Frugal Saturday

It's the eve of Christmas and I honestly didn't feel like doing much today. There's something about the end of year that slows things down, I guess it's time for 2016 performance review and new year planning.

I still went to Starbuck right after I woke up to just get "some" things done. When I'm not working or sitting in front of my laptop, I feel like I'm wasting time, yes, yes, I know...

I went online to order groceries from Tesco (still can't believe they deliver to my area) and managed to spend just over RM 100, good job! I love how you can choose the amount of product you want in grams/kilograms and not be stuck with a pack of this or a bag of that. I saw that they have store brand diced tomatoes in a can for half the price of other brands, so I got 2 cans to stock up my pantry. They even come added with basil and garlic, sooo can't wait to try. I still need to get a few things from the Hero supermarket (walnuts and blueberries, maybe beef) and I'm set for the week.

I'm in between skincare products right now and using a generic brand, but my face is breaking out with those small "rice" pimples, also reddish and itchy all the freaking time. I went to the online Sephora store to check out the price for Clinique facial cleanser and moisturizer. I used them before and loved it, but due to some financial restrictions at that time, stopped and never got back to it. So I registered and linked my Sephora card to collect points. The stuff I wanted costs RM 90 and comes with a free sample-they give you 5 options and you may choose one- and before clicking pay I dug around the wonderful world of Internet for an online discount coupon and found one for RM 10 off, yay me! So altogether I paid only RM 81 (the coupon was RM 9 at the checkout instead of RM 10, but whatever) for my purchase, just a little over the RM 80 minimum purchase requirement for free delivery.

I'd say for a lazy Christmas eve, it's a good day. The more frugal things I do, the more addictive it becomes. Happy clean and frugal living!

In Search of the Perfect Gym

In my 4 years in this fitness journey, I've been to many types of gyms and I know what works for me. 

First off, it must be no more than 10 minutes away because if it's far, I won't go. It can have the best facilities, the most amazing classes - heck, it can even have a desert bar - I simply won't go. It's hard enough to motivate myself to work out some days, why add the stress of commuting to it too?

Secondly, price. In this case, I blame Priority Fitness in Bayan Baru, Penang. That was my first (gym) love. 2 storeys of weight lifting space, a dedicated Les Mill spinning area, and a separate studio for classes. People at the counter can prepare you a post workout shake should you need one, they have bananas for instant energy (not free of course, it's not a charity house), and Pak Abu, who trained some very well known body builders in Malaysia. The sense of community is strong, even an introvert like me made friends there. All this, for RM 50 a month! Alas, I moved to KL and have yet to find a gym I love as much as I do Priority Fitness.

Thirdly, workout equipment. My previous gym was 2 minutes away from home but it's very poorly maintained. Nobody wipes after themselves, and don't let me get started on the music. It's like you let your 80 year old grandpa have a go at the turntables. At first I was like whatever, it's 2 minutes away. But last week I almost died, "Death by Treadmill". I was running when the treadmill stopped abruptly. I'm lucky to be alive, pheww. Dramatization aside, I decided that that's it. Time to shop for a new gym.

3 days ago I found one 3 minutes away from home. It's one of those very modern, very new franchise gym with a worldwide network. It's open 24 hours (that's their USP actually) and after signing up, you get an electronic key that can be used in all their gyms all over the world. The space is CCTV monitored and should something happen to you while you are working out or in the shower, you can press the panic button and they will immediately call for help. Fancy much? Oh yeah, it costs a bomb too. I was so happy that they are so close that I forgot to be rational and immediately filled in the application form. It was a lucky thing I didn't pay on the spot, because today I sort of came to my senses.

I don't want to work out in an uppity gym. (I have a theory that the more you pay for a gym membership, the "colder" the place is. I want to go to a gym that is warm and welcoming. I joined another uppity gym 2 years ago, everybody was so busy admiring themselves in the mirror and no one talked to anyone.) I want to make friends at the gym, compare notes, have a workout buddy. So today, instead of going to the 24 hours gym to pay the enrollment fees, I turned to Google and did another search. There is another one also 3 minutes away, whattt? And just like that, I found my second love.

My first workout experience there tonight was great. It's very clean, not too busy and all the equipment works, yay! The girl at the front desk was nice and chatty, the owner personally welcomed me and gave me a tour, everyone I smiled to smiled back at me :-) All for just RM 60 per month. I'm a lucky girl.

End of Year Spending Spree

So yesterday I went to D'Pulze Mall for work, but in all honesty I was craving Boat Noodles. I had been feeling particularly blergh for the last two weeks because I have a big project deadline looming in the very near future and the thought of working on it (so.much.work) sort of paralyzed me. What a genius, instead of hunkering down to work on it bit by bit, I agonized over it and procrastinated, which benefited nobody!

After lunch, which took well over an hour, and with no particular motivation to sit and work, I walked around the mall to try to "summon" the work goddess (or whatever you call it). In a sports shop, I saw a beautiful, crazy-print workout tights and I knew right that instant that I had to have it. Please, please, let them have my size. It still hurts when I think back of how much I paid for that pair of pants, especially in relation to what I found at FOS later, but I felt happy. I've been wanting a pair of crazy-print tights forever. You see those gym freaks on Instagram with their rainbow hued workout gears and crazy toned bodies and you wonder if you should buy the clothes first to get that body or get the body first, and then the clothes? Catch 22, so I took the fast route.

