An expensive mistake

I just made one, that is.

Needless to say (but I'm not giving myself ready excuses), I was tired, I bought something expensive and I regret it almost immediately when leaving the store. Now, before you ask further "just make a refund", I regret to tell you that the returns/refund policy where I live is next to none. 

Vaguely remembering there is a "protection" policy (aka insurance), an urgent call to the credit card company was made. Apparently I could return all the things to the insurance company (the broker of the credit card company) and get a refund, but I had to pay roughly 12% of the product's value (it's an exact figure, not a percentage given). I wasn't impressed.

More importantly, I'm angry and beyond annoyed at myself.

It was clearly not a need, I am not going to die if I don't have it in my life. Far from that. It's not the sense of entitlement ("treat thyself") either. I don't know what got over me and I did it. The money (any money in fact) can be put to use in a much much better and purposeful way. 

Now we're looking at 2 options - (1) I can take the products (not send...) to the insurance company and fill in forms to do a refund and suffer the 12% loss; or (2) I can go back to the store to exchange for something else of equal value or higher value, which the difference shall be paid in extra. Selling it away is not an option either.

Totally realizing I'm bringing on more trouble for myself, I don't know which is the better option. It is a very expensive mistake either way no matter how you look at it. It SUCKS to feel like this.

This lesson just serves to remind me (1) not to set foot in that store again (except should I decide to exchange products, which is likely, since I'm not going to use that darn thing if I keep it, it's too painful of a lesson); (2) be very, very judicious in making decisions; (3) leave the cards at home (I brought it with me since I had to pay for a prescription today); (4) I'm going to live just fine without it; (5) I've lost more than just the monetary value here, time and mental resources to ponder and wonder about the decisions made. Frankly speaking it's been a torture ever since that stupid decision has been made. 

Can't let this happen again!

Saying NO to temptations

OK, I've never thought these to be the first pictures to appear on my blog posts but here you go...aren't they pretty?

THAT china ware in the bottom pic...priceless. Well, no, they come with a price tag. What are you doing in a Starb**ks when you are not actually a coffee drinker or a snacker? You may ask. The reason I was there was because of these - I hunted them down for my friends, but the mugs were so adorable...I found them hard to forget. But I'm trying to resist; I have too many cups / mug, I might break them since I'm careless, my home is running out of space, etc The debate is still raging hard this morning when I helped my friends to purchase them (which they'll reimburse me later), and by the way, these are "limited editions" exclusive to this corner of the earth (of course that darn word again!) and sold like hot cakes every year around this time when they are released (some of them the same, some are new designs). The whole city was scouring over these, and I just didn't buy them (yet). I don't think I will, even though I very much want to!

Now I invite you to join me to savor these pretties in a digital form...cross our arms in front of our chest and say no. No, it's not easy, but it has to be done, if we are to stay on course with frugality.

Over to you, how do you resist temptations? How do you convince yourself to say NO?

*Full collection photos HERE. Do not click if you are feeling weak. You've been warned.

CNY is coming! Hide!

*Enters panic and crisis mode*

2014 Christmas had seen me indifferent, and I'm no feeling Chinese New Year either :( it's just 10 days away and I'm starting to panic a few days ago. It has largely to do with food.

While days off from work is always, always good, I can't stomach the thought of having the same food (puddings and turnip cakes and etc) for more than 2 days. The holiday coincided with weekend so that's a great 5 day long thing this year. More shops open on New Year than before but - you guessed it - people will flock there and they'll charge more than usual - pretty much the type of food you have on V Day when you dine out - much more pricey and quality had gone downhill.

After some thought I decided to tell my family the biggest source of panic is food. Supermarkets hardly gets a restock on the first two days...it's no surprise. And I'm super, duper panic if we run out of fresh food / food of variety. With that in mind, I've decided to keep a few things in the house to keep things interesting...I'd have instant oatmeal for a change, just to have a switch in palate, if things get desperate. I'd eat tinned food or granola bars, or plain boiled eggs with bread (if there is) if I need to. There will need to be a few things around the house to spice things up - atm I'm thinking more along the lines of dumplings with soup, instant noodles (there's enough stock for 3 persons...but 5 days? hmmm), frozen processed food (how sad), lots of greens and fruits.

Ideally I want to have lots of different food in the freezer but our small freezer just doesn't cut it, there's no way to get a bigger one giving the size of the house vs the size of most folks' house in this city. When I have my freezer one day (instead of mom being in charge...), I'd do a deep clean of that and toss out every unused thing. Now everything's in there and you just can't "see" the potential space that can be freed up to do lots of other things, yet she kept telling me there's no space for more food when I try to bring in some!

If you're reading this, I'd like to know how do you cope with the fear of not having enough food?

Doing the right thing

I changed my mind (sort of ate my words) - I declined the wedding banquet invitation. To be honest, my initial reply to her was I"d get back to her whether I can make it or not - so my answer now is a NO, and I told her I'm sorry I can't make it on such short notice.

