Save Money by Gathering at Friends’ House

When meeting up with friends, do you prefer to meet in your friend’s house/apartment/your place or in a public place? Most of us would prefer to meet outside at a cafe and restaurant to chit chat, followed by some shopping later. The possible reasons I could think off are:

• very young- do not have your own babies yet. You feel boring to hang out at houses all the time
• not happy at home and constantly want to escape
• you have lots of money to spare, work is very stressed so you want to eat out and enjoy
• you are crazy about food and taste and like to check up the best eating place in town (watch out that bulging belly, friend)
• you are in the sales line, possibly freelance agent- so you need to meet your prospective clients in this place— well, acceptible for this case

I perfectly understand the predicament of a stressed person- who really need to dine out, eat whatever food that he/she likes. The more demanding the job is, the more we need to console ourselves by spending. Someone used to earn half of what I used to do but have doubled my savings. If you like to eat out all the time, one day, you may be sorry for not stocking up on the cash- you can save a lot of money if you learn to control those urges- after all, you will forget about the food not long after it becomes a mess in your intensines.

Somehow, I’ve developed the preferance to meet either at my house or my friend’s house. Probably we are getting too old to fight with people for parking during weekends or hanging out at packed places. It is nice to hang out at a friend’s place- and spend time quietly together. You end up saving more too- because you tend to eat less if you or your friend do not prepare tonnes of food.

Normally, I bring along my own 3-in-1 coffee or tea when I visit my friend’s house because I always enjoy a cup of good tea and coffee. I find that a lot of restaurants (it’s getting too expensive to drink lattes, so have to settle for restaurants) serve horrible tasting coffee and tea. The 3-in-1s are cheaper and taste nicer- all you need to do is to figure out which brand suits you the most.

For example, I faithfully stuck to 3-in-1 Nescafe Breakfast which I will add about half a teaspoon of Nescafe coffee power and if available, some evaporated milk. The taste of the coffee is what I like. Or I would add another teabag to the Lipton 3-in-1 milk tea and put in about half cup water or I just take Old Town’s 3-in-1 White tea. I know the taste I want and I find outside often cannot deliver.

And it’s much more cheaper too- a pack of Old Town 3-in-1 cost about RM11.50 for 13 packets. Each packet contains 40g of mixture so some non caffeine addicts can separate into two times to drink it. This means a cup costs less than RM1- you can never get the same price from Old Town Kopitiam itself or any other mamak restaurant for that matter. In the long run, you end up saving and still be able to enjoy what you want.

An auntie I know used to organise group gatherings at hotel hi-teas. At one time, a friend came back from overseas and she organised a high tea gathering at a hotel. The hi-tea was supposed to start at 12pm till 4.30pm. But by 2pm, many people left when their stomachs got too full from the eating. And she (as the organiser) had to stay back because she knew there were some missing friends. At 3pm, another 2 friends showed up and was surprised that most people had gone home. After that, the auntie prefer to have portluck gathering at her house. It is more informal and friends can come anytime and tend to hang around longer for chit chat.

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