I am prepared to donate brand new shorts, socks and shirts anytime! Just email me at kee@fswmag.com.
If all Singaporeans lead such frugal, thrifty and modest lifestyles, they should close all Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Gucci, Chanel and designer boutiques as plastic bags or gunny sack clothes are good enough Think of the millions of dollars saved which can be donated to charity and the truly poor in Africa, India or China.
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"At Oxley Road, we value the frugal life" – Ms Lee Wei Ling
Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his wife, Madam Kwa Geok Choo, at their home at
Oxley Road with their three children, (from left) sons Hsien Loong and
Hsien Yang and daughter Wei Ling, the writer. The children were taught to
be frugal from young. — PHOTO: LEE FAMILY
I grew up in a middle-class family.
Though they were well-off, my parents trained my brothers and me to be
frugal from young.
We had to turn off water taps completely.
If my parents found a dripping tap, we would get a ticking off. And when we
left a room, we had to switch off lights and air-conditioners.
My father’s frugality extends beyond lights
and air-conditioners. When he travelled
abroad, he would wash his own underwear, or my mother did so when she was
alive. He would complain that the cost of laundry at five-star hotels was
so high he could buy new underwear for the price of the laundry service.
One day in 2003, the elastic band on my father’s old running shorts gave
way. My mother had mended that pair of shorts many times before, so my
father asked her to change the band.
But my mother had just had a stroke and her vision was impaired. So she
told my father: “If you want me to prove
my love for you, I will try.”
I quickly intervened to say: “My secretary’s mother can sew very well. I
will ask her to do it.”
My parents and I prefer things we are used
to. For instance, the house we have lived in all my life is more than
100 years old. When we first employed a contractor-cum-housekeeper, Mr Teow
Seng Hua, more than 10 years ago, he asked me: “Your father has worked so
hard for so many years. Why doesn’t he enjoy some luxuries?”
I explained we were perfectly comfortable with
our old house and our old furniture. Luxury is not a priority.
Mr Teow has since become a family friend, so he now understands we are
happy with our simple lifestyle.
For instance, my room has a window model
air-conditioner. Most houses now have more sophisticated
air-conditioning systems. So Mr Teow shopped for a window unit in Malaysia,
so I would have a spare unit if my current one broke down.
All the bathrooms in our house have mosaic
tiles. It is more practical than marble which can be slippery if wet.
But it is now difficult to buy mosaic in Singapore. So again, Mr Teow
bought mosaic tiles from Malaysia to keep in reserve in case some of our
current tiles broke or were chipped.
I have three Casio watches, but use only one.
Recently, when I woke up in the middle of the night and could not find the
Casio I usually wore, I looked around for the other two. I found them in a
drawer, together with two Tag Heuer watches that my brother Hsien Yang had
given me recently, as well as a Seiko that my father had given me decades
ago but which is still working fine.
My instinct had first led me to look
frantically around for the original Casio. After 30 minutes, I knew that I
was not going to find it that night. So I strapped on another of my Casios,
comforting myself that I would not have got round to wearing my other
watches if I had not misplaced my usual one.
I am frugal about my clothing too. I
had only two batik wrap-around skirts that I bought in Indonesia more than
20 years ago. My girlfriends and my sister-in-law Ho Ching noticed that I
wore the same two skirts almost all the time, and probably thought I looked
scruffy. So they bought me more than 20 new skirts.
I have begun using three of the 20,
and plan to wear them out before using the rest. And I have not discarded
my two original wrap-arounds.
I have stuffed one into my backpack so
I can whip it out as and when the occasion demands and I have to appear
somewhat more respectable than in my usual shorts and T-shirt.
Frugality is a virtue that my parents inculcated
in me. In addition to their influence, I try to lead a simple life
partly because I have adopted some Buddhist practices and partly because I
want to be able to live simply if for some reason I lose all that I have
one day.
It is easy to become accustomed to a
luxurious lifestyle. Some people believe that they will not miss
their luxuries if for some reason they were to lose them, I think they are
mistaken. I think they will miss them and be unable to reconcile themselves
to a simpler lifestyle.
So I have trained myself to be satisfied with necessities and forgo
luxuries."
By Lee Wei Ling
The writer is director of the National Neuroscience Institute. Send
your comments to suntimes@sph.com.sg
Published on Aug 05, 2012, StraitsTimes
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