?
You see... for me, being frugal is easy. Cos it's already in my everyday life. Spending less isn't a problem.
I wonder... "How do people spend $3000 a month?!"
But if we look at the other side, they SHOULD be thinking the same thing.
They would think, "It's impossible to retire, it's impossible to spend less than $200 on utilities, it's impossible to get a meal for less than $20."
The same as I don't think about not being frugal, they don't think about being frugal.
So when they come home from work, they habitually turn on the aircon in the living room and the rest of the house.
Hey, that's fine if you can afford it, just don't complain that your utility bills are too high.
Or if they keep their hot water pot all the time, so that they can have hot water ready at anytime, even though they aren't at home 60% of the time and are sleeping the other 30% of the time.
You see... on the other side, where all the normal people live, there's a lot of out of sight out of mind.
They make a decision, it becomes a habit and the cost gets naturally absorbed into their monthly expenditure without much thought.
My wife and I, we watch "Running man" on Mondays.
And we always open a bag of chips as we watch.
Sometimes we buy Roller Coaster 70gm at 3 packs for $2 on promotion... so a bag of that for our show would be $0.66.
Or sometimes we buy this spicy Jack & Jill chips 75gm for $1.50 per pack. We use our Cold Storage vouchers to pay for this.
And yesterday we opened 2 packs of Jack & Jill chips, meaning we spent $3 on the chips to watch our show.
And to me, spending that additional $1.50 for the 2nd pack of chips was pretty unnecessary. It's not healthy and one pack should suffice.
So for 52 weeks in a year, I'd say we would spend 52 x$1.50 = $78 on chips.
Could be cheaper if I only ate Roller Coaster, but my wife likes the Jack & Jill. Whatever...
So to me, I try not to spend too much on chips, we enjoy a pack a week and that should be good enough for us.
But then there may be folks who ONLY eat premium chips, $5-$7 per pack? Lays? Kettles? Tyrrells?
So if we multiply that by 52 weeks... it comes up to $260-$364.
Now... this amount over the course of a whole year, is nothing. Come on... an additional $250 is nothing right? For the WHOLE YEAR.
And yet, here's the problem. Most people, MOST, not ALL...
Most people who tell themselves that spending an additional $250 per is nothing, probably uses the same rationale to spend on every other thing.
The same as turning on the aircon for the whole house once they come back from work. It's another couple of dollars for some good comfort right?
If I don't make myself comfortable, then why do I work so hard?
And yet... my wife works hard and we have no complaints when we don't have air-conditioning in the living room, simply cos, it's not a habit.
And this manifests in almost everything we do.
We can buy a simple chicken rice at $2.50-$3, but they don't give much meat. So eating such a dish wouldn't be enjoyable.
So my wife will specifically order drumstick plus egg, so it adds up to $5. Fine, whatever makes her happy.
It's not like we are trying to suffer just to retire so upgrading the meal to enjoy it better is absolutely fine.
BUT I am aware of it, it is a CHOICE to upgrade the meal.
She doesn't think much about it though, I find that she's not as aware of frugality as I am. I've written about this before in my previous post.
I drink instant coffee at home, I can buy Nescafe Classic at around $10 for 500gm, or there's a cheaper version $6 for 500gm but doesn't taste as nice.
Alternatively, I could go downstairs and buy coffee at $1 per cup.
Or there's always Starbucks to give myself a treat...
How many people would buy a Starbucks everyday to bring to office?
Or how many people would buy a coffee from the coffeeshop to bring to office?
And once again, who are the ones who use the instant coffee from the pantry?
Of course you choose your preferences, what you are willing to accept and what the cost is.
If you tell yourself that $5 more per day isn't much that's ok.
If you tell yourself that $1 per day isn't much... that's fine as well...
Then again... there's free, everyday.
But after getting used to a habit, there are people who just can't drop it. They aren't aware that there exists FREE alternatives.
Cos instant coffee is just too unacceptable for them. By the way, Starbucks also has instant coffee which is a good significant alternative if you really love your Starbucks.
You see, when you're used to NOT being frugal, your mind is wired differently.
I can see it when my wife spends. She doesn't assess the value of items.
She doesn't think, "I can get a full enough meal for $3." She thinks, "I'll really be happy with a drumstick and an egg." So she just orders it without further consideration.
I see this very often. People who subscribe to Netflix, or buy stuff from Amazon regularly.
They just don't think too much about it. There isn't a thought process to decide whether they should buy the item or not.
It's just... "Oh this looks nice..." Click "add to cart"...
For someone who isn't used to being frugal, being frugal is unimaginable.
Same as for someone who isn't used to spending freely. Cos high levels of spending is similarly as unimaginable to me.
When people/you get used to something, they don't think of it as a treat anymore.