Come to think of it, it's not just about the money. It's about sincerity. The colleague who was getting married invited me a few days ago, and her wedding is in early January. I mean hello, you don't decide to get married in a 5-star hotel suddenly, right? IF I"m one of the "valued" people in her life ,I"m saying IF, which I'm not, neither was she in my life (brutally honest I know), wouldn't it make sense to notify people months in advance? Not weeks. It's barely 3 weeks until her wedding here. Which makes you hard NOT to wonder whether she didn't have enough guests, but she booked a large venue and paid a large deposit, so she scrambled everyone to attend to glean money out from the guests who were not invited in the first round, but only much later, aka last week.

I know some people who handled this tactfully by asking first, then handing the invitation (if the reply was a yes). She didn't. I don't have obligation to "make up for" her lost guests who were unable to attend. In short, I felt a bit cheated. If she doesn't think of me as a valued guest (to ask me to save the date way before), why should I value her invitation and attend? I've done a few favors for her (unrelated to work / wedding), and this is how she treat me? Like an ATM of last resort or some kind?

Oh and by the way, I know *some* colleagues are going, but some are not. My supervisor was definitely not. Either way, I made a counter offer for her to make up for the absence, but she hasn't replied.

And I slept well at night.

-----------------------------------

Another good news is, I found myself less and less attracted to the thought of shopping now. Except I bought a comb /hair brush yesterday. I never had a comb / hair brush, or have ever bought one, because I felt I don't need one. Until lately my hair seems to be falling off more than before, I"m hoping this would help. It costed HK$150 and I would be able to use it everyday. This purchase would be practical and well-considered. I'm starting to like this way of considering a potential purchase, thinking about it back and forth, doing research, choosing the most suitable one, starting with the simple one! I've been going through my head that every purchase should be done the way this is :-)

Hope everyone's having a good weekend!

!!! Just as

Just as I was drafting up the budget for 2015 (and January's to be exact), a colleague popped in and invited me to her wedding banquet! Unfortunately to us Chinese, it means that I have to sip in a bit of money (and not little anyway, it could mean anywhere between US$65-100!) should I decide to attend! 

Then, as if it's not enough news for the day, another colleague (a senior) would be leaving and there would be a farewell lunch as well! I was thinking "no I won't go..." until a colleague said she thinks we should go. BAM!! Another dollar note went away from my pocket literally!

Part of me kept telling myself that it's essentially a "career capital / socializing" thing and while it's not very desirable expenses, it can't do any harm for my career. But my major gripe is that I hate not to be able to control little things like that! You know, those things where you just HAVE TO and there's no way around it. (Not to say the least, my colleagues are a mixed bunch - imbecile, arrogance, boastfulness, ingratitude, and even some truly naive enough to listen to the endless crap they boast about. I don't give any responses to their boastfulness unless it's something really ground-breaking which is, none at all. Yep, that's PJ. PJ believes you shouldn't reinforce those people and it's not my job to make them feel good about themselves that certain way.) 

Money aside, I don't enjoy sitting at a banquet with guests I don't know and being stuck for a dinner for HOURS and eat at the same table with strangers. The most sensible choice I"ve heard (from an oddly wise old lady) was, throw them the money and spend the time your own, i.e. give what you have to pay but don't waste your time there. Because time is finite and money can be earned again. It's bad enough to give money away but even worse if you lose the time as well. Even though it's socially/politically impolite to highlight this fact, but HOW WISE IS HER COMMENT! Spot-on.

But seeing that a few of the colleagues would probably go, and it's been a long time since I last attended a wedding banquet which might be nice to catch up with what the banquet craze these days are about, and it would make me look better socially and politically VS. if I chose not to show up (yet still pay for the banquet). I reminded self to remain "cordial but distant" from colleagues (not to get too close or too friendly) so that they won't think of me whenever they need funds via the form of weddings/banquets/casual lunches out everyday. So far that has been successful? Until today. 

With these unexpected expenditures arising, I'd be trimming the "eating out" money for January as well as December. I have budgeted for the "eating out" money to cover the office lunches occasionally but "invitation to banquets" are not covered normally, and I don't see why I have to give them a place there, maybe I should budget for it from now on. Stubborn moi? No?

Life insurance - dilemma AGAIN

One of my October goals is to have some of the insurance stuff sorted out - I met up with the agent with SO last week, I have asked the agent to show me the different options for a Life Insurance plan for moi. He had made 4 different payment plans, the insured amount + insured age + terms being the same for all plans. The plan was, of course, not for me (I'm not a beneficiary but my parents will be).

I did the math at home, the shorter the payment cycle is, the smaller the overall amount I need to pay in total. The 4 different payment plans can be paid monthly or yearly, in essence the math is:

(1) $113,860 per year x 5 years = $569,300 i.e. $9,488 per month.

