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What’s up everyone!
Hope y’all had a great weekend :)
Its just me and the kids at home this week, MrsFrugalSamurai decided (kindly) to leave me with the lil terrors.
She’s off to Brisvegas for a conference apparently… didn’t know “holiday” rhymes with “conference” these days.
Anyhow, to celebrate her glorious gesture – I decided to take the family to Yum Cha on Sunday.
For those of you uneducated in the art of Yum Cha, it’s where you go to a (usually) Chinese restaurant with (assumedly) Chinese old ladies pushing trolleys of food in little wicker baskets around.
They (typically) stop beside your table and bark out the contents of their trolley.
It’s then up to you to decide whether you want to partake in consuming the contents of said baskets – whilst their judgy eyes bore into your soul (the old ladies eyes, not the food – food don’t have eyes).
In the past, my own eyes would light up at the mention of Yum Cha, not because of the food (which I enjoy), or the ambience (sometimes enjoyable, sometimes not) – no, they light up because any shared eating activity is right down my alley.
This is largely due to my voracious appetite, a “bottomless pit” was how one friend described it.
It’s not my fault, I would sometimes say to MrsFrugalSamurai – it’s hard to not know what a full stomach feels like. Some people have to carry all the burden.
So of course naturally, my appetite tends to stand out when it comes to shared eating.
I’ve brought my appetite with me when it comes to eating our family’s meals as well it seems.
Usually it would be MiniFrugalSamurai and BabyFrugalSamurai nibbling at their food, MrsFrugalSamurai having about half her portion and I would consume mine, then hers, then the kids.
Unfortunately at a place like Yum Cha, having a bottomless pit for a stomach can get expensive.
And so it was, that the total bill after our meal on the weekend came to about $130ish.
MrsFrugalSamurai grimaced her face when I told her the damage, especially cos neither her nor the kids ate much (that burden I had to carry comes to the fore again).
It is expensive dear, but honestly – even if we went to a “cheap” Yum Cha, I think the cheapest we got down to was around $70-80, which was about a $50 or so difference.
Which seems like a lot, but isn’t in the grand scheme of things.
Cos how often do you eat Yum Cha? Not really that often.
But how often do you buy some random piece of Temple and Webster furniture for $350, or a mini getaway weekend for $800, or new articles of clothing for a couple hundred bucks or three?
Those are the big ticket items on your balance sheet which do more damage.
I think this was one message the smashed avo brigade seemed to miss, that it’s not a regular coffee and toast outlay that gets you, it’s all the other “one-off” wanton and unnecessary spending which really adds up and then some.
Besides, I continued with MrsFrugalSamurai – I’ve learnt a long time ago that life’s not worth living with a scarcity mindset, saving a penny here or a dollar there. Nah, we gotta go out with an abundance mindset.
Forget scrimping and driving 50min just to save $50 on a cheaper joint, I’d rather use that 50 minutes to figure out how to make it back and more.
As I finished giving my mini-lecture, I turned around… and saw MrsFrugalSamurai wandering into a clothes shop.
Sigh.
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P.S. Every post is the personal opinion of yours truly, please seek your own personal financial advice regarding your own personal circumstances.
