After I Turned 70, I Stopped Spending On Almost Everything — Except These 2 Things
MariaDubova | Unsplash Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of stories about what American expats spend money on in Spain. For some reason, they think going out to eat three times a week is a normal thing to do.
Even growing up in a fairly well-to-do family, educated at a private school, along with my siblings, in a home with three full-time staff, neither of my parents ever ate out. It was not a normal thing to do. It certainly never occurred to me throughout my life that dining out or ordering food from apps was anything but an expensive waste of money.
So, my late father would take sandwiches to work with him every day. That was the norm. Nobody ate out. It had nothing to do with whether one had the money to do so or not. It just wasn’t a way of life. There was no such thing as a coffee shop or a junk food store on every corner. In fact, they didn’t exist.
Cultures differ, I suppose. This was South Africa — not America. I guess I also wonder why people have to go to food stores during their lunch breaks these days. Why don’t they take their own sandwiches to work? I did, throughout my working life. So did my late father, and he was the owner of his own business. My sister still takes two bread rolls with her when she goes out for the day.
Eighteen years ago, I cut up all my credit cards, paid them off (it took three years), and have been living on a cash basis ever since. If I can’t afford something, I don’t buy it. I do without.
So, in my home, I have no television set, no music center, no dryer for clothing, no movies, no CDs, no lounge suite (waste of money — I don’t entertain), no car, no property ownership, and not much of anything anyone else owns. I also have no debt, and I have sufficient savings to survive in an emergency.
My income tends to be greater than my outgoings, but that’s because I spend very little. By any Western standard, I am poor. By most African standards (in Africa), I am rich. Wealth and well-being are relative, and that's why after I turned 70, I stopped spending on everything except two things.
After I turned 70, I stopped spending on almost everything, except for these two things:
1. Fresh food
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I’m picky about the food I eat, so it’s fresh and frozen vegetables, frozen or tinned fish, eggs, organic natural yogurt, pumpkin seeds, black seed, frozen blueberries or bananas to go with the yogurt, lots of fresh cabbage, and so on.
My diet is carefully chosen to be nutrient-dense, inexpensive, easy to prepare, and available wherever I go. I have quick and easy recipes — all low-calorie, high-fiber, and high-protein. All nutrients within those foods are selected for the purpose of maintaining health and being inexpensive.
If it’s not a food I particularly enjoy, I spend a long time trying to find ways of incorporating those foods into my diet in a way that makes them taste good.
I don’t buy processed foods, both because they’re unhealthy and because they’re expensive. My food budget, therefore, in probably one of the most expensive countries in Europe, and very close to costs in cities in the US, is about €35 per week.
Occasionally, I have looked at what people spend on food. It shocks me. I see people buying packets of biscuits, ice cream, marinated meats, endless packaged coffees (for machines of some type), and I don’t know what other nonsense.
From any third-world perspective, the lot of it is from another planet. My opinion on modern food budgets is that people have lost touch with reality. Processed food is neither good for you (in fact, it’s bad for you), nor is it worth the expense. If people ate natural, locally grown foods, they would be far healthier, and they would have far less expense.
2. Little treats
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Life would be boring if it were all about endless discipline, so I chose my treats. I look around to see what is available. This is different in every country and in every city.
In my country, there's something called a mayoral tea dance, which is an opportunity for citizens to meet members of the public over a cup of tea or coffee. It cost me €10. To me, that’s worth every penny. I love dancing, and tea dances are rare events in this part of the world.
When I lived in Spain, there was so much to see. I could bus anywhere for €5, and two or three times a week, I would bus to a new city and spend endless hours walking through the streets.
When I lived in Cape Town, the most beautiful city in the world, in my humble opinion, there wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t walk or swim or hire a bike for an hour or two and go sightseeing.
At the local mall, they have these lovely armchairs, a free book exchange, and cheap coffee at the local Tesco. I go get the coffee, grab a book, sit in a lovely armchair, and then watch the world go by. I am content.
Movies? I gave up on that. I’m tired of FX and violence. I am not interested in dissecting all the extreme far-left and far-right themes. I have eyes in my head. I can read. I read news sources from multiple countries on several continents. I stay informed. I don’t need a movie to give me a slanted view on reality. If I go to a movie, I want a happy-ever-after story with no violence.
I don’t spend much money on anything else. I don’t buy rounds in a pub. I don't try to keep up with the Joneses. I don’t see the fashion necessity. Yet, I have always dressed well. Style isn’t about fashion. It’s about understanding what goes together.
In order to buy high-quality, long-lasting items, one has to have a bit of money to buy them. Also, I’ve pointed out that I have enough money to last in a short-term emergency. I can do that because I’m not wasting money on keeping up with the Jones’ or buying things because I’ve been convinced by marketing gurus or salesmen that ‘everybody has one.’
If we can get back to a place where we are focused on what truly gives us peace, we will find that less is more. We will also find that having things that last a lifetime means that within two or three years, one has excess money because one doesn’t have to replace them all the time.
Tessa Schlesinger is a writer who grew up in Africa, then lived in the UK, the US, and in various countries in Europe, and likes to share her perspective from a non-American point of view.