For example. If you regularly go to a Japanese restaurant every Saturday. I'm sure it started out as a treat. But after awhile, you get used to it and it becomes normal. Furthermore, it gets hard to remove, cos... then IT WOULD BE A DOWNGRADE!!! *GASP* THE HORROR!!! I can't even treat myself to a Jappy meal on weekends?!
These are the folks whom when you ask them, "So where do you think you could cut expenses", they would respond, "I already live very normally, I can't cut anymore expenses. I don't spend very much every month, I eat very simple normal things."
But yet, if you ask a frugal person who has lived his whole life frugally, the spending patterns would be extremely different.
People get used to a lot of unseen luxuries.
Better potato chips, better coffee, 1gbps internet speed (most people don't need this speed), packet drinks for home, Hoegaarden instead of Heinekin instead of Tiger, Netflix subsciption, airconditioning the whole house.
And even more, these people might even think that they are already very frugal.
Cos... they may say,
"Hey, I don't indulge in branded stuff, I don't value or buy branded bags/wallets, I don't even own a car! See how frugal I am!"
"There's no way I can further reduce my expenses. It's already unimaginably low, you guys can't even beat it."
But yet, their lifestyle choices might indicate otherwise.
So as I imagine myself being unable to increase my spending significantly, on the other side, someone who hasn't been frugal would think likewise.
Or they may think that they are already very frugal and not understand where all the money has gone, cos as much as I think I am doing normal things and living a very good and rich life, they would also think that they are also doing very normal things and living a very normal lifestyle.
As much as I don't think I'm overly indulging myself in $1.50 chips when I could be eating a $0.66 alternative, they also don't think they are overly indulging themselves with $6 chips.
Cos you see... we don't know what we don't know. We look at the world from our own eyes.
We already think we are doing very well, we are already very frugal. So most people would think that they are spending normally or are already very frugal and that they are living very normally.
I'm sure my wife doesn't see herself as over indulging herself when she upgrades her chicken rice.
And after awhile, if you get used to Starbucks every morning, it's a normal lifestyle, you won't feel like you're pampering yourself.
Same as turning on the aircon when you reach home.
So where does this all tie in?
AWARENESS
It's not easy to be aware. Cos we need to reflect upon ourselves to be aware, and that's not easy.
It's not easy to admit that we are over indulging ourselves.
Note: There's NOTHING WRONG with over indulging ourselves. I'm just saying we should be aware of it.
Like, I'm aware that I am indulging myself when I choose to eat $1.50 chips when I can eat $0.66 Roller Coasters when I watch my show.
Furthermore, I am also aware that I can DON'T eat chips and that would even be a healthier option.
I'm also fully aware that our car is an indulgence, and I rationalize it by saying it's for my wife's work. But it IS an indulgence.
Cos she can simply take Grab/Taxi, and now that she's travelling so much, the car isn't used for 1-2 weeks of a month depending on how often she travels.
One can get used to 10GB data on your mobile plan, or 3GB data, or I only use 500MB of data.
OR... one could just NOT use data at all.
I know that having 1GBPS home internet won't make my life better than my current 300MBPS. It's not like I haven't tried both before making the decision.
And I know that I'm not particularly happier eating $6 chips as compared to $1.50 chips. I've also tried a variety before coming to a conclusion.
As much as I can say that I am unaware of how it feels like to spend more, or even know what more to spend on, I think... someone who hasn't been actively frugal, is just as unaware of the other alternatives.
They may not be aware that they have slowly increased their spending.
They may not be aware that 1GBPS isn't much faster than 300MBPS, cos upload speeds are just as important as download speeds, and most sites don't upload at 1GBPS.
They may not be aware that in reality, their choices AREN'T considered frugal. Cos they have gotten so used to just living normally (in their own view).
And due to their lack of awareness, they simply conclude that, they just don't have enough money, that spending less is not possible, that keeping utility bills under $50 is not possible, or eating a cheap meal is not possible or retiring at 35 is not possible.
They may think that they are already very frugal just cos they don't buy luxury products, but yet they may spend exhorbitant amounts travelling twice a year going to exotic places, or may have a gym membership that they rarely utilize, or other unseen upgrades in life that are so natural and integrated that they don't even notice it.
AND...
I'm sure many readers are just as unaware.
If you've never actively tracked your spending for 3-6 months, it's highly likely you don't know where your money is going to, where your upgrades are, what you are spending that is more than average or less than average.
Now, I'm not saying I'm always frugal, hey, I just went for high tea a week back or so.
What I'm saying is to be aware if there is any leakage, if there is leakage, to assess if that spending is worth it or not.
Cos there are alternatives, you just may not know that these alternatives exist until you identify where your spending is too much in relation to what is actually possible.
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