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A few things happened on Sunday that made me realized the big difference of the way I treat my money since starting to write on my personal finance blog.

First, I went to Golf Smith to get a pair of golf gloves since my current glove is so worn I might as well not use one. When I arrived at the store and looked for a replacement, I found that they were selling for $17.99. Originally, I chose it because they were the most comfortable and had a better grip than the other ones because it was made of cabretta leather. After looking around, I found that it was the most expensive glove in the store! Instead of looking at just the brand, I forced myself to look at what matters more which is form, fit, and function. Then, I set out to try on all the others and found one that was selling for $10.89!

I went to a Japanese supermarket that also had a food court for dinner afterwards since it was very late. Years ago before I moved, I go to this supermarket quite often to have lunch/dinner. This time around, I went to my favorite store which sold Japanese don (some type of rice with meat, egg and soy sauce). In the old days, I would get an eel egg bowl for $6.75. Today, I went for the beef egg bowl because I thought it was just as good and was much more inexpensive. The cost was $5.25. Also, I would usually get a can of soda for $2 but I had water today instead.

After dinner, I went to the supermarket where I would use to buy some junk food and a few bottles of Japanese iced coffee. Each bottle usually ran for about $1.59 - $2.49 and my junk food bill would usually be about $10 at checkout. Today however, I did not get any.

On one hand, I have saved quite a bit of money as compared with before. On the other however, some might think that I’m giving up on many of the things I used to enjoy. So do I miss these things? Not really. I know that I’m able to save more money now and that’s what matters. Keep investing in my retirement plan for my retirement is more important now. Much more important.