And THEN, I found out that FOS now has their own line of sportswear, that offers surprisingly good quality pants (almost no difference with the Reebok tights I bought 2 seconds ago). And at 1/3 of the price, what!? Want to cry also cannot edy. In consolation, the FOS ones didn't come in awesome prints. Still, I bought 2 pairs and called it a day. The last time I bought any workout clothes was 2 years ago, so hopefully these babies will tide me over to the end of 2018.

Some undergarments were bought too but no need to talk about that, yes? The last time I bought any of that was 2 years ago as well, so it's high time because nothing is supporting anything anymore if you know what I mean. Total damage for everything was around RM 550, a paltry sum really compared to the bounty. I had a mild anxiety attack for a bit and kept recalculating because it's been ages since I shopped for clothes and parting with the money was hard. I've started a strict budget now (to pay PTPTN, dammit) and every single ringgit is accounted for. Turns out the spending anxiety was the perfect trigger, right after the shopping was done I went to Plan B, ordered coffee and started working, typing so fast my fingers hurt.

I never used to worry about spending money to buy clothes and back then, in my closet you might find shirts with the price tags still on, and more clothes shoved at the back of the closet, never seeing the light of day for months on ends. I culled my wardrobe two Sundays ago and sold everything I don't like, don't wear or don't fit into anymore. Now I have less, but I love and would wear them all. Apart from work clothes, which I, in my 11 years of professional career, still can't seem to master, I'm all set. In the core, I am a laid back, harem pants and t-shirt kinda girl. And I have an awesome, crazy-print gym tights, yes!

Frugal and Clean Living

I've decided to write about living frugally, as part of my effort to live clean. I'm disgusted with the amount of waste we accumulate individually and as a whole, what with prices at an all time high right now. I just finished reading On A Dollar A Day, by Christopher Greenslate and Kerri Leonard - essentially not a book about frugality, but on poverty in the U.S. and how some people are forced to feed themselves on a dollar a day - and became very excited and inspired. I am already practicing some frugal living but this book made me want to amp up my efforts.

I see it as a game (games are always fun, right?) of minimizing costs and maximizing profits. My goal is to eat good, nutritious food (organic when I can find it) at the lowest cost possible. Some things I'm already doing frugally include:

Meal planning
I plan my meals for the week before I go grocery shopping so I know what I already have. I have a list and usually disciplined enough to stick to it. Unless there is a sale for Lays Sour Cream and Onion. WEAK SPOT.

Grocery budget
My budget is RM 600 per month for 2 people, and that includes toiletries, cleaning products, kitchen towels, detergent etc. Grocery shopping is done (ideally) once a week, but sometimes I need to do a second run in the middle of the week for vegetables. I discovered today that Tesco delivers to my area and placed my first ever order with them. So excited! There is a Jusco 5 mins from home and I've always shopped there, but looks like things are about to change. My groceries are coming to me, not the other way around. They have better prices, reasonably fresh products and delivery costs RM 3. Win!

Not Waste Food
I only buy produce that I can eat within a week so they don't end up as wilted, brown things at the bottom drawer. Or worse, a disintegrated jelly mass of brown stuff. Yikes. Another thing that I carefully monitor is cooked meat, sometimes it's easy to forget them containers lurking at the back of the fridge.

Batch Cooking
When I cook, usually on Sundays, I make double batches so I always have lunches and dinners ready when I'm too lazy/tired to cook from scratch in the middle of the week. The usual suspects are baked chicken/fish, vegetarian chili, hummus.

Store Brand
I used to be such a snob about brands, but then found out that the product quality of store brands don't really differ much from their more expensive cousins. The price of well known brands are higher because we are paying more for advertising, packaging and marketing. No more of that. I'll take my Tesco brand tuna at RM 3.99 over brand X at RM 6.99, thank you.

Disclaimer: I'm no cheap skate. I can afford to eat out everyday and spend on a whim, but I don't. I hate waste, both in money and time. I see many ways we can do better to live better, and being mindful about our spending is one of them. When you cook at home you save hundreds of ringgit every month, and possibly eat healthier at the same time.

I've wanted to write about frugality for so long but I fear that it's not a "fashionable" enough topic. Yes, I care about what people think :-) This post was so easy to write it made me feel stupid for procrastinating for so long. To end, here's a pic of my lunch, vegetarian chilli with zucchini and wholewheat pita.

Frugality

I don't know when I started to be interested in frugality but it could have been something that stemmed from way back when I was sort of seeing this guy who was an inspiring minimalist. Reading minimalist blogs led to frugal blogs, or maybe I was just poor and wanted to find ways to save money. Can't remember.

The good thing is most frugal bloggers are also health conscious and I am forever grateful for the exposure that I had, reading all those blogs and discovering how interesting the idea of eating healthy and living with less mess are. I'm always on the lookout for new frugal blogs to read. Tonight I tried Googling 'frugal blogs Malaysia' and sad to say, I came up with almost nothing. There were a few online publications extolling the virtue of being frugal by eating at home (please, newbies) yada yada, but truly, these people just wanted to complain about how expensive things are right now and then blame the government. You can tell that their piece of advice is clearly copied from somewhere else. How can I tell? Well, I'm  an experienced frugal blog reader (imagine if this is a real job haha). Frugality is a cause dear to frugal people, and when they share something with you - frugal tips, small wins, successful under the budget shopping trip - you can feel the excitement. I want to find something like this in the local blogging arena but so far, nada.

Should I start writing about frugality too?  This blog is gathering cobwebs,  I know. Sometimes I want to write about eating clean or working out but I worry that I might be too 'show offy'.

Hmm, maybe I will.