Name: Asian frugal habits that saves me thousands every year ?
Uploaded: 2026-03-03T09:20:53.000Z
Duration: 9 min 28 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

It's not about the takeaway coffee, it's about the habit.

Gerund

The habit of getting a takeout drink, which often comes with a sweet pastry on the side.

To-infinitive

And a few blocks from the cafe, we see a cute dress and decide to splurge with a matching scrunchie to go with it.

All this shopping gets us hungry, so we pick up some takeout on the way home and decide to get an Uber because we deserve it.

This, on repeat, is no longer a habit, but it's a lifestyle, an expensive one at that.

And some might say, what is the point of working so hard when you can't even treat yourself?

And to that I say, maybe we're just conditioned to think that splurging on ourselves is a form of self care.

But actual self care looks like working towards a life that truly enriches us.

And maybe these little splurges are distractions along the way.

Growing up in Korea, we lived very frugally, but I was still happy as I could be.

Now in my mid-30s, I've come full circle and still embrace many of those same habits.

These small everyday decisions might seem insignificant on their own, but it does add up over time.

But more importantly, I found that living a low maintenance lifestyle comes with a peace that outweighs anything I can buy.

I never received any kind of gifts growing up, not for my birthday or Christmas or any kind of holiday.

And some people might hear that and think that I had a really sad childhood.

My parents always try to gift us some kind of experience to remember these days.

I remember for my 10th birthday, we spent the whole day just kind of walking the pier and we had fish and chips.

And I feel like these memories always stay with us way longer than any gift ever could.

And I feel like these special occasions and holidays are no longer about spending time together and it's all about buying things for each other, all about the marketing, the sales, the limited editions.

So my husband and I, we don't gift each other anything and instead for these special occasions, we just like to spend a whole day doing our favorite things together.

And one of the reasons too is because I feel like we have everything that we need and if we want something, then we'll put it on our wish list and go and buy it ourselves.

So there's really, really no pressure to go and buy something just because it's a specific day to Prove our love to each other.

It's just something that I don't deal with anymore.

Thinking back, I feel like I only started eating out when I moved to the States.

It was because it was like a cool thing to do with my friends.

And I always worked in the restaurant industry.

But growing up, my mom always cooked for us.

I remember she would always pack our lunches and my dad's bento box.

And even when we were traveling, she would bring this gigantic rice cooker with us everywhere we went, and

I definitely appreciate her more for doing that because it's a lot of dedication and time and effort that goes into it.

But I know because she did that we were able to save so much money.

You guys know that for this year, I really wanted to cook more at home.

I feel like I am slowly adjusting my habit and mindset around.

It definitely takes a lot of creativity and a lot more planning.

But honestly, I feel like the savings is so much worth it.

So, for example, my husband and I, if we go out on a date to Lisbon, we will spend probably around €50.

But if we cook at home and I could buy best of the ingredients, then it would probably be around less than €20 together.

I would say 90% of the time I cook at home and 10, 10% of the time we go out and try new restaurants.

I am generalizing, of course, but I feel like Koreans are very health conscious people.

They're going to Pilates and going to weight training and going to gyms and things.

But I feel like from a very young age, we're told to have kind of a healthy lifestyle and integrate it into our lifestyle.

For, for example, we always like to stretch in the mornings.

We like to drink a lot of herbal teas, and we have fruit for dessert.

And there's a lot of nice hikes in Korea.

So on the weekends, we would come together with our friends and family and go hiking.

And these habits are kind of second nature to me.

I've always kind of abided by these rules.

And instead of getting these really expensive gym memberships, class passes, and

having these really expensive hobbies just so that I could be active, I find it so much easier to just integrate it into my lifestyle and I can do it for free.

Something that I never understood are those really nice aesthetic jars or containers.

I mean, it does look really nice when everything is displayed out in the open.

But it's so expensive to buy these things where you could just get it for free from the grocery store.

And I think the key is to buy something that's already in a really nice container.

So after you use the item or eat it, then you can just wash and use the jar, a little bit of dish soap, just soak it overnight, and

it just comes right off the next morning.

I use it for everything because I buy a lot of loose leaf teas and buy things in bulk, and

Obviously, you can repurpose everything, and I think it's just being smart.

You can save the wrapping paper from the original packaging.

You can use the rice water to water your plants.

You can even save those little yogurt containers and use it for when you're watercoloring.

You can even save your kitchen scraps and make broth with it.

You know, I think before you throw something away, it's a really good rule of thumb to ask yourself, can I use this for something else?

And this, over time, can save you tons of money.

Okay, this kind of goes with my previous point, but

I always say everything has a first life and a second life first.

Of course, I try to use up every little bit of it.

And I'm definitely cutting the toothpaste in half and getting every little bit, because that's money wasted.

If you don't use it, then that toothbrush becomes a scrubbing tool.

just dedicating one or two drawers for these little things that you could use for DIY purposes, it really isn't going to hurt anyone.

And in Asian math, you're actually losing money if you throw away something that's perfectly usable.

I don't really know if this is an Asian thing or just because my husband and I grew up having to be very resourceful, but

we really do not like to use other people, professionals, to do something if we can do it ourselves.

We're doing all the home renovation ourselves, and we're also making some of the furniture.

We can literally Google anything or YouTube it and try it for ourselves.

To me, this is way less stressful than having to manage other people to do it or having to pay someone else to do it.

I don't know if you guys know, but before YouTube, I was a financial counselor, and

when I was going over people's finances, I couldn't believe how many people just live off of their credit cards.

And I understand that sometimes it's necessary to kind of propel you forward in life, but