FRUGALITY AND ME

We discussed getting me a mortgage this morning, me and Dad.

The conclusion was that if I wanted to join the ranks of property owners in Singapore, I would have to give up all the other parts of my life, and assume Scrooge’s existence for the next ten years, and I may just be able to scrap by and own my own condominium apartment. If an en-bloc sale happens in the meantime, that’s a bonus, but another financial crisis might just see me screwed.

Just five years ago, it wouldn’t have seemed like too much hardship. But I have gotten too used to the good life these few years. The Good Life sneaks up on one insidiously. Sitting down to pare down my budget to see if there was any chance I could manage a property investment, I only just realise how used to high living I have been. Stuff that I would have once considered dispensable, suddenly threatened to affect my quality of life so majorly that I feel myself hesitating in cutting the strings.

Investment or not, I have come to the conclusion that it was time I got myself used to frugality again. Stuff like no more shopping (yeah, I’ve said this like about a hundred times), no more cabbing, no more restaurant meals every other day, I can still handle. I can give up the pampering stuff like facials, massages etc. However, the biggest bulk of my expenditure now goes to keeping up with my fitness regime….and it is a pain in the neck to decide how to pare that down. Give up the exclusive strength training and train by myself, or give up the Muay Thai lessons? Cutting out either one of these or both would give an instant boost in my savings.

Why the difficulty? Because I have invested more than money in my whole fitness regime. It represents the source of my self confidence, it gives variety to my otherwise monotonous life and it is a major source of socializing for me outside work. It plays a major role in defining who I am at this point in time.

With some creative accounting skills, and hopefully a lot of discipline on my part, I managed to keep both in my budgeting. But I am thinking it is time to wean myself from one or both, unless this August brings good news on salary increment front.

We will see how successful I am in two weeks time. It is an easy thing to budget when one is fully rested on a Sunday afternoon. Having to wake up at 5.30 am on a weekday morning after only 5 hours of sleep, and realizing that spending $16 on a cab ride will mean 30 minutes more of sleep time, is another challenge.