PRIVACY POLICY

Sunday, September 10, 2017

Small savings might not add up to big money but...

It has been a while since I blogged about my money habits.

Readers who have been following my blog for a long time might remember the blogs on packing lunch to work and not buying drinks when eating out (and definitely not from Starbucks), for examples.





For sure, the blogs did not sit well with everybody and I was even labelled a person with a peasant mentality (or a person with a "poverty mindset") in wealth building because of them.

Well, I hope people who don't like my money habits don't read this blog.

Wait a while.

Filtered.

Still reading?

OK, you have been warned.


Since I changed my diet more than a year ago, I have been consuming more eggs and this is how I have been buying them.

In a tray of 30.
I transfer the eggs into smaller trays for ease of storage.



Tray of 30 @ $3.30.

Tray of 10 @ $1.65.

I save $1.65 each time.

What? $1.65 only? 

It is a 33.3% savings! 

Hey! It is like getting 10 eggs for free!
As you can tell from the scribbles on the label, I have been doing this for quite some time.

I know many people think that it is not worth saving small amounts of money. 

Maybe, saving small amounts of money gives them a "poverty mindset" and they don't like it.

Small savings are for poor people and they want to feel rich.

AK, you not poor wor. Why you so giamsiap? So cham like that.






Well, saving small amounts of money might not make us rich but it definitely won't make us poorer. Now, doing the opposite would definitely make us poorer.


Almost bankrupt, AK's family was once quite poor. AK doesn't want to go back there.

Related posts:
1. Money habits and $100K savings.
2. Earn $32,000 with a mug?
3. My family almost went bankrupt.

26 comments:

  1. wah, u eat so many eggs ah?
    "tan tan tan tan"....
    i cannot finish 30 eggs by myself
    before the "best before" date, so
    i usually buy those 10 ones in
    the paper tray... Even those will
    come with "buy 1 get 1 free" which
    i will also skip. The pasar budget
    eggs look abit smaller leh.

    you should also BYOB, make purchases
    just above $10 each time, so can save
    10 cents... save environment, save < 1%,
    earn some points.

    do remember to change the routine abit
    hor, later pple stalk ntuc queue and see
    who buy 30x pasar budget eggs, BYOB and
    make purchases just above 10, then your
    cover blown leow.

    fc

    ReplyDelete
  2. Take care of the cents and the dollars will come.
    The great grandfather of 1 million is 1 cent.

    People dont realise the power of that, but you do.

    And so do I!

    I buy toilet paper in packs of 30rolls.
    Not any type. Minimum 2 ply and tough.
    No fancy stuff for the rear end.. after all, its going
    down the drain. Ha! ha! ha!

    At Sheng Siong ( vested ) 4 day special, ( still on, last day today )
    a brand of toilet paper "softess" is on offer $10.95 for 30 rolls.

    That is $0.365 cts per roll
    Compare that to high end ( yet same end use...) Kleenex or something like that
    its $0.57cts! and that is for 20 rolls!

    I think I have enough stock to last for 3 months.
    If only it was cash....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Avoid those eggs. You should go for either Kampung eggs or omega enriched eggs. The two eggs I mentioned the yolks are orange vs the traditional 30 eggs where the yolks are yellow. Big difference. Those with orange yolk are more nutrient dense vs those yellow yolks (due to what they feed the chickens). Shell is also not so brittle vs the 30 eggs. Is not about price. Is whether you want to pay more for health. There's a reason those 30 eggs are cheap. They are cheaper to produce as they use cheap chicken feed and the chickens are kept coped up on a large commercial scale which lead to unhealthy chicken (chicken needing antibiotics just to survive) vs Kampung chicken where the chicken is allowed to run around and eat stuff like earthworms vs being force fed. Chickens are like humans. Keep them on TV and inside the house, feed them junk food they, become unhealthy. Let the human go out for exercise and eat real food, their health improved.

    My family went from those 30 tray eggs > omega eggs > kampung eggs as Kampung eggs is as close as what our grandparents are getting.

    Did you know you can reuse the egg shell as calcium supplement (dry them, blend them up and add into your food) or fertilizer (grind them into powder and sprinkle onto your plants)?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi fc,

    I eat 3 to 6 eggs a day. So, it is easy for me to consume 30 eggs on my own within 10 days.

    Eggs are nutritious whole food and are a good source of complete protein. 6 eggs a day will provide an average adult male his daily protein requirement.

    I love eggs and I am so happy that studies have debunked the myth that dietary cholesterol will cause a spike in bad cholesterol in the blood. I have avoided eggs for too many years. So yuan wang.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi veronika,

    I buy house brand toilet paper from NTUC Fairprice (vested). ;)

    I don't see why I have to spend more on atas brands when, like you said, everything is going down the jamban. ;p

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi John,

    Thanks for the suggestion.

    It has been shown that from a nutritional perspective, there is really not much difference between chicken which are free ranging or corn fed, for examples. However, the difference in price can be a few times more.

    Recently, I watched a documentary on BBC and, again, it reinforced this point.

    What is different is the level of animal welfare and if we care about the welfare of the chickens, we will buy the free ranging variety because they supposedly lead happier lives.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi AK,

    Take a variety of food in moderate.
    It will be more healthy.

    Ben

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Ben,

    Oh, definitely. If you follow me on Facebook, you will see that I have also been eating a fair amount of fish, for example. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  9. The value is not in the few dollars saved, but in the mindset & attitudes cultivated. :)

    Talking about toilet paper ... back in the mid-1990s when SAF first started the credit system to buy/replace army clothing ... we used to be able to order toilet rolls at $0.10 per roll. We all ordered these toilet rolls to use up the leftover credits which had a 2-year expiry. We called them commando toilet paper, coz they were that rough, made from recycled paper, & can see tiny bits of aluminium foil in the paper too. LOL!! But ok lah, my backside still survived!

    I remember ordering 50 rolls for $5. My mum got a shock when the deliveryman appeared (at that time me still staying with parents) & I remember nobody in my household was using them except me --- took me like 4 years to use them up man...

    Later this year you can go for $5 health screening to check your blood cholesterol, fasting blood sugar, BP...
    https://www.gov.sg/news/content/the-straits-times---5-health-screening-for-1-8-million-singaporeans-letters-out-from-august

    Cheap & good! :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Spur,

    Oh, I remember that toilet paper. I call them the "Ouch-ouch" brand toilet paper! ;p

    $5? Wah! So cheap! I went for a health screening a few years ago at a polyclinic and it was $12. I thought it was super cheap already. Now, I feel cheated! :p

    This was in 2013:
    Health screening in polyclinic.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I was about to question your eggs consumption but decided not because is not the point. What you have described is a way of life. A philosophy that transcend into your investment decision too on being careful with money. People confuse careful = not taking investment risk. And that is the worst mistake financially.


    Cory

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Cory,

    We cannot avoid risk in life.

    We can only manage risk. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi AK,

    Risk Management is a skillset throughout one's lifetime. I think that one will get better handling risk through daily experience. This is one of the important survival skillsets which we will learn throughout the lifetime.

    Learn it well and it will serve us well for the lifetime.

    Ben

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi Ben,

    I am still learning and hope to do better in future. :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Another interesting article.. I also save every bit and there , defer any purchase for as long as possible.. After saving for 25 years, I feel quite well off compare to my peer.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hi AK,

    I also learning. Hopefully,all of us become better by learning from one another through ideas sharing via this blog.

    Ben

    ReplyDelete
  17. AK,

    "Well, I hope people who don't like my money habits don't read this blog."


    Hey! You have grown!

    You can say, "You get outta here!"

    Impressed ;)


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDvZrubaEwA

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hi Simp,

    It doesn't matter if we make a lot of money if we spend all of it.

    It is how much we save that determines if we have money.

    Good job! :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Hi Ben,

    Of course, I hope readers realise that it is not just about the money.

    It is about a philosophy in life. :)

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hi SMOL,

    Grown?

    Alamak.

    I thought I lost weight. :(

    I am so sad. I am going to get outta here for a while... :_(

    ReplyDelete
  21. Hi ASSI
    First time commenting here. there must come a time when u have enough to last u for the rest of your life, right? Let say u are 50 yo and u have 3mil in assets then u can spend at least 6k a month if u use 40years more. then do u have to do this? of course presuming u are not going to leave anything behind for your NOK

    ReplyDelete
  22. Hi llch01,

    I hear you and I hear many others who have said similar stuff to me. :)

    I have become less tight fisted with money in recent years. Really, I have. ;)

    See, for example:
    My passive income all gone...

    Old habits are just harder to die...

    ReplyDelete
  23. Hi AK,

    U happy doing it right. Whatever we do, as long as we don't harm anyone, ourselves included, happy can already. Tight fist, loose fist, dragon palm ... who cares

    Just know we make the choice on our own and is happy can le

    ReplyDelete
  24. Hi Mike,

    Well, it is about being happy and responsible at the same time, isn't it?

    Alamak. What did I just say? So stressful. -.-"

    ReplyDelete
  25. Investmentmoats just published a blog titled "The 11 Stages of Wealth: Which Stage of Wealth are You at?" spanning from Stage 0 (zero) to Stage 10.

    And AK is a Perfect 10 !!!!

    The 11 Stages of Wealth: Which Stage of Wealth are You at?

    ReplyDelete
  26. Hi Laurence,

    Alamak. So many stages? Too stressful for me. ;p

    My philosophy is quite simple and I try not to compare (too much):
    How rich is rich?

    ReplyDelete