with all the price increases AND after our hk trip, i have gone on a "save money" project. when i used to do grocery shopping, i would just grab whatever i felt like trying, usually the imported stuff, hence it would be more expensive, & put it into the cart. b would also go crazy in the junk food aisle.
NOT anymore. i carefully go through everything that's in our cart. we do not buy anything that is NOT a necessity anymore. i used to spend about RM200 on an average per week, & now it's down to RM80 per week (this is still a bit high but this includes our organic juices). & you know what? we're doing fine. we didn't need those junk to begin with. to help me out, i carry around a mini calculator in my bag so that i can work out which brand gives us the most bang for our buck (i am completely useless at mental arithmetic). and i have to say, i'm not shy in whipping out my calculator in front of others and doing sums.
on the home front, i have halved the amount of food i cook. i cook just enough for one meal now. i used to follow recipes to the dot. but since i've been cooking for some time now, i have gotten the hang of it, and so i am better able to judge the amount of food we need. i eat leftovers for lunch or whatever's at home. nothing goes to waste anymore (i used to buy snacks on a whim & i never ended up eating them so i would give them away to the cleaners in my condo).
also, since electricity tariffs are up, i have been using the tips that i've read:

• turning off switches at the main plug when not in use (i used to just turn off the switches at the gadget but leave the main plug on for "convenience" aka lazy to bend down or stretch to turn the main switch on!)
• charging my mobile during the day so that i can immediately unplug it when the charge is complete
• turning off the damn idiot box whenever my usual programs are not running. i only let it run wild whenever b is back because it's his form of unwinding for the day (this is also not done in the extreme)
• turning off the kitchen light whenever the kitchen's not in use (we used to leave the kitchen light on throughout the night until i realise that the light only lights up the kitchen area & it does not help in any other areas! eg when we're watching tv in the living area, the kitchen light is completely useless!)
• i open the windows now to cool down the home as opposed to turning on the air-conditioning. actually i try my best NOT to turn the air-cond on during the day except for when it is extremely hot. even then i only let it run for a maximum of 2 hours and when the whole home is completely cooled, i turn it off. that would last to the evening & by then the air outside would have cooled as well.

but things are not all bad. we still have guilty pleasures. eg, we have the air-cond turned on throughout the night when we're in bed (i have kept the fan off now. we used to turn on both the fan AND the air-cond. it would cool the room faster & then we just never bothered to turn it off when we fell asleep). we upgraded & only go to movies in gsc premier (this is also only for movies that we think is worth the money to watch in the cinema like movies with special effects. a definite no-no is romantic comedies - that we have the wonderful world of dvds). another guilty pleasure would be our once a month facial. so you see? we try to even things out.