Previously, I talked about finance stuff, family stuff, relationships... shared some of my stories...
And recently, "freegan" living has taken up a lot of my life.
(I always put "freegan" with inverted commas cos, it's not really free, there is effort, I'm still living in a money based lifestyle, etc... but for simplicity sake I use the term "freegan".)
Fairly "freegan" living or low cost living has made me less interested in finance/investment related topics. I still talk about that once in a while, but... when things are relatively free... there's less interest to earn more. So for me, a simple stable portfolio would suffice... I'm waiting for market timing and all that but... there's little incentive to try to achieve super high returns.
Money is spent on stuff that I can't get for free... like insurance, paying off the housing loan, transportation, utilities. I spend a bit on specific food which I can't get for free... like some special dark soy sauce or miso paste... But I hardly need to buy condiments regularly, and even if I do, I can always use the AIA Vitality voucher or NS50 voucher to buy them.
We also have cut down on dining out due to some change in our weekend schedule. We end up eating cheaper food at hawker centers instead.
We hardly buy new clothes. I haven't personally bought clothes for years... I get them as gifts, after which I tell the gifter to get me some simple chocolates instead if they really want to give me anything. My footwear comes from E-mart, the Army mart, so I get my sandals and track shoes from there.
My wife gets her clothes from taobao maybe 2 times a year around $200 per batch of clothes, around 5-6 dresses for work. Heeled shoes are around $30.
Household items last for years if maintained properly. Some may need to be replaced some time in the future. Maybe I can get them for free, maybe I'll have to buy something if I really want something specific. Someone wanted to give me an airfryer and I rejected it, told him to use it for himself. I have a stove, a rice cooker and a halogen oven, and that's sufficient for my cooking purposes. So I might eventually need to spend money on these stuff in future.
For a lot of people, the biggest expense category is usually food. Around 25%-30% of monthly expenses. And yet, food is the easiest to obtain for free. Saturday vegetable collection, bread collection at a couple of freegan homes, they will get the excess bread from bakeries and other people can go to their homes to take the bread and maybe other food as well. Someone has offered to send me excess packed food, she will put it in my riser and inform me, so I just need to heat it up or re-cook it as I see fit.
So... what more is there to want? I used to think about how to cut expenses without dropping my lifestyle, and now, I've cut off significant expenses, especially on food.
So I've come to an issue on what to post about... cos... I can't write much more about cutting expenses... My biggest flexible expense which is food has already been cut greatly.
I can barely bring myself to post about credit card promos. The idea of spending to save is ridiculously flawed.
Eating at home is almost free.
Eating at hawker centers is cheap.
Eating at restaurants with discounts is slightly expensive...
It's not that I don't eat at restaurants anymore. I still do, but due to some changes in our weekend schedule, we don't have as much opportunity to do it as much as previously.
And the best thing is... my life has now become so simple and we are totally enjoying it. I'm not stressed over investments... I'm not too bothered about expenses. My wife is happy at her job. I go out and get free food maybe twice a week.
So I also start to wonder... why are there so many other people who are stressed up?
I agree that I am comfortable financially, that's cos of the decisions I made, keeping expenses low for many years when I was working, and now I continue to keep expenses low.
It's all a cause and effect...
I keep my spending low, saved more, and continue to keep my spending as low as I can... so I'm not too stressed over finance related issues. Mortgage payments, insurance payments, etc etc.
The flip side of it is higher spending, less savings, concern over monthly fixed expenses. And yet, I see many of these people continue to go on holidays regularly.
And that's all fine... if they can afford it then just spend lor. But if they can't afford it, then spend, then complain that they are stressed over finances and their job... then I scratch my head thinking... HUH???
There are many many people who are doing relatively well. If they exercised a bit more financial discipline, they would be significantly less burdened financially.
It's like... I know that eating too much will make me gain weight and be unhealthy. But I don't control my intake and exercise... but I still continue to complain about my situation...
Similar for other form of stress and issues.
Anyway, I digress...
Life has really settled down for us, and things have become simple and peaceful, so I tend to have difficulty thinking of new ideas to write about.
It's like... how to talk about investments when there's little interest personally...
Or how to talk about discounts, when many things are now free....
Last time, there were so many different discounts and trying to capitalize on each bank's cards to get different bonuses.
But now, when things are free... I talk about free stuff, but free stuff can be obtained in a few regular ways. It's not like there are many many ways to get free stuff. There are a few ways, and all we need to do is just to actually do it. The methods don't change around like bank cards where we have to keep updated on which card is the best or adjust spending accordingly.
So.... anyone wanna suggest quirky topics for me to write about?
It would really help out in tomorrow's post.
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