Weekend Engagement - My Lifestyle Inflation

What are your thoughts on consumerism and why?

I think everything when done in moderation is fine, but personally, I would like to think I spend lesser and consume lesser than the average person in my society.

It isn't about my belief (or lack of) in consumerism, but I have planned my life around my finances and in turn, I believe I am quite easily contented with simple pleasures in life. There's always the talk about lifestyle inflation, especially when we earn more year on year, or when our savings start to increase, and most people (including myself) would be tempted or just love to splurge on certain aspects in our life and pamper ourselves or our loved ones. After all, if we don't pamper and treat ourselves well, who else will? And there's nothing wrong after that, it goes back to what I said earlier, it's okay when done in moderation.

And I recently revisited my spreadsheet which documented my expenses in one of the sheets. I actually started recording my expenses way earlier than 2011, but I think the data somehow got lost in between apps or change of devices. There weren't stuff like Google Cloud back then, hehe! So I now only have records since 2011, and here's what my "Daily Expenses" look like from 2011 to 2025.

In case you are wondering, "Daily Expenses" basically refers to the sticky expenses that I incur on day to day, so that excludes overseas travel (which can be lumpy because it depends how far and how much I travel), insurance and taxes (which are kind of inevitable to pay anyway). So interestingly, the level of Daily Expenses ties well back to the prompt this week about consumerism.

Now for the shocking moment, my 2025 expenses was 136% higher than 2011 expenses!

If I could try to paint a story behind this trend:

• I graduated and started working in 2012, and for the most of my early years up till 2015, I was quite thrifty and my expenses were very much in check.
• 2016 saw a significant jump because I decided to sign up for a gym membership. The reason was because I felt that I have neglected my health and exercise, and at that point, I thought signing up for a gym membership was one way to "force" myself to be more active.
• The next few years were pretty much uneventful with slight increase largely due to inflation and little/no lifestyle inflation until 2020. Most of you would know what happened that year. A large scale lockdown and long periods at home meant my daily expenses took a big dip, and because I fortunately still had a job, I remembered being able to increase my savings that year.
• Then the economy reopened and the increasing trend of expenses continued, until another big jump in 2023. This was the year which I moved out, and being away from my parents, and my own property, meant higher expenses, because I had to settle most of my meals and settle groceries, and there's many miscellaneous stuff like utilities and household items to pay for. The jump was actually understated because I actually cancelled my gym subscription because I was busy with life and settling in my place.
• 2024 was a little of a reversion to mean until last year saw a record high. It was quite expected because I intentionally spent more on health and fitness, such as signing for personal training sessions, and starting paying for gym visits once again. At the same time, I have also spent more on food, such as eating better, like the occasional salmon and steak (which are more expensive from chicken and pork), and also splurging on my costly matcha drinks.

Overall, even though my current expenses are more than double versus 14 years ago, in some way I think they are justified due to changing circumstances and life commitments. Of course, there's definitely a certain element of lifestyle inflation and consumerism in play, but spending and budgeting is always a personal decision and as long as we are happy, that's the most important! And for me, a cup of matcha keeps me happy for a day! And that's the cup I had this weekend!

Alright, that's all I have! Thanks for reading!