Day 15: The Unfortunate End

Ever since yesterday afternoon until today, the stomach pain has not gone away. I am now diagnosed with severe gastric problems. To put into perspective how severe the pain is, I've taken a whole packet of gastric pills, the chewie ones, and they did not help one bit. Even the stronger ones, which were only supposed to be taken once a day, did not help much either. The pain can be quite unbearable at times, especially when I'm driving. 

Thus, with a heavy heart, I would have to forfeit this challenge until I recover from my ailment. This is also the reason why I could not update this blog daily as I had to concentrate on my recovery.  

I would not blame my diet for the past two weeks as the cause of my gastric, as those meals are as filling as any ordinary meals. This is also the reason why I could not update this blog day as I had to concentrate on my recovery.

However, I would have to take more precaution and this would mean that for the time being, I would have to take heavier and much more solid food in order to recover faster. 

I hope to be able to get well quickly and continue with this challenge in the soonest time. 

Day 14: Hunger Pains or Something Worse? [FAIL]

After a quick recovery from yesterday's flu, I felt really hungry the whole morning. It was by lunch time when I felt sharp pain from my stomach. At first I just thought that it was just hunger pain but the pain did not stop even after having my meal and stuffing my face with more Weetbix. The pain was so bad that I felt like fainting and vomiting every time it struck.

Later that evening, I came down with a fever. Unknown to me, the worst part is yet to come. 

Todays expenses

Main meal - Popiah, RM2.30

Snack - Butter raisin bun, RM1.60

Dessert - NZ Zespri Kiwi fruit, pre-purchased

Total spent = RM3.90

Total saved = - RM0.40

So, my maths has failed me again. I have overspent on today's meal, thus this would be counted as a fail day. Booooo.

Day 13: The Kiwis & The Beginning of The End

I know when I'm coming down with a flu. The symptoms are quite obvious, really — runny nose and aching jaw. And it happened on this day. What I did not foresee was that this flu would be the beginning to the end of this challenge.

So, as mentioned on Day 12, I've bought myself some kiwis as dessert for the rest of the week. Immediately, I could feel the financial restriction in my daily budget due to these kiwis. Nevertheless, they were on offer so I could not pass up on that opportunity.

However, as I headed back up to the office, I walked past a lady pulling a cart of fruits. Deep down, I gave myself a kick as I could have saved more money and had a better selection of fruits if I had noticed this lady earlier. It was too late. This lady would have to wait until next week.

Todays expenses

Main meal - Pork bun, RM1.60

Snack - Milo bun, RM1.40

Dessert - NZ Zespri Kiwi fruit, RM1.50 x 3

Total spent = RM7.50

Todays spending = RM4.50

Todays saving = RM0.50

Day 12: Here Comes A New Challenger!...& Some Wafer Chocolate

I'm absolutely excited for this week's new item — kiwi fruit. Without a doubt, this would be the item that I will be buying in advance for the remaining of the week, partly because it's on promotion for these couple of days. The only down side is that I'll have to peel them primitively because i don't have a knife and spoon in my office.

However, the price of a kiwi fruit isn't cheap. At RM1.50 each, my budget for the snacks have been greatly reduced. I will have to find a way to get through the week without breaking any more rules. This would make for another interesting week.

Today's expenses:

Main meal - Popiah, RM2.30
Snack - London Cereal Bite (chocolate) wafer, RM1.10
Fruit - NZ Zespri Kiwi fruit, RM1.50

Total spent = RM4.90
Total savings = RM0.10

Day 11: The Ice Cream & The Long Queue

Today I kind of rushed through my shopping because of two reasons — the extremely hot weather and my melting ice cream.

Also, I have confirmed that the 7-11 near my workplace is purposely refusing to stock any 5 cents change in their register so they can earn that innocent looking amount of change. I only realized this when I noticed that almost all the prices of the items sold have 5 cents in the prices, yet they do not carry enough 5 cents change in their cash register, despite the bank is only 5 minutes walk away. I wonder if this is a case that I can bring up to the consumers association. 

Anyway, back to the story. Due to the hot weather, my ice cream did not stand much of a chance unless I consumed it right on the spot but I decided otherwise and rushed to the supermarket to buy myself an apple. This is where it gets interesting. I've bought enough apples over the past two weeks to know that it will be a very fast process. However, today, the supermarket decided to under staff the floor and I ended up waiting for 5 minutes for someone to work the scales and print me my label. Deep inside I was feeling very anxious as I felt my ice cream quickly melting away. The cashiers couldn't help me either because strangely enough, everyone decided to make today their shopping day. So I just jumped into the queue and hoped that they would have another barcode at the cash register for the apple. All that was going through my head was "Of all the days to buy an ice cream, it had to be today". Finally, after that long and suffering ordeal, I quickly rushed up to my office to snap a photo of today's meal and when I opened my ice cream wrapper, it was more iced milk than ice cream. 

Lesson of the day, buy ice cream during a storm. Especially in a tropical climate like this. 

Today's expenses:

Main meal - Roti canai telur, RM2.00

Snack - NZ Fuji apple, RM0.80

Dessert - Tropicana Lime & Vanilla ice cream, RM1.15

Total spent = RM3.95 + RM0.05 (insufficient change from 7-11)

Total savings = RM1.00

Rewind: Week 02

At the start of Week 2, things were progressing quite well. Choosing and matching items to buy was getting easier and I was saving working quite close to the RM4.00 limit. Then it all went downhill.

Towards the end of the week and through the weekends, I've been spending a lot on food due to several lunch and dinner invitations. What annoys me is that as much as I want to enjoy the food served, I couldn't help to be reminded how expensive and unbalanced these meals are. From now onwards, spending on food outside shall be kept to the minimum meaning that the glass of ice lemon tea I just ordered will have to last twice as long as it used to.

Also, it is a common knowledge that packing your own lunch is a much cheaper and healthier option but one thing that I've managed to prove through this challenge is that you are able to buy a healthy and cheap lunch if you search and plan well enough. 

Day 09 & Day 10: Eating out is expensive [VOID]

I've decided to combine both days into a single post because these past two days I've been having lunch outside due to unavoidable circumstances, and I was too tired last night to post anything. 

After eight days into the challenge, going out for lunch has given me a fresh perspective on the amount of money spent on the quality and value of the food consumed. Over the past two days, I would have spent RM25 on lunch alone, if it wasn't for my friends who were generous enough to pay for my meals. That amount spent is equivalent to 5 days worth of lunch. 

So, how does it feel like to be having lunch outside again? Well, one thing is for sure. It is expensive but not so much in the monetary term. Despite having a huge lunch yesterday and a fairly decent one today, the meals didn't felt satisfying or whole. Sure, I was stuffed but it wasn't the same feeling as to what I felt from the lunches bought over the past eight days. I felt more satisfied from having a small main meal, accompanied by a snack and finished off with a simple dessert. 

I guess in a way, I have found the answer to my question last Friday on whether to complete the 20 days challenge or cut it short to 10 days. My answer is to continue on the experiment and finish it after 20 days, but the difference is that I no longer feel burdened by this challenge but have taken comfort and confidence that this is a much more healthier and inexpensive method of having lunch, compared to having a typical lunch meal outside. 

My goal for Week 3 is to purchase something that I can have over a few days by spending on an item or two over the normal daily budget but still within the weekly total amount allocated. This would be the next step of the experiment to see whether this method would help in saving more money compared to the method that I'm currently using.

Also, as mentioned in the guidelines, these two days will be replaced, hence the experiment period for the moment will be lengthen by two extra days.