(2) $59,680 per year x 10 years = $598,600 i.e. $4,973 per month.

(3) $41,660 per year x 15 years = $624,900 i.e. $3,471 per month.

(4) $34,720 per year x 20 years = $694,400 i.e. $2,893 per month.

................That's a tough math! But what in life isn't?

Option (1): As much as I want to pick this, there's hardly any money left for savings per month after all my expenses are deducted, and we're talking about 5 whole years without savings (!!!). This is out of the question I think?

Option (2): It's thinkable, it'll leave me a bit of wiggle room for savings (down by half than I plan to save per month), but shall I decide to buy a house, it also means the down payment sum will be smaller/slower than I want it to be.

Option (3): Not so much different than (2) above, but even more wiggle room for savings. Not the most ideal but thinkable.

Option (4): This one is easiest to manage, if I can stick to my budget each month, I'll still be able to achieve the minimal savings goal set per year, albeit I have to keep telling myself I"m walking a tight rope. Here we are talking about 20 years of payment so things will become easier when I get raises across years. BUT, I don't like the thought of owing something and paying something for 20 years (except mortgage)!!!!!! Also, bear in mind that the difference of the total sum between Option (4) and Option (2) is > 98,000!

If you know PJ, PJ is the sort of person that if she wants something done, she wants it to be done quick, neat and efficiently (cost, energy, effort).

In 5-7 years time, I plan to buy a house and get mortgage. I don't have exact figures or plans yet but I know I want to do that, better as soon as possible. I also would like to add that anyone of my age should easily have at least 300k net worth and I'm falling far behind.

Have you faced such dilemmas? How and what did you end up deciding?

Lottery anyone?

Today I decided not to bring my own lunch because the appetite had decided to go on strike due to some shock I've had yesterday (both from my home owning friend and a cluster of family troubles from a family gathering last night). So one of my colleagues suggested (quite insensitively, much to my dismay) that since no one has brought their lunch today why not we go out to a restaurant? I toyed with the idea and kept wondering if I should ditch them on midway saying I'll just buy takeaway (I hinted to them my appetite is not at its best today, and indeed it wasn't). We ended up queuing for a Japanese restaurant then later on we found ourselves seated in another restaurant serving Western style food. I had no problems with the food as I've tried this particular location before but I'm meh about paying more than I expected (takeaway vs. eat-in!). If you know me, I've always been a fan of some pre-planning action: meals, movies, dates, nights-out, etc. This isn't about inflexibility but a feeling of "in control" and "predictability".

For the most part I was pretty much silent in a party of 4, then one of them generously paid for all of us (being higher in position than the rest of us are). Then the same colleague who suggested to lunch out suggested we have a go in lottery. Oh man, where should I begin. To say I've been "coaxed" to contribute my share to a lottery ticket is more like it. We ended up buying 4 tickets and each of us paid HK$20. Then when I sat down and jot down my expenses, I realized in my monthly budget there was no room to wiggle in the $20!! (Of course.)

So my question is, do you guys set aside money for lottery? If so, how often?

-PJ

Dilemma

The first post here will speak of a dilemma. GREAT (not). 

September has traditionally been a rather spendy month for me, not due to "back to school" spendings but the following:

1) parents' birthdays are in September.

2) Mid-Autumn festival dinners (and its costs);

3) Money for Grannies - I try to give money to them whenever I meet them for dinner, usually family dinners during various festivities throughout the year. I'm not complaining, they looked after me when I was little, and now that they don't work anymore, it's only right that I give them back something. Since I don't live with them, money will always be the best way to their hearts.

However, this is no excuse to let this month's spending soar above my means. I treat my parents to dinner on their birthdays instead of buying them presents, if something caught my eye and is suitably priced, then I give, otherwise no presents. My mom has always been a fan of "food", aka buffet, it's no surprise to me that she wants to go have a nice buffet dinner for her birthday. I, on the other hand, hated buffet: it's a ridiculous way of spending money on excessive food which I cannot consume, and I don't like the feeling of "stuffing" food down the throat just because (i) there are plenty of choices; (ii) I paid a ridiculous amount for it. My brain would like to think that buffet is a first world's crime. I'd rather spend that amount of money eating exquisite cuisine. It's not only about the money (HK$500 per person at least, if you want a "decent" quality/range of food served), it's about the wastage, the calories and fat that I don't need!

The brain is torn at the moment - part of it is saying "It's mom's birthday and why not just spoil her for once", part of it is saying "No! It'll set a HK$2500 off from my bank". I don't know, really. We're talking about a party of 5 persons having the buffet this time, if I'm lucky, my aunt would shoulder some of the costs with me but I don't know yet. I even thought about just paying for 4 persons' while they eat at the hotel and I would just stay home, really I hate the idea of buffet so much.

Are you a fan of all-you-can-eat meals? What are your dilemmas when it comes to spending?

- PJ