Name three things you think of as luxury items in your life and three things you feel you could go without. Explain.
Hmm.. This list of stuff should be interesting because it should vary across different individuals. So I shall do mine and then go to the community to see what people have listed. Though I should put out a disclaimer, that I came up with the list spontaneously (and not a thorough 100 hour review to determine the list) so just read and have fun! Also, I thought I should also say that I confined the definition of "things" and "items" to tangible stuff, and not stuff like "time", "good looks", etc. You get what I mean. Hehe!
Alright, let's go!
Luxury Item #1: Business Class Flight Tickets
I haven't been on first class flights (lol, how many people do?) but I have taken business class flights before. That said, I feel that it's a luxury because it's really extravagant and costly. Like most people, it's almost always through clocking air miles through various programmes and then redeem the flight tickets. I rarely see people purchase these tickets with cash.
Luxury Item #2: Simmons Mattress
When I moved into my new place last year, I decided to "invest" in a good mattress. As some would say, one spends 7 to 8 hours a day sleeping and that's about 1/3 of our lives, so should we get a good quality mattress so that we have a good rest every night?
As some of you would know, Simmons mattresses are quite expensive. I actually bought the entry level (i.e. cheapest model) Queen sized mattress during a sale, together with the pillows, bed frame, delivery etc, it came up to around SGD 2,600 (~USD 1,900). That said, I have to say there is really a difference. I have no issues with falling asleep and I always feel rested when I wake up in the morning. So I was really glad I made this purchase.
Luxury Item 3: Samsung S23
At this rate, I am going through the cost of the items that I have. I switched to Samsung S23 last year after my previous phone started to give me problems after 3 years of usage. Similar to the earlier two items, I consider it a luxury item because there are more cheaper alternatives. And in this case, Samsung S series have always been their flagship series and there are definitely cheaper series or even alternative brands too.
Ever since I switched from Nokia to Samsung more than a decade ago, I have enjoyed my user experience with Samsung phones. Like what some say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. As such, I have never tried out iPhones. Haha. Similar to my mattress, I think it's a good purchase because these days we do so many things on our phones. So I think have a good phone is a must.
Now onto the next list, it's a little contradicting because I could go without items in my first list, e.g. business class tickets as well. Being quite a minimalist (at least I think so), I struggle to come up with this list, but it's worth a try still.
I could go without...
TV
This was something that I hesitated buying when I moved to my new place. I am not a fan of dramas and I don't watch TV or Netflix or any streaming platforms. I guess the closest form would be just Youtube, which can be accessed from my phone, tablet, or even laptop.
So the question is, why did I get one? It's not a convincing reason, I just thought every house would have one TV so I should at least get a basic one. And it's definitely underutilised.
Tablet
I currently have a Samsung tablet, which was actually complimentary. It came along as a free gift when I purchased my Samsung S23. So since I got it free of charge, I thought I should try to use it and see if it can bring any productivity gains to my life. Unfortunately, it was an old series (not unexpected given that this was free) and the processor or memory was just too slow. Maybe it's because I am so used to my phone, I found it a torture to use the tablet. The only good part about is the bigger screen, and this experience also made me realise that I don't need a tablet, so I need not consider buying any in the future. Hehe!
Clothes
Of course I can't go without clothes! The title is a clickbait! :P
But I definitely can reduce the clothes in my wardrobe. I do have to clarify that I don't buy a lot, but over time I realised, I actually don't need that many clothes. I don't have a big social circle and other than work, I am mostly ok with just a T-shirt and berms or shorts during the weekends. As such, there are clothes which haven't been worn for years (it's scary I know). So there is more room for further reduction.
So that's all I have! The festive season is coming up so here's a Christmas tree at the mall I visited today. Happy holidays to everyone! As always, thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
