Really. I know some people who like to spend money. As in, the act of spending money is fun to them. To them, money and the item/service purchased is separate. Actually there are a lot of people like that.
They have no connection between the money spent and the product received.
I actually get stressed spending money. Yes, I know this is not even considered frugal anymore.
It's just OCD. The more I type and post, the more I realize how abnormal I am when making decisions.
Ok I don't get stressed spending money on everything. But most things.
So I'm ok to spend money on necessities, as long as they are classified necessities. (in my eyes)
Like expensive food. Or more expensive food. I'm ok to spend on that. Cos food is classified under necessities, even expensive food.
Household products, like cleaning liquid, detergent, mops, toothbrush, etc. I don't think too much about buying them. Cos I know that I need to use them and eventually I'll finish using it.
But when it comes to some other things, I find very little pleasure in spending the money.
Like my handphone. I find minimal happiness between a $179 phone vs a $219 phone. Although I eventually bought the $219 phone, I had to go through a lot of thinking before buying it. Simply cos I was thinking whether I needed ANY new phone in the first place. I could continue using 2 phones. One for my data sim and another for my pre-paid card.
In my mind, I was strongly debating why did I need a new phone when I was currently ok with using 2 separate phones?
Or when I was thinking of buying a memory foam pillow. It was a mere $20. And I was contemplating about it for quite a long time. Once again, I was debating with myself... I already have a pillow, why do I need a memory foam pillow? It's not even about the upgrading of my lifestyle.
Then I have a whole load of clothes from my old days. I have some clothes from my JC days. So that's a good 15 years. Some I still can wear, some I hope that I will eventually be able to wear again. I haven't proactively bought any new clothes for a very very long time. Usually I get them as gifts. Ok before you guys think I've been wearing old and tattered clothes for 15 years, please note, that I have 3 whole drawer of them. This is almost 3 times the t-shirts and casual wear that my wife has. So I do cycle them around. It's just that there's so much that I've received through the years that they aren't worn out enough to be disposed off yet. So when I go around shopping centers, I just don't look out for new clothes.
The thing is, in my mind, I'm always thinking. If I'm already doing something or having something and I'm living ok with it, why do I need something else? Like I was already using 2 phones, and I was relatively ok with it. So I found no good reason to "pay for convenience" to buy a new phone so that I could carry 1 phone instead. Same as the pillow. I was pretty ok with my old pillow so why the need to change?
I also find it interested that I don't have such problems when I don't have something.
Like when I bought my new TV. I was ok buying a 42" TV. I didn't think too much about it. I could have over-thought about it and debated with myself about a 32" TV instead, but I didn't.
I still try to look for good deals.
But my analysis is more independent. Cos there's no benchmark or comparison.
Like if I never had ANY phone. I would definitely buy 1 phone with 2 sim card slots. I would not think about buying 2 phones with separate sim card slots regardless of how cheap they are.
(Ok maybe I would if they were really really dirt cheap. Like $10-$20. But that's impossible.)
Now, I wouldn't think about buying memory foam pillows though, cos after trying it, I found it doesn't suit my purposes.
I've heard of folks. Who really really go on retail therapy.
As in they spend money to make themselves feel better. It's the thrill of spending, more than the actual products they get. And I've heard them say. "If you haven't spent $3000 in one day, it's not considered retail therapy."
$3000!!!!
I guess I would/may never understand that feeling. Maybe it works. The freedom to splash cash around without thinking about it. Basically, releasing all your restraints and really letting it loose just for one day, buying anything you wanted without as much as a second thought. Regardless whether you would fully utilize them or not.
I think it may be pretty liberating to have such an experience for some. (Although I think it would stress me out.) Sometimes, these things are so ingrained in you/me. That when I look at something, I look straight at the value I get/don't get, and if I don't get the value that is required for me to "lose" that money, I'll definitely NOT get it, regardless how much I like it.
Hmmm... I think I could explain it in gaming terms...
Spending money has negative happiness points to me. Happiness points are arbitrary. So we can't really quantify them accurately. So it's pretty much just a feeling.
So let's say I spend $100, the act of "losing" that $100 makes me lose 100 happiness points. (-100)
And I buy a steak meal for the 2 of us. Ok not too bad. Maybe I/we feel happy so I earn 105 happiness points. (+105)
Net gain +5 happiness for spending this $100. Which is pretty ok. Cos I have a surplus after taking into account the "intangible costs".
But wait. If I spend $100 on 2 Angus Ribeye steaks, 2 Wagyu patties, 2 tenderloin cuts and the sashimi platter. I would -100 happiness points for spending, maybe -20 points of happiness for the preparation and cleaning for each meal (4 meals = -80 happiness), but I could get +80 points for each of the meals. Resulting in +320 happiness points earned, compared with the -180 happiness points spent.
A whopping net earn of +140 happiness points.
I went to Jamie's Italian restaurant at Vivocity recently and spent $31 after discount using the Entertainer app. I got a pizza and pasta. The food wasn't really bad, but it was just ok. It didn't thrill me like I would have liked it to.
So -31 happiness points for spending, +31 happiness points for the food. Resulting in a neutral state.
I imagined... what IF I DIDN'T have the Entertainer app???
That would have resulted in me
-62 happiness points but only gaining a mere +31 happiness. *GASP* horror of horrors, a deficit.
So as I type this, I finally understand why I debate with myself so much over buying a new phone to replace 2 phones.
Cos when I am using 2 phones, I already have +100 happiness points, cos it serves my purposes.
But then I have to spend $200 to buy a new phone. (-200 happiness points)
But the benefit of having 1 phone is only the convenience of holding 1 phone, so I deem that I only gain +50 happiness due to convenience.
Essentially, I'm spending $200 to buy the convenience only, cos I already have the functionality.
So -200 happiness for spending, but +50 for convenience, a net loss.
I do know that I over think most things. And this is one of them. Most people just don't think too much about these things. Especially when it's $200 and below. Maybe it's more efficient. Cos it's not really a huge sum of money. And it's probably not worth getting stressed up over such purchases.
I'll probably need sometime to reprogram my mind...
But as of now... nope I definitely do not like spending money.
I have a very high benchmark of value per dollar spent so I tend to think too much over each item purchased cos I want a good deal/value for each dollar I burn.
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