Two hurdles before I spend

It’s still the sales season, and this year round it’s branded as Malaysia Savings Sale, a clever approach to entice people to spend at this time of ‘tightening the purse’. I do think that it could indeed be an opportunity to save, provided we purchase the things we need, rather than buying something just because it’s cheaper, something we otherwise won’t. I am guilty of doing this sometimes, but I think I’m still doing okay. There are quite a few things I need to buy now, especially new clothes for the kids, and now would be a good time, but there’s no opportunity to do that yet – December is quite packed! Later, maybe.

What I like about shopping is getting the new things. What I dislike about shopping is parting with my money (duh!), jostling in the crowd, and having to ‘hunt’ for the things in the shopping list. A perfect shopping for me would mean knowing exactly what to buy (a shopping list), where to get them (exact aisle or shelf, if possible), and how much they are. Then it’ll be just a zip zap and back trip. Shopping usually feels like a chore, but I occasionally do enjoy the window shopping and hunting. Rarely, but sometimes.

In general, I think I’m careful about spending (though MHH may beg to differ, hehe). In fact, I think I could be ‘unreasonably’ prudent sometimes (my family members would probably agree with this). Of course, I’m talking about things other than necessities. I don’t think twice about buying food and clothes and diapers. Though, there’s still the question of which food and which clothes etc. There are basically two hurdles before I spend. First, I think about the price of the goods in terms of my time, based on my current salary. Although I quite enjoy (some parts of) my work, I have to be honest and admit that I wouldn’t do it if I’m not paid. So, I sometimes think about work as exchanging my time with money. So, whenever I evaluate the price of something, I’d go like, “One hour of work for a lunch? Hmm – worth it or not?” or “One day of work for a new bag?” Hmm.. work? I’d rather play with my kids. Or read a book. Or cook. For that one hour, one day, one week. Imagine slogging at the office for one week, and then being handed nothing but a (for example) stroller. Worth it, or not? Also, because I value my time, I sometimes don’t mind ‘exchanging money’ for them. I wouldn’t go to a shop which is further in order to save, say 5 ringgit, if it means I would spend more time. I wouldn’t go back and change an item wrongly charged because that needs time too.

The second hurdle is, I think about the price of goods in terms of my dream house. At the moment it’s RM100 per square feet (materials and labour). This is actually the rate some 3 or 4 years back, prices of materials have risen since, but I stick to it because it’s such a round number, easy to compute. “Two nights hotel room would cost me 4 square feet of my dream house. Worth it or not?” The one square foot is easy to imagine, it's almost tangible. The more I save, the faster I can make my dream house come true. Delayed gratification, I think of it.

Don’t get me wrong, I do spend. I do have that occasional holidays, the special lunch or dinner treats, that extra-nice clothes or bag or goods, but they were usually contemplated and thought about, and is rarely compulsive. I guess, because I still harbour the hope and dream of quitting my full-time day job to work from home one day, I consciously try to maintain a moderate lifestyle, so that the downward adjustment wouldn’t be so difficult if and when we were to survive on one income in the future.