I was watching YouTube and saw 1 video from a YouTuber about minimalism spending. I thought it will be a good topic to talk about in ViolinStar.NET too. I haven’t been blogging as much as I hope to this year. I also haven’t post any photos on my Instagram accounts in 2020 and 2021 so far.

One of the first few things I realised after turning 30 in last December is that my health/body is not as strong as before. I can’t stay up late without impacting my mornings. I really need at least 7 hours of sleep everyday. I can no longer work so hard because I will get burn out. I need to pace myself in both personal life and work life.

I also need to save up for the future and rainy days. After seeing 1 of my friends who got cancer when she is the same age as me back in 2019, I cannot underestimate the amount of money and insurance coverage I need to protect myself. Having a deep pocket provide more options for treatment too. Insurance is important if you don’t have really deep pockets. Hence, I really should not spend wastefully like what I did in my 20s.

These are the categories that I want to spend less in my 30s as I learn from my mistakes in my 20s after reviewing my expenditure in my 20s. Yes, I do track all my expenses ever since I started work in an Excel file. 🙂 I should have done it over MySQL on hindsight but oh well. Data analytics will be much easier if I am not tracking in Excel. :sigh:

(1) Buy less lower quality bags

I spent quite a bit of money buying fashion bags that are either in trend or of poor quality (such as Charles and Keith) when I was in my 20s. I even bought a Steve Madden bag from San Francisco. I thought it was leather but it turned out to be PU. It only lasted for a few months? It really cannot carry heavy stuff and it was the most expensive backpack I ever own at that time? It was US$54.44 (S$79.16) and only lasted a few months. :sigh: I have now discovered Fjallraven Kanken and got the second original kanken bag in Beijing after my first bag lasted for more than 2 years. We are talking about more than 2 years of daily use. It could have lasted even longer if I didn’t see a sale at Beijing store and decided to replace my old, dirty and worn out bag.

I will still buy bags but I think I only want to buy the better quality ones. For backpacks, I am sticking to Fjallraven Kanken or Thule. For other bags, I think I want to either get real leather bags which I can send for servicing/repairs or nylon/cloth bags which can be dried which I can bring out on rainy days.

(2) Buy less makeup

I spent my 20s exploring different types of makeup and also going for makeup classes. I bought mascara that I end up throwing away after using 2 to 3 times? Yeah, it’s the cheap ones from Innisfree/Watsons but to use them for less than 5 times before throwing it away because they have a expiry date of 6 months is just too wasteful. I still like lip and eye brow makeup though. Sadly, this pandemic has force us to wear masks all the time when we are out so there’s really no need for lip makeup anymore. Maybe when we don’t need to wear masks, I can go back to using lip makeup again. :happy:

I definitely want to buy less mascara or eye shadow palettes or eyeliners since I am just too lazy to put on full makeup and these items expires too fast for me to use them up.

(3) Buy less costume jewellery

When I am in my 20s, I really love to buy earrings and sometimes necklaces. I used to buy at least 20 pairs of earrings when I go to South Korea for vacation. I buy earrings and necklaces in whichever country I go to. I have some that I really love and some are just brand new which I haven’t wore. I have some that is very dressy which I can only wear when I go for wedding lunch/dinner. I really like accessorising my outfits and spend quite a bit on them. It makes me very sad and I can’t bear to throw away the ones that has either tarnished or rusted. As a result, I am always running of space to store them. 🙁

I have learned to buy fine jewellery in recent years. These don’t rust and I can send them for professional cleaning at the jewellery stores. My first fine jewellery necklace is a silver necklace from Tiffany and Co. It’s from their Return to Tiffany collection and I bought it when I went to San Francisco in 2018. I remembered walking in to want to buy the music note necklace but they don’t have it so I fall back to my backup plan of the Return to Tiffany necklace. I have sent it for professional cleaning in Singapore boutiques numerous times. Silver is not really a fine jewellery piece but since I paid a premium (because it is Tiffany and Co), I decided to consider it as a fine jewellery piece. 🙂 I was quite sad when my pendant was badly scratched after using for some time. I even brought it to ask if they can polish it and the sales associate told me it costs S$40 for polishing. :shocked: Ever since then, I decided not to get another silver piece for a few hundred of dollars. It’s either yellow gold or white gold for me.

