For the past 4 years, I have been living a frugal life.  A lot of it stems from my first year or so living independently.  I basically lived hand to mouth; instead of making a budget and living within my means, I went out to lunch and dinner constantly, bought compulsively, and I took trips that didn’t make me feel relaxed at all.  In fact these trips caused an incredible amount of stress, considering the small amount of money it cost me.  I remember camping in Mexico – it couldn’t have cost more than a few hundred dollars.  But when you have just overdrawn your bank account, and it’s 2 weeks from payday, it’s not a fun trip.  And stress can cause you to act weird: I remember saying and doing things during this period of my life that make me cringe to this day.

I finally got my act together, and made a budget.  I went a little crazy – every penny I picked up off the ground was tallied.  And trust me – I picked pennies off the ground.  I remember seeing a glint of copper in a mud puddle in the Tenderloin on my way to work in San Francisco.  I picked it up and cleaned it with my hands and put it in my pocket.  Why?  I’m kind of an idiot.  My friend Huy rightfully pointed out the health costs I will have to pay for picking up diseases from Tenderloin money will not be cheap.  But it was a penny – free money!  I remember another time walking with my boss, and some coworkers, back from a working lunch.  On the ground near our office was about 15 pennies on the ground.  It took every ounce of my will to stop me from bending over and taking a few minutes to pick them off the ground.  They would have had to wait for me while I pick up money that San Francisco bums didn’t even want to pick up.

But after we went into the building, I slipped back outside and got the money.  Cha-Ching!!

In the end, living like this paid off.  I paid off my credit card, I paid back a lot of money my parents loaned me, and I paid off my student loans 5 years early.  This was a really good feeling.  However, now that I’ve lived in China for about 6 months, I’ve found myself looking at Apple’s website.  Every day.  Sometimes more than one time in a day.  I make configurations in the laptops, I calculate AT&T’s data plan for the iPhone, and I try to estimate what aps I will buy for the iPad.  Rationalization can be kind of funny, too.  I bought a Dell laptop a year ago, and it has been the worst computer I’ve owned.  Sometimes when I am deciding between a MacBook pro, or a MacBook Air, I tell myself I should buy a computer as soon as I return home, so that way I will be punishing Dell for selling me a stupid computer.  I really talk myself into this too, “Yeah Alex that will show stupid Dell!  But if you really want to rub it in their faces, get an iPad too!’.

And I kind of fantasize what it will be like when I get home: Summer, 2012.  By that time, the iPhone 6 will have just come out!  It will probably be a chip you implant in your head.  And the iPad 3!  I think after living on an extreme budget to save money, and then living in a communist country for 2 years, I will be ready to throw down my cash and buy some Apple stuff.  I mean, I really have to: because how will Dell learn if I don’t?