I have been posting several food photos but have not been sharing them on ViolinStar.NET. So now I am going to share them… and also talk a bit about them too.

I took this photo of my meal at Wooloomooloo Steakhouse. It’s probably my most expensive meal. It’s also my Masters graduation dinner which I had with my friends (Alan and Jeffrey). It’s a bit sad that how graduate school can be a little cold. But I’m glad that I have made some friends whom I will still meet up every now and then. 🙂

I had lunch at Toast Box (silly me for not realising that the cafe that we want to visit is closed on public holidays). I went with Eunice and Rui Yun and had a HTHT (Heart to Heart Talk) with them. It’s interesting to see how different we have all become but we are still together. Friends forever, hopefully!

I had mala xiang guo at Fusionopolis I. I used to have it when I was still working at Autodesk. Now that I left Autodesk, I didn’t have much chance to have it for a long time. So glad that Chin Hau agreed to go with me after we collected our graduation gowns back in June.

I had this with Chin Hau because he hasn’t had Fish and Co for a long time and he loves it. Haha, he looks so excited (like a little kid) when he orders his dinner. I get my chocolate bingsu from Nunsongyee too. Yay, I finally found someone who is willing to have chocolate bingsu with me!

I met up with Randumps and they met Chin Hau for the first time.

“You can’t seem to be predict how much you can eat…” – Chin Hau

This is not the first time he said it and somehow he always helped me finish the unfinished food. Hehe. On a side note, I really should order less in future.

I met up with the Randumps clique for a dimsum lunch. Dimsum is more of desserts to me and it is my first time having it as a lunch. Luckily we didn’t overorder and managed to finish everything. We also had chinese desserts as well!

On the same day, I met up with Huiling for okonomiyaki. Yes, I went back to Seiwaa. It is my favourite okonomiyaki and teppanyaki restaurant in Singapore now.

I also went for omurice at Suntec City with Ming Lian (a different day). It is my first time trying the lava omu rice and it was delicious! Haha, I went back there for the second time recently too.

Okay, that’s a lot of food and I think I am getting fat with so many good food in Singapore and snacks in office. 😥

I met up with my friends and colleagues (different days) for dinner at Thai Express. Haha, I actually love the chendol drink from Thai Express.

Haha, not sure if I will get sick of Thai Express. Actually the thai food at Thai Express is not very nice but they have good desserts…

I went to Artbox when it is in Singapore a few weeks ago. It was much better than last year. Last year was so crowded and there was no crowd control at all. This year, there were bag checks and some form of crowd control. The space rented is much bigger as well. I managed to get some wooden keychains for myself and a cute handmade crotchet keychain. I love crotchet keychains, or just about anything that is handmade. Haha. Is it just me or do you guys love handmade stuff too?

I went there twice – first with Alex and Jin Quan, second with Hui Keng and Yi Wei. Took some photos and was surprised to see quite a number of people bringing their DSLRs taking photos too. Oh, and the usual selfie crowd as well. Somehow carnivals are no longer as nice as before. It’s more commercial-driven decorations (towards Snapchat, Instagram, and other social media platforms) rather than the actual fun. It’s not as nice to take photos in carnivals when you see a sea of people whipping out their phones to take photos instead of enjoying the food and games…

I have been blogging for more than 17 years (well, I started in 2001) and this new wave of social media kind of got me off guard. I am not a fan of posting my selfies on social media for strangers to comment and judge me. But I do love posting photos of the stuff and scenery I saw. I love taking photos and sharing some of what I took. I also have a brand name (lihotography) dedicated for my photography works.

Anyway, I have scheduled my photos to be posted on Instagram in the next few days. Once it is posted on Instagram, I will post them here for you guys to enjoy. Photos are below for you guys to enjoy! :happy:

And of course some dinner at Ding Tai Fung